Martingale Wharf restaurant's expanded deck approved in Portsmouth: Here are details

PORTSMOUTH — Developer Mark McNabb has received site plan approval from the city Planning Board to expand the existing overwater deck at his popular Martingale Wharf restaurant and bar.

McNabb’s team returned to the board Thursday, March 21, securing the needed approval for the project on Portsmouth’s waterfront on the Piscataqua River.

The expansion will include adding more outdoor seating for the restaurant at 99 Bow St., and a public deck area, according to McNabb’s representatives.

“The project consists of two separate decks which will be attached to the east and west ends of the existing overwater deck located at 99 Bow Street,” engineer John Chagnon, part of McNabb’s team, said in documents filed with the city.

“The west deck expansion (public wharf deck) will provide the general public with handicap accessible access to the Piscataqua River waterfront for the enjoyment of the active inner harbor of Portsmouth, the Sarah Mildred Long Bridge, the Memorial Bridge, the Moran tugboats, the New Hampshire State Port Authority Pier and the working waterfront of Kittery, Maine,” Chagnon said. “The east deck expansion will be for an expansion of the existing outside dining for the Martingale Wharf restaurant, which is open to the public.

"Martingale Wharf is the only restaurant open to the general public located on the inner harbor of downtown Portsmouth that provides full handicap accessibility via on-street parking located on Bow Street and a passenger elevator to the waterfront,” Chagnon added.

He stated in documents filed with the city that the “plans include specialized landscaped features that will provide the public with a unique experience in a unique space.”

Project received previous approvals

The proposed expansion of the existing deck system had previously been approved in 2021 by both the Planning Board and the Historic District Commission, according to the city’s Planning Department.

But because the state wetland approval was appealed, those approvals expired, Planning Department officials said, which is why McNabb and his team sought and received the second approval.

Chagnon told the board Thursday night the expanded deck areas will connect “to an existing overwater dock, and all the work is over the water.”

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Chagnon noted residents and visitors to Portsmouth “will be able to come to a portion of this expanded wharf and view the river and the goings-on.”

“There’s no barriers to that, other than the usual restrictions that would come with keeping the place safe,” he said.

Chagnon said people will be able to access the public deck from street level by using the elevator to go through the building.

“The landowner is committing to providing and keeping that access through the building, which is a public benefit,” Chagnon said.

Noise and garbage concerns raised by neighbors

Katy Eveland Sherman, who owns a condo unit at 111 Bow St., opposed the deck expansion in person at Thursday’s meeting and in an email to the board.

“The garbage from 99 Bow Street, a problem since it expanded the building, continues to be a huge issue for us causing rancid odor, seepage, loud noise and a rodent problem at 111 Bow Street, a historic building,” she wrote in the email to the board.

Eveland Sherman also pointed to what she sees as noise problems coming from the Martingale Wharf restaurant and bar.

The noise, she said, comes from “music, restaurant chatter, dishes clanking, etc.) and lighting (blue lights strung around the deck) is negatively impacting our building and its residents,” she said.

“We, also, notice trash floating by on the river (beverage napkins, paper, etc.),” she added.

She implored city officials to force the restaurant owners to address existing problems before approving a deck and seat expansion.

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No added capacity, attorney for McNabb says

Attorney James Steinkrauss, who represented McNabb at the meeting, said the deck expansion will not increase restaurant capacity, which is 322 people.

He added “this project has gone through an extensive public process,” including getting approvals from multiple city boards and the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services.

City Councilor Beth Moreau, who also serves on the Planning Board, stated that they “actually had extensive public conversations when we first approved this in 2021.”

She stressed “they’re not allowed to increase capacity,” despite the deck expansion.

“So even though they might be increasing outdoor capacity, the indoor capacity decreases if the outdoor capacity increases,” Moreau said about the restaurant and bar.

She knows the area well because she worked in the building for six years up until 2018.

“It’s downtown, there’s always a lot of noise. That’s why I moved out of downtown,” she said.

She added that when you live or work downtown, “sometimes you have to put up with things that go on downtown.”

Downtown 'energy' acknowledged

Board member Joe Almeida said he wanted to be sure that people living next to the restaurant understood that he doesn’t “take their comments lightly.”

He has lived downtown near the waterfront for decades.

Almeida stressed that he’s “very sensitive to the high energy levels of downtown.”

He understands the problems with “noise and waste and sometimes the insane levels of energy that downtown has.”

“If this building owner is violating any rules … there are avenues to enforce that,” Almeida said. “I want you to know that I hear your concerns, I share those concerns for downtown residents in the midst of all this energy.”

“It's a very exciting place to live obviously, at times it’s a very hard place to live for sure,” he added.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Martingale Wharf restaurant's expanded deck approved in Portsmouth NH