Rochester Looks Beyond New Shopping Center

By CLYNTON NAMUO
New Hampshire Union Leader Correspondent
Sunday, Sep. 23, 2007

ROCHESTER – City officials are hopeful that a major new shopping center slated to open early next month will be part of a larger trend of businesses moving into the city as it tries to position itself as a regional retail hub.

Rochester Crossing
Rochester Crossing, a 304,500-square-foot shopping center off exit 13 on the Spaulding Turnpike, will open its doors Oct. 3 beginning with national department store Kohl's and coffee shop Starbucks, the first in the city, with shoe store Famous Footwear and women's clothing stores Fashion Bug and Maurice's expected to open soon after.

More coming
From the end of this year into spring of 2008, two more phases of Rochester Crossing are expected to open with about 15 more stores. In addition to that, home improvement store Lowe's is scheduled to open there this November.

"It really puts us on the map as far as who we are as a community," city economic development manager Karen Pollard said of Rochester Crossing.

Rochester has experienced a major population boom in recent years, hitting approximately 34,000 people, or 5,000 more than recorded in the last census, as more people move north along the Seacoast in search of cheaper housing, Pollard said.

Rochester growth
"The city has grown over the last 10 years substantially in population, but the retail sector didn't really grow much, so we ended up being an underserved community," she said.

Owned and managed by Boston-based The Wilder Companies, Rochester Crossing was acquired from The Flatley Company this past May and is expected to help attract other businesses.

"We think it will spur a lot of further interest to the area including additional retail," said Andy LaGrega, a partner in The Wilder Companies.

Too rural?
LaGrega said some retail developers have shunned New Hampshire, believing the state to be too rural, but he said that can be a benefit because shopping areas will attract buyers from a much larger area than in a saturated market such as Boston.

"You have road networks where your market area is much bigger," LaGrega said, noting Rochester Crossing's close proximity to the Spaulding Turnpike.

Destination
"Is Rochester going to become as big as Portsmouth in the next couple years, no, but I think in the next five to 10 years it's going to become a hub." LaGrega said his company is already exploring other possible developments in the state.

"We are looking throughout New Hampshire, including other areas in the greater Rochester area," he said.

Magnet
Pollard said city officials are now hoping to attract more businesses and are targeting Route 11, where the city's first and only Wal-Mart is located, for further development because the roadway attracts lots of traffic as the main route to and from the lakes region and there is plenty of open space.

Route 11
"We have had a lot of development along Route 11," she said.
"We haven't had any big centers yet and that's what we're working on now."