Representatives of the team that will be building a UPS distribution center for Pratt & Whitney on Pettengill Road said the developer hopes to fast track the plan for completion in a year.
The UPS distribution site will be located on an as yet unbuilt portion of Pettengill Road. The developer will build about 1,500 feet of Pettengill Road, joining Raymond Wieczorek Drive at Roundstone Drive and ending in a round-about to accommodate future road expansion.
“What we have here is a 600,000-square-foot distribution facility that’s being built by Prologis as the developer and owner for UPS,” Robert Duval, president of TFM civil engineers, told the Planning Board on Wednesday night, June 4. “What UPS is doing is providing supply chain solutions – managing the inventory and the warehousing and vendors for Pratt & Whitney – to supply Pratt & Whitney with their needs for their manufacturing plants located in Connecticut, Maine, Canada and as far south as Florida.”
Duval said it was an important project not only to UPS as user of the road but also to the Manchester-Boston Regional Airport, the state of New Hampshire and the town.
“We’re really looking forward to getting some feedback which will help us streamline the approval process, because one of the most critical features of this project is the schedule. We have a very tight schedule,” Duval said.
Duval said UPS and Pratt& Whitney hope to have the project completed by June 2015 – Essentially one year from today.”
He said that not only will UPS build “roughly half” of Pettengill Road but it will also extend utilities – water, power and gas – west from Industrial Drive to access the project. And it will construct a new sewer line “that the town has been planning for a long time,” from a pump station near Raymond Wiezorek Drive east to a high point south of the project, then “running north all the way to the Cohas Brook interceptor.
“This is the infrastructure that this project is going to provide on behalf of the town as well as the facility itself,” Duval said. “It amounts to 2,000 feet of public road and 5,000 feet of public sewer and about 3,000 feet of public water, power and gas infrastructure.
“In addition to the end date, it is important that the site be turned over to UPS at least in part by February of 2015 because they have a lot of racking systems and conveying systems that they have to build,” Duval said.
He said they have created the design on a “fast track” basis and will be submitting permit applications to the town and the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (DES) at the end of next week, “hoping to receive all permits, including approval by the planning board at its Aug. 6 meeting.
“We recognize that’s aggressive,” Duval said. “We are hoping to get the support of this board to make that happen. We’ve already met with DES, the Fish and Game, the (U.S. Army) Corps of Engineers and some of the other resource agencies, and they have agreed that we have a good program and there are no ‘show stoppers’ from a permitting point of view, and they are willing to work with us to help us meet our schedule.”
He added that they have met with the Heritage Commission and Conservation Commission, as previously reported in the Londonderry Times, with both groups generally supportive.
UPS representative John Clohessy said the warehouse would not be the type of UPS warehouse people are accustomed to seeing, with a lot of box delivery trucks and “people who look good in shorts.” He said that the warehouse would involve parts for jet engine assembly that would be shipped to Pratt & Whitney manufacturing locations in the United States and Canada.
He said the building would be LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) certified and would have onsite drainage.
Chris Rice from TFM said the building will be 500 feet wide by 1,200 feet long and will have parking in the front and rear. It could be used by two occupants, which is the reason for parking in both front and rear.
Rice said some of the Conditional Use Permit requests will be for the use, based on the structure being over 250,000 square feet, with another to impact a portion of the conservation overlay district due to grading.
He said they hoped to begin clearing trees and removing stumps and would hope to have permission to begin the work prior to site plan approval, noting they would have a bond with the town to replace cleared trees, should a site plan approval not be granted.
Board member Jim Butler asked if there would be any hazardous materials on site. Rice said there would be none except for the usual cleaning materials used by custodians.
Board member John Laferriere asked when they would like to start the project and Rice said that they would like to submit approval requests June 19.
“So next week I guess is when we’ll start the site plan approval requests for your July meeting,” Rice said. Town Planner Cynthia May said the town would need the application and abutter notifications.
Resident and Heritage Commission member David Colglazier suggested the developers consider putting solar panels on the roof, but Butler said that because of the location being close to the airport, the airport did not want solar on the buildings because pilots complained of glare from the panels.
The board was enthusiastic about the plans and given that it was a conceptual design presentation, there was no vote.
Contacted after the meeting, Town Manager Kevin Smith said there would be an estimated $570,000 of revenue that would be placed in the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) account, as the area was a TIF district. He also said UPS was building a section of Pettengill Road because it needs the road to access the property. He said there was no agreement with the town for building the road in exchange for fast tracking the project.