Silver Maple Shutters, But Plaza May See New Life

There may be a light at the end of the tunnel for a nearly-vacant plaza that sits along the Daniel Webster Highway not far from the center of town.

Last week, the Silver Maple Chinese food restaurant abruptly shut its doors, leaving only three active businesses in the plaza at 356 Daniel Webster Highway.

Formerly anchored by a Shaw's Supermarket, the plaza has seen a steady decline in business in the five years since Shaw's vacated its space for a new location on Continental Boulevard, said Mike Charron, the property manager in charge of the plaza.

Charron, who works for the MEG Property Group, said he hopes to see a revitalization next year.

His company recently learned Shaw's Supermarkets will not renew its lease when it expires in April 2012, Charron said.

"As of May 1, we'll have access to that space again," Charron said.

Though there is no note on the door indicating the restaurant closed, Silver Maple's doors were locked last week, the tables still set inside. A call to the restaurant returned a message that the number was no longer in service.

Charron confirmed on Monday that the restaurant has in fact closed its doors, though he did not indicate why.

Patch was unable to reach the owners of the restaurant, but records with the Secretary of State's office indicate the restaurant was opened in 1994.

The last time that plaza was full was when Shaw's was a tenant of the building, Charron said. In the five years since it closed, the building has seen the departure of two other larger business: CVS, which went into a new building just up the road, and Blockbuster, which has had its own financial woes forcing the closure of hundreds of its stores around the country.

Also leaving spaces in the plaza were a jewelry store, greeting card shop, and the New Hampshire State Liquor Store, all of which moved to the vicinity of the Shaw's on Continental Boulevard.

A large consignment store that moved into the former Blockbuster space in 2008, Always New 2 You, went out of business abruptly in 2009 after its co-owner Meredith Moore-Flores pleaded guilty to stealing $62,000 from her former employer in Londonderry and was sentenced to one to five years in jail, according to published reports in the Nashua Telegraph.

All that remains in the plaza today, is a Hair Excitement salon, a Bank of America and a Kung Fu center.

"It's been a gradual depletion (since Shaw's left)," Charron said.

But he is hopeful that will change in the next nine months.

"The brokers are actively searching for a strong anchor tenant first to fill that space," he says of the gap left by the supermarket. "Once you can fill a space like that it obviously makes it an easier task to find some small businesses to fill those remaining spaces."

Charron said Shaw's holds the lease on the anchor space as well as the two to the south, including an empty store that once was the 1/2 Off Card Store and Hair Excitement, which leases from the supermarket.

Steve Sylven, a communications manager with SuperValu, which owns the Shaw's brand, confirmed that the store will not renew it's lease in April.

"It is my understanding, we exited the location about five years ago," Sylven said in an e-mail. "In that time, we did work to find a tenant, but we unable to find a suitable tenant that was a financially viable decision for our company."

Charron said the brokers hope to have someone in place to move in shortly after Shaw's lease expires, thanks to the amount of time they have to find someone.

"Shaw's was kind enough to give us about a year's notice that it would not be renewing the lease," Charron said.