Vacant no more in RiversEdge Plaza. By the end of this year, 211-299 Lincoln Ave., the space Haverhill locals knew as the place to shop for bargains at Building 19, will be reinvented as a climate-controlled storage facility by New Hampshire’s NAI Norwood Group.
Going before the city’s Board of Appeals earlier this month, Attorney Michael Migliori petitioned on behalf of Norwood Group’s Joe Mendola, who plans to oversee the development of the 600-unit space adjacent to Riverside Park and Trinity Stadium.
Mendola is confident Storage Direct’s fourth Massachusetts location will be a welcome addition to the strip mall that currently houses Market Basket and Registry of Motor Vehicles, among others.
“It’s going to bring a fresh new look to the shopping center and it’s going to bring people there from five miles away, because that’s where they store their stuff. They’ll store their stuff and then they’ll go shopping,” Mendola explains.
As part of the renovation, Mendola tells WHAV 45 spaces in the lot in front of the location will be available for use by park patrons and Storage Direct will overhaul the walking trail behind their building.
With the project still in early stages, Mendola and his team are taking special care to address concerns from neighbors on Riverside Avenue worried about noise and possible traffic congestion that could come with a new business. Mendola predicts a smooth move-in for Storage Direct.
“We’re not going to be a big traffic generator to the rear of the building, so we’ll be an asset to the neighborhood, and not having trucks loading and unloading stuff off Riverside,” he said.
The company, which currently has locations in Burlington, Middleboro and East Dennis, plans to have climate-controlled units in Haverhill that range from five-foot square to 10-feet by 30-feet, Mendola said.