Dover waterfront development moving faster than planned; city to sell first parcel in May

DOVER — The city expects Cathartes to complete its development along the Cochecho River faster than originally planned, with the first two buildings to be finished in October 2025.

Deputy City Manager Christopher Parker updated the City Council on the status of the public-private partnership and the work along the Cochecho River at Wednesday’s council meeting. Site work is being conducted by a city-hired contractor in advance of the city selling the first parcels of land to Cathartes on May 15.

“At that time, we'll give them the keys to the land as it were, and they are then going to begin their groundwork for their private development, about a month in advance of what the development agreement says,” Parker explained. “This development agreement says that we're supposed to have that conveyance and they're supposed to commence work on June 8. We're doing it on May 15, so a little ahead of schedule there. Great news is the developer has indicated (that with) the market being the market and the construction activity being the construction activity, that they are looking to reduce the three phases (of work).”

The original development agreement between the city and Cathartes called for the private development to be completed over six phases. The scope of work was later amended to three phases, according to Parker.

“They're actually looking to reduce that three-phase (plan) down even quicker because they see such a strong market and they see a real need to keep the site under control and move forward with it,” Parker said Wednesday.

“Reduce is referring to compressing the schedule and building it in a much quicker fashion,” added City Manager Michael Joyal Jr.

What Cathartes is building on the Dover waterfront

The Boston-based private real estate firm and developer is charged with building approximately 475 riverside residential units in Dover with roughly 20,000 square feet of commercial space spread out over three mixed-use buildings, two multi-family buildings and three clusters of townhouses.

Parker said Cathartes has already established a waitlist of interested potential tenants for the waterfront apartments.

“They're very much looking forward to having this project underway,” he said.

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City building a public park, dock and boat launch

The city’s contribution to the site will be the construction of a 4.5-acre public park and a two-level pavilion along the waterfront with a public boat dock and kayak launch.

Later this year or in early 2025, the city will begin ordering benches, swings and other elements of the waterfront park in addition to completing the design of the pavilion structure.

“We're working with the architect on finalizing the designs for that so that we can go out to bid this summer for construction in 2025 of that,” Parker said. “We are on track still for wrapping that up (in) late ‘26, early ‘27 at the absolute latest.”

The long-awaited development broke ground in June 2023, with Northeast Earth Mechanics beginning site work to kick off the multi-year project.

“If anybody has the opportunity to get kind of close to the waterfront, take a peek,” Mayor Bob Carrier said Wednesday. “It's incredibly impressive. It’s just beyond belief the amount of earth they’re moving.”

Cathartes and the city have agreed that the company will provide a payment in lieu of taxes after the sale of the land, though Cathartes has signaled its willingness to be subject to tax year 2024 taxation, despite the sale scheduled to go through after April 1.

The City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to authorize Joyal to negotiate and execute the agreement.

“That was one of the factors that was built into our pro forma when we laid out how we were going to debt finance the public improvements and then be repaid by the tax increment financing district,” Joyal said before the council’s vote. “This first resolution is basically an acknowledgement and acceptance by the developer that although they'll be closing next month, they're going to allow us to tax them as though they had closed prior to April 1.”

Parker reported the sale price of the initial parcel of land to Cathartes will come in over $1.5 million.

The city assessor likely won’t have a value determined for Cathartes’ payment in lieu of taxes until the fall, Joyal told the council.

A second waterfront-related, unanimously approved resolution calls for Joyal to authorize a first-phase public improvements completion agreement on behalf of the city regarding the site work.

“They need to assure their creditors that the city will in fact follow through with its obligations,” Joyal stated of Cathartes. “Whereas they're going to purchase some of the property ahead of us having completed all public improvements, their folks want to know that the city is not going to just cut the line and run.”

Deputy Mayor Dennis Shanahan was not present for the meeting.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Dover waterfront developer Cathartes puts construction on fast track