“You know it’s going to change,” Jacob LaFontaine, Salem’s planning director, said last week. “You can’t anticipate all the users and tenants that you’re going to get.”

Officials from the massive Tuscan Village have told the town they have decided against developing space for life science tenants to lease and will bring in alternative plans.

“This would be the seventh conceptual master plan the planning board has reviewed on the 170-acre parcel and is reflective of the constantly evolving nature of large-scale redevelopment projects, as well as the applicant’s propensity to be adaptive to market conditions,” LaFontaine said in a follow-up email.

Londonderry originally approved 700,000 square feet of office space as part of the Woodmont Commons mixed-use project that straddles Interstate 93.

“COVID completely changed the landscape of office space,” said Kevin Smith, a consultant working with developer Pillsbury Realty Development on both the Londonderry and Laconia projects.

“Now, there’s an abundance of office vacancies everywhere. It still hasn’t recovered to pre-COVID numbers,” said Smith, who was Londonderry’s town manager before going to work for the developer.

“The master plan is a guide,” he said. “It sets a guidepost, but ultimately you’re also going to be driven by what the market demands are at the time.”

Laconia proposal

A packet produced for Laconia Village proposes 2,017 housing units, a grocery store, a medical office and a possible 125-room hotel on the site of the old Laconia State School.

“We really wanted to leave us with a lot of flexibility,” Smith said. “The proposal we submitted was a very, very 30,000-foot outline on how things could be done.”

Pillsbury Realty Development has until Jan. 28 to let the state know whether it is going through with its $9.97 million net payment for its proposal, which won the support of Gov. Chris Sununu and the Executive Council last month.

At that time, it would need to put down another deposit, with the money becoming nonrefundable. The developer would have another 18 months after that before it must close on the deal with the state, Smith said.

During those 18 months, the developer would work with community leaders to draft a more detailed development plan “that will be beneficial to everyone,” Smith said.

The developer then would submit site plans that the city would have to approve before construction could begin.

Laconia City Manager Kirk Beattie said he likes the multi-use concept and couldn’t think of anything missing from the project to add.

“We know whatever potential proposal we see right now is going to morph and change,” Beattie said. “We need to be willing through our planning and zoning, all those departments, to be able to adapt and be open to seeing it change as the needs of the area change.”

Years ago, George Bald and the Lakeshore Redevelopment Planning Commission he chaired did extensive research on the Laconia property in their role of trying to find a buyer.

The 217-acre property has “a fair amount of wetlands,” while many of the former school’s buildings contain asbestos that would need to be removed.

“Our hope is that because of their historical nature we would be able to get them renovated and be part of the overall plan,” Bald said.

A building that once housed a state prison “is really a nasty building that needs to be torn down,” he said.

Said Smith: “I think it’s just too early to say what buildings will come down.”

Monitoring construction

In Londonderry, at least a half-dozen pieces of heavy equipment were moving huge dirt piles not far from Interstate 93’s Exit 4 this past week. That construction, in the “middle downtown” area of Woodmont Commons, is to build 264 market-rate apartments being developed by Wood Partners, Smith said.

Mario Shortino, 89, a resident of The Baldwin, a new senior living center at Woodmont, takes daily walks in the area.

“I watch over the construction,” said Shortino, who moved from Florida this year to live about 20 minutes away from his wife’s family.

Meanwhile, Jessica Butcher, 28, played catch with her English bulldog, Cleo, not far from her Woodmont apartment.

She likes seeing more buildings rise, but many of her neighbors don’t.

“I think a lot of people don’t want to grow and don’t want it infiltrated by people from the outside,” said Butcher, who works from home and moved from Florida several years ago for her husband’s job.

Town Manager Mike Malaguti said development was inevitable.

“While there are obviously people who would have preferred Woodmont to remain an apple orchard forever, the property’s size and proximity to I-93 and the area’s amenities made this unrealistic,” Malaguti wrote in an email.

As the town has changed over the past decade, “the flexibility inherent in the master plan has allowed the project to adapt to these changes. Woodmont Commons was approved in a different era, yet it anticipated planning principles and concepts that are now in vogue,” including mixed use zoning, he said.

“It will be an economic engine, contributing to one of the state’s healthiest tax bases, controlling property taxes for our residents,” he said. “In short, it will be the envy of the state.”

Pillsbury has partnered with several developers to build pieces of Woodmont Commons, which encompasses more than 600 acres.

On the east side of I-93, Pillsbury has an agreement with the Trammell Crow Co. to build hundreds of thousands of square feet of industrial space for advanced manufacturing, life sciences and logistics.

“Of course, the east only recently could be marketed since Phase 1 of the new Exit 4A is almost completed,” Smith said.

Tuscan progress

Built on the site of the old Rockingham Park race track, Tuscan Village is a sprawling mixed-use development across the street from The Mall at Rockingham Park.

Tuscan Village is approved for 4 million square feet of multiple uses, including approximately 1,485 residential units, a 165-room hotel, 180,000 square feet of medical office and more than 500,000 square feet of retail development, according to Salem planner LaFontaine.

It currently is home to about 50 businesses, the town says, including L.L. Bean, Pottery Barn, Nike, Williams Sonoma and Market Basket.

“The site is continuing forward in the development review process to create a new downtown surrounded by office, medical, residential and retail development,” LaFontaine said.

His advice for other communities overseeing large multi-use projects includes hiring third-party consultants to advise community leaders. Salem hired professionals to review designs, traffic and drainage.

“I think it’s important for everyone to be on the same page in anticipation of the development,” LaFontaine said.

mcousineau@unionleader.com