Kmart plaza gets new owner -- and new future -- in Hooksett
Oct. 5—HOOKSETT — Developer Brady Sullivan has added the former Kmart plaza on Route 3 to its empire for a cool $10 million and change.
"It's a great location," partner Arthur Sullivan said Tuesday.
Sullivan said he didn't have plans yet for the shopping plaza, which includes Dollar Tree and a barbershop, as well as the Applebee's restaurant and auto care center on adjoining lots on the busy Hooksett Road, known also as Route 3.
"If we buy something at the right price, we assess what is the best possible use, and that's how we move forward with it," Sullivan said. "It's good real estate."
Sullivan said the company paid just over $10.7 million for the properties.
The zoning gives Brady Sullivan and town officials "a lot of flexibility in terms of what can go in there," said Town Planner Nicholas Williams.
"Given the current market for commercial (space), we're going to be forced to be more flexible with the uses that we allow," Williams said.
That's notable because Brady Sullivan Properties already is battling the town over a proposed conversion of the former Cigna office building further north on Route 3 into 81 apartments. The matter is before the state Housing Appeals Board.
Commercial real estate executive Tom Farrelly predicted a combination of commercial and residential development at what is known as the RK Center, wedged between Route 3 and Bypass 28.
"That's a great mixed-use development site," said Farrelly, who works at Cushman & Wakefield.
Rafael Robles, owner of the Lineup Barbershop, said he didn't know the plaza had sold. The Kmart store closed in 2020.
He would like the parking lot repaved and the facade's colors changed.
"Give the building a facelift," Robles said.
Robles said he hoped something, such as a Christmas Tree Shops store, would move there to bring "more foot traffic into the plaza" and more customers seeking haircuts.
In recent years, someone wanting to pursue an indoor go-kart course inside the Kmart space eventually dropped that idea. U-Haul also considered self-storage inside and parking its moving vans outside, according to Williams.
"The Kmart space, I want to say that is the largest vacant commercial footprint in the town currently," he said.
A state liquor store in the plaza that was temporarily closed last July over staffing will remain shuttered with the recent opening of a new liquor store on Gold Street in Manchester, according to State Liquor Commission spokesman E.J. Powers.
"We will continue to lease the space and use it for training purposes for our Next Gen technology project," he said in an email.
On Tuesday afternoon, Mike Begley walked out of the Dollar Tree carrying two bags of snacks. He said he hoped to see improvements to the plaza, which contains nearly 150,000 square feet of usable space. The main plaza parcel measures 13.26 acres.
"Make it more appealing," the Hooksett resident said. "It looks kind of rundown."
Unprompted, Begley had a specific store in mind.
"A Christmas Tree Shops, you'd get people from Hooksett and Raymond and Concord," Begley said.
