WATERVILLE — The Planning Board on Monday will consider preliminary and final plans for a 28,654-square-foot retail strip mall at 470 Kennedy Memorial Drive, the site of the former Weathervane restaurant and Lucien’s Car Wash.

The mall could include retail and restaurant businesses and may in the future include a professional office, according to representatives of Marden’s Surplus & Salvage, which is proposing the development.

The board meeting will be at 7 p.m. Monday in the council chambers on the third floor of The Center at 93 Main St. downtown.

Steve Govoni, an engineer for Wentworth Partners & Associates Inc. of Skowhegan and Marden’s facility manager Nathan Mangin presented informal mall plans Nov. 6 to the Planning Board, which will review the proposal under the city’s site plan review and subdivision review ordinance.

Govoni said the developer would eliminate existing road entrances along Kennedy Memorial Drive to the site and all access to the property will be through Marden’s entryway and off-road. All utilities, including those related to domestic water, fire, electrical and communications, exist on site. The only thing that would be needed is natural gas, which would come down Airport Road to Kennedy Memorial Drive and the mall site, according to Govoni.

The sewer system also needs to be updated, and a 10-inch main would be added to run parallel to Kennedy Memorial Drive with an 8-inch main to the building, he said.

Advertisement

Mangin said the number of mall tenants would depend on how much space they need. He and Govoni said retail sales and restaurant businesses are proposed for the site, but they also would like to have a professional office there in the future. Mangin said they were talking to one specific tenant, but they had nothing in writing at that time.

If an anchor tenant is confirmed, construction would start as soon as possible, they said.

Marden’s co-owner John Marden said in a phone interview recently that a couple of different businesses are interested in being in the mall, but nothing has been signed yet, so he can not reveal their identities.

“Right now it’s just sitting there vacant,” he said of the lots, adding that he’d like to draw businesses to the city and help expand the tax base.

Marden’s owns both the former Weathervane and Lucien’s lots, which are near the northwest corner of the Marden’s store parking lot right off exit 127 of Interstate 95.

Marden and his brother, Ham, bought the former car wash several years ago, then leased it for about two years to a business that cut wood and trees and sold Christmas trees on the lot.

Advertisement

The Weathervane closed in January 2015, laying off 25 people. It had opened in 1986 and was one of four Weathervanes that closed because of economic conditions, officials from Kittery-based Weathervane Seafoods said at the time. The Silent Woman restaurant was at the site before it became the Weathervane.

In other matters Monday, planners will consider a final plan for a KV Federal Credit Union branch at 299 Main St. and the abutting property at 70 Oak St. The property is across Main Street from Hospice Volunteers of Waterville Area.

In an unrelated credit union proposal, New Dimensions Federal Credit Union will present an informal pre-application for a 4,000-square-foot credit union branch at 94 Silver St. New Dimensions also is requesting that the property be rezoned from Residential-D to the Transitional Zone to allow for the branch construction. While the Planning Board may recommend rezoning, the City Council has the final say.

Both the KV Federal Credit Union and New Dimensions proposals would be considered under the city’s site plan review and subdivision ordinance.

Also Monday, the board will consider revisions to a previously-approved plan for the expansion of Penny Hill Park at 295 Kennedy Memorial Drive being proposed by 295 KMD, LLC.

Amy Calder — 861-9247

acalder@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @AmyCalder17


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.

filed under: