NEWS

First Street project progressing

Three dozen residential units coming to downtown

Brian Early
bearly@seacoastonline.com
Crews remove asphalt on a property on First Street in downtown Dover where developers plan to construct two additional buildings overlooking the Cocheco River. [Brian Early/Fosters.com]

DOVER — The second phase of the First Street project downtown is underway.

An excavation team was removing asphalt Thursday around the project area on First Street near the Chestnut Street intersection to prepare the land for a construction team to construct a similar looking building next door at 100 First St. There will also be a row of townhouses built looking out on the Cocheco River.

Dave Bamford, who is developing the project with Kevin McEneaney, said he hopes the work to install aggregate piers in the ground begins Monday. The aggregate piers are needed to build the foundation for the new building.

Work is planned to begin first on the five-story building that would include commercial areas on the ground floor with 36 residential units — 24 two-bedroom units and 12 one-bedroom units — on the five floors above. Construction of the five townhouses is planned to start afterward, though Bamford said the goal is to have both completed at the same time.

“It’s going to be really nice,” Bamford said of the buildings.

The land being developed was formerly a city-owned parking lot, which the City Council authorized to sell in 2014 as part of a plan for downtown infill. The city sold the two parcels for $101,000 each to First Street at Garrison, LLC. As part of the revised developer agreement with the city, the two projects have a guaranteed minimum tax value of $10.1 million, which begins in the tax year 2021. As part of the agreement, the developers also agreed to make public improvements to the area.

Bamford described the buildings as having a 19th-century New England architecture feel. The first building already constructed is called Riparia and the second building will be called River’s Mark, Bamford said.