By STEPHEN BEALE
Union Leader Correspondent
 

GOFFSTOWN - A weakening economy has made it harder for industrial developers in Goffstown to find tenants, delaying construction.

Brookfield Investment Group, Inc., had planned three industrial buildings at 34 Daniel Plummer Road in the Pinardville area. The buildings would have had a combined area of about 21,000 square feet, enough space for 10 to 15 tenants, according to Matthew Peterson, the engineer.

The Brookfield plan was signed in February 2007, but Peterson was back before the planning board on Thursday, asking for a six-month extension of the deadline for pulling a building permit.

Peterson said the economy was the main factor. "The delay in this project is basically based on this economy and where people are at and what they are looking for," he said.

The developer is also running into trouble on the other end of town, where a plan for a 35,000 square-foot combined office and warehouse building has stalled. The office space was originally intended for the Goffstown District Court, which instead will relocate to the Hillsborough County Complex on Mast Road. No tenant has committed to the warehouse.

A third project in Pinardville never got off the ground. About a year and a half ago, Carroll Street Auto was cleared to raze what now stands on 54 Daniel Plummer Road, constructing a multi-purpose industrial building, where a car sale and service business was going to be set up.

Instead, a new business, Hudson Automotives, is moving in, without doing the demolition and construction. Hudson was also on the agenda for the planning board this week, but the board took no action, because the business first must get a special exception from the zoning board to sell cars in an industrial zone.

Steve Griffin, the town planning coordinator, said that the scaled-down plan was again a consequence of the economy.

The ebb in development is not unique to Goffstown. Peterson, whose Auburn-based engineering, planning, and design company is working on 20 to 30 active projects in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, is seeing the effects of a weakening economy across the board. "Certainly there has been quite a slowdown in the past six months, even the past year," Peterson said.

But Al Desruisseaux, chairman of the Goffstown Economic Development Council, said developers are not abandoning their projects. Instead, he said it may take them longer to move through the approval process.

Peterson, who sees a similar slowing-but-not-stopping trend, said developers are also building fewer or smaller buildings and postponing construction.

As for the projects in Goffstown, Peterson said some potential tenants have expressed an interest in the Daniel Plummer and Mast Road properties. He said it is likely both plans will be revised and brought back to the planning board.

Reproduced by the Goffstown Residents Association.