Advanced manufacturing plant at Pease gets Portsmouth board approval
PORTSMOUTH — Development partners The Kane Company and Procon received a variance needed this week to move forward with a plan to build an advanced manufacturing facility at Pease International Tradeport.
The developers, who are operating as Aviation Avenue Group LLC, intend to build the plant off New Hampshire Avenue in what is now an empty 11.4-acre site, according to their attorney, John Bosen.
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The proposed advanced manufacturing facility is planned to "feature robotized manufacturing,” Bosen said, which he said would lead to the creation of “highly skilled and highly compensated jobs.”
The development team has not yet identified the advanced manufacturing company that would be operating inside the building.
John Stebbins, the managing director of Procon, said all the potential companies they’ve talked to for the site “are involved in highly automated manufacturing processes.”
Those processes require “robotized assembly” teams that are typically made up of fewer but higher paid employees, he said previously.
The city's Zoning Board of Adjustment voted unanimously last week to grant the developers a variance “for a rear yard setback of 28.4 feet, where 50 feet is required.”
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The variance was needed, Bosen explained “in order to keep the existing Rochester Avenue right of way (which is located adjacent to the property) in its current location and maintain its utilities within the right of way while preserving the proposed building’s structural column layout and the 2-to-1 length-to-width ratio ideal for advanced manufacturing tenants.”
The project has already received conceptual approval from the Pease Development Authority’s Board of Directors.
Pease engineering manager Michael Mates has stated “staff has reviewed the proposal and we believe the use is appropriate for the site and the development can be constructed in compliance with PDA’s land use controls.”
The site located across the street from Seacoast Media Group.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Advanced manufacturing plant at Pease gets Portsmouth NH board OK
