Construction began earlier this week on a new combination retail-office building and parking garage at 7 Lebanon Street in downtown Hanover. The complex -- a joint project between Dartmouth College and the Town of Hanover -- will add 289 parking spaces in an effort to relieve the town's current parking crunch.
According to the College's Associate Director of Real Estate Woody Simonds, Dartmouth will fund construction of the 47,000 square foot, three-story building to be located between Hanover Park and Ben & Jerry's.
The College plans to lease the first floor of the new building for retail shops and the second and third floors for offices.
The proposal resulted from nearly a year of planning and current estimates set the completion date at June 2000.
Simonds said the effects of the major construction on the town would be noticeable during the next 16 months. Sixty-four parking spaces will be lost until the completion of the construction, which could aggravating the current lack of parking in Hanover.
Simonds said the Town of Hanover and Dartmouth agreed on the proposal because the town needed additional land for the construction of the 289-space garage.
Hanover will fund their $5.1 million portion of the project through a 30-year bond issue organized by the New Hampshire Municipal Bond Bank.
Hanover plans to pay the expected cost of construction through both receipts from parking fees as well as an increase in property taxes on town businesses.
Contractors will also begin removing asbestos from the old Fleet Bank drive-through building and the old Hanover Water Works Co. building after bringing in equipment next week. The two buildings will later be demolished.
The project comes after Dartmouth's recent acquisition of the land from Fleet Bank.
