New shopping center pitched for Route 1 in Wells: Here's what owners have planned
WELLS, Maine — Developers are proposing to build a new plaza that would bring a big-name coffee shop, a sandwich restaurant and a retail store to the community.
If approved by the Wells Planning Board, the multi-tenant shopping center would be built on roughly an acre of currently undeveloped land at 910 Post Road – the property in front of the Hampton Inn that once was slated for a new Dairy Queen, until that proposal fell through last year.
The applicant, Samantha Burgner, of Wells Retail Management, LLC, and engineer Jake Modestow, of Stonefield Engineering and Design, of Salem, Massachusetts, appeared before the Planning Board on Monday. The board voted unanimously that evening to accept their site plan amendment application.
Burgner told the board that only the coffee shop company has confirmed interest in being a tenant in one of the center’s three units. In his comments to the board, Modestow refrained from naming the company, but he did offer enough of a hint for local coffee drinkers to make a couple of good guesses.
“Everyone’s heard of it,” Modestow said. “It’s very recognizable.”
Burgner said the sandwich shop, if confirmed as a tenant, would be more of a “takeout concept,” with limited seating inside.
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Specifically, the applicant is seeking to build a 5,195-square-foot building in the town’s General Business Zone. The coffee shop, classified as a fast-food restaurant, would take up 2,335 square feet and would include a drive-through window and a small patio. The remaining two units inside the center each would be 1,430 square feet.
J&D Dube Properties, LLC, of Kennebunk, owns the land.
Customers would access the complex from Post Road and Meadow Mall Road.
Modestow told the board that the proposed parking for the site has been calculated from the peak traffic times for the coffee shop and the sandwich shop. The coffee shop would see its peak demand in the early hours, as people stop by on their morning commutes, Modestow said. He said the sandwich shop would have its peak traffic later in the day, from 10 a.m. onward.
“We have different peaking hours, which then provide different parking demands,” he said.
The plan calls for 50 parking spaces, 10 of which would be reserved for employees and the majority of which would wrap around the building.
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Wells Planning Board raises concerns
Some board members were skeptical of the layout when it came to the proposed parking spaces and traffic flow, particularly as it would include idling vehicles stacked at the drive-through.
One board member suggested relocating the dumpster from its proposed site, in order to allow for easier traffic flow.
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Another asked if the applicant would consider hosting only two tenants in the shopping center, instead of three. Modestow said that would cut into the center’s profitability.
Member Steve Koeninger expressed concerns for the safety of motorists accessing and leaving the site from the busy intersection of Route 1 and Meadow Mall Road. He suggested the applicant might need to go back to the drawing board.
“I think you need to reconfigure the whole parking lot,” Koeninger said.
Modestow said he and his client were working with the Maine Department of Transportation on access-related issues, as the site is located on a DOT right-of-way.
Board Chair Charles Millian said a site walk was necessary. The board likely will set the date for one at its next meeting on Monday, March 20.
The board voted to continue its workshop for the project for another 60 days, with plans to see the applicant again at the March 20 meeting.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: New shopping center pitched for Route 1 in Wells, Maine
