Buffalo Wild Wings on Their Way

The approved of a site plan application on April 18, with conditions, that will allow a new location to be constructed in Concord, across the street from the Everett Arena.

The restaurant will be a new building constructed along the south side of , between a current office building at 6 Loudon Road and the former Gully Hill Road, while other parts of the current building located at 8 Loudon Road will be demolished, renovated, and redeveloped.

The site, according to Assistant City Planner , is on just more than 3.5 acres. He called it “a fairly straight-forward redevelopment of a retail site” with one exception – the property is entirely located within the city’s flood hazard zone.

To compensate, the developer went before the and asked for relief in order to reconstruct the site. When finished, the new building, renovated building, and parking lot will have less impervious surface than the site does now, allowing for less storm drain runoff. A series of catch basins are also being built that will send the majority of the water to a gravel wetlands area, Henninger said, water that will be later discharged into the Merrimack River.

“It will have less impact from a stormwater drainage and flood hazard circumstance,” he said, “and it’s one of the reasons that city staff have been supportive of this application.”

After seeing the plans, the Architectural Design Review made a recommendation to change the color of the building but the developer said the proposed colors are the corporate colors of Buffalo Wild Wings.

Henninger said the second building, a former bowling alley, has been used in a number of ways in recent years. However, the second part of the project is not ready for site plan review since the developer didn’t know the exact layout tenants would need so they were holding off on submitting completed plans for another month or two.

The new project has 169 parking spaces where 159 are required, including 10 handicapped spaces where eight are required, Henninger said.

There was some discussion about parking and whether or not there were too many spaces. Henninger said if the project had been proposed two years ago, it would have needed 30 more spaces.

“It’s a significant reduction,” he said.

After adding some conditions to the proposal, including a reconfiguration of sidewalks between the buildings, the plan was approved.

According to an official representing Buffalo Wild Wings, the project will get started very soon and the restaurant is expected to be opened in about five months.