New Shopping Center

The Lowes being built next door is expected to be open in January, and the Longhorn Steak House is due this spring.  I sold the developers the land that I was going to use to build the rest of the Seasonal Square strip malls.  It was a close call – when they contacted me three years ago, I was two weeks away from breaking ground on my next building. However, this new project will make it easier and safer for you to get in and out of our store.  Visually, it will look like we are part of the new shopping center, though Jeanne and I still own our building.

Anyone making a left-hand turn in or out will now have the option of using the new traffic light being installed at their main entrance, across from Dunkin Donuts.  Our current entrance will mostly be used for people exiting and turning right.  The state will be removing the “suicide lane” from Bentley’s Roast Beef to Frederick’s Pastries.  Their  long term plan is to divide the road with an island from Nashua to Milford.  Based on the number of people I see every week driving down that lane as if no one is ever going to pull into it from the other direction, the state should divide this road tomorrow.  Apparently, a lot of us learned how to drive in Massachusetts.

As part of my sales agreement, I required the developers to provide a Construction Safety Plan to protect our customers and their children during the construction next door.  I also required that they get my approval on their environmental protection plans including rainwater flows into the wetlands and the protection of spotted turtles, blandings turtles and hognosed snakes.  I hired engineers to review their plans, and I met with local environmental researchers to get their opinions.  There’s a lot of hot top out front, but we now have acres and acres of land in conservation out back with nesting sites, estavating sites and winter habitat.  They are all managed with the plan that we originally developed for our land and is now followed by our neighbors on both sides.  The turtle-protection fence that you have seen in our back field now runs from behind Ceratec all the way to Truell Road.  It’s an excellent example of how land can be developed and protected at the same time – and protected better than when this land was a farm and a sawmill.