HomeMy WebLinkAboutMemorandum - - 175 TURNPIKE STREET SMOL A K & VAUGH'A"N''
MEMORANDUM
TO: Jean Enright, Planning Director
Paul Hutchins, Building Commissioner
FROM: John Smolak, Smolak & Vaughan LLP
CC: Greg Drocz, Senior Vice President, Head of Asset Management
Linear Retail Properties, LLC
RE: Eaglewood Shops - 175 Turnpike Street (Route 114)
Request for Approval of New Food Use Tenant
DATE: January 29, 2024
The purpose of this memorandum is to request both Jean Enright, as Planning Director,
and Paul Hutchins, as Building Commissioner, to administratively approve certain proposed
parking arrangements with respect to a prospective new tenant named CAVA, which intends to
occupy the 2,807 SF of vacant space formally occupied by Chico's in the south lot. This request
is being made pursuant to the authority given to both of you by the Planning Board under Para.
20 of the Notice of Decision (Modification) of Site Plan Special Permit and Parking Special
Permit, dated November 24, 2020 (the "2020 Amended Decision"). As described below and in
the materials attached, we feel that we have documented that adequate parking exists to allow
the new tenant. A copy of the 2020 Amended Decision is attached.
As background, the Eaglewood Shops Plaza was initially granted both a Site Plan Review
and Parking Special Permit by Decision, dated February 5, 2004, to construct a retail plaza
consisting of approximately 76,742 SF of retail/restaurant space spread across three buildings,
and located on a 13.29 acre parcel of land, as shown on the attached Site Plan.
As a part of the 2004 Decision, Condition 6.f provided that:
...if an owner, its successors or assigns, in the course of continued business operation, wishes
to open a restaurant(s) that exceeds 9,000 s.f. referenced in the approved plans as noted in
Condition 24, the applicant must, prior to allowing such new or expanded restaurants(s) to open
for business, submit revised plans to the North Andover Planning Board and North Andover
East Mill,21 H iiii IIh Street, 301,II North , IIINAA 03.845
WWW.SMOLAKVAUGHAIIN.COM
Building Commissioner, demonstrating that adequate additional parking exists on the site as
defined under Section 8.1 of the North Andover Zoning Bylaw.
Since that time, the Planning Board has consistently approved, as insubstantial changes,
the increase in square footage of food-type uses, by subsequent Insubstantial Change Decisions,
as such uses displaced traditional mall-type stores which have no longer found a strong market
for such uses in Eaglewood. Most recently by Planning Board Decision, dated November 24, 2020
(the "2020 Amended Decision"), the Planning Board approved the food use threshold up to
21,000 s.f. With the Planning Board's approval to re-tenant a portion of the Plaza to
accommodate Five Guys, as well as an allocation for an additional 2,807± sf for restaurant uses
(a portion of which has since been occupied by The Cookie Monstah), there currently exists a
total of 682+/- s.f. of remaining food use space available before the 21,000 s.f. threshold noted
above is exceeded.
Pursuant to the 2020 Amended Decision, however, the Planning Board felt it was not
necessary for the Owner to continue to come back repeatedly to the Planning Board and have
a vote on each new change in tenants and/or use. Instead, under Condition No. 20 of the 2020
Amended Decision (which modified Para. 6.f of the 2004 Decision), the Board decided to
delegate the review of any new food or restaurant use to both the Planning Director and the
Building Commissioner for a determination that adequate parking exists to accommodate the
proposed new use if such restaurant/food uses exceed 21,000 s.f.
To this end, the proposed new tenant is CAVA which is a healthy Mediterranean
bowl/salad concept food use (https://cava.com), including approximately 12 existing locations
in Massachusetts. CAVA proposes to locate in the 2,807 SF space that was formally occupied by
Chico's, which would put the total food/restaurant uses at the Plaza in excess of 21,000 s.f.
(see attached Parking Allocation Table). The tenant would occupy the endcap in the south lot,
though parking is easily accessible to the center parking lot as well. Based upon operational
history of CAVA, Linear has determined that peak hours for CAVA are between 11:45 - 2pm
during lunch, and then to a lesser extent, between 5:15 - 6:30pm (for reference, Ideal Image
(the tenant adjacent to this space, closes at 5pm). CAVA will have approximately 46 seats.
CAVA's hours will be from 11 am to 9 pm, [7 days/week]; it will have approximately 12-14
employees on the largest shift. CAVA will hire almost exclusively from the area surrounding
the store and would be happy to partner with local colleges for employment opportunities,
consistent with the employment pattern with other tenants at Eaglewood.
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Parking and Existing Vacancies
1. The Plaza currently has a total of 430 parking spaces.
2. Based upon an updated parking space inventory and allocation attached to this
memorandum, the property currently includes 13,398 square feet of vacancy
representing a total of 47 parking spaces allocated to those vacancies.
3. Under the Table of Off-Street Parking Regulations (5 195-8.4.A), the proposed CAVA
restaurant use would require 42 parking spaces (i.e., 15 spaces per 1,000 s.f. x 2,807
s.f.).
4. Accordingly, the number of existing undesignated parking spaces due to vacancies (47)
are in excess of the number of required parking spaces for CAVA (42).
5. This excess parking capacity does not take into account a greater availability of parking
spaces due to: varying hours, days, or peak parking or loading demands for multiple uses
at the plaza; or, a proposed parking reduction based on actual uses that could otherwise
be approved under a Parking Special Permit pursuant to 5 195-8.8. of the Zoning Bylaw.
6. The excess capacity also does not take into consideration the parking classification of
Cookie Monstah, which we feel is incorrectly classified as a restaurant (15.0 per ksf GFA,
or 32 parking spaces), when it should be classified as "other retail" (3.5 per ksf GFA)
since it does not function as a traditional restaurant, but is more akin to a less-intensive
retail use in terms of parking for the reasons described below. 2
7. With respect to the adequacy of parking at the property, Linear engaged Jeffrey Dirk,
P.E., P.T.O.E., of Vanesse Et Associates to conduct an updated parking study and a
review of parking demand at the center in September, 2023. The Updated Study is an
update to a parking utilization study performed by Vanasse in early-2019, and previously
filed with the Planning Board.
1 At the time the parking observations were made,four(4)parking spaces were occupied by temporary storage containers in
the"North Parking Field"which is the least occupied parking field at the Plaza. Linear has reached out to Staples(owner of the
container)to move the container to an area of the property that does not occupy parking spaces.
2 We feel that the classification of Cookie Monstah as a restaurant for purposes of parking(15.0 per ksf GFA,or 32 parking
spaces),should be reclassified as"other retail"(3.5 per ksf GFA,or 7.4 spaces rounded down to 7.0 parking spaces)because the
parking characteristics of the bakeshop are much less intensive in terms of parking use and demand than a traditional
restaurant. A reclassification from restaurant to other retail would result in a reduction of 25 required parking spaces. We feel
the classification as"other retail"is more appropriate,given that the Cookie Monstah Bakeshop is more characteristic of
general retail in terms of parking. www.thecookiemonstah.com/north-andover-baleshop This is so because,based upon our
communications with Cookie Monstah,we understand that:(a)there are,anecdotally,only 2-3 customers at time in that facility
where seats are customarily used by customers"on the go"waiting for an order to be filled rather than being used as a
traditional sit-down restaurant for customers unlike a Burton's,Five Guys or Chipotle which have a higher intensity use;(b)the
niche desert-themed use has a very limited menu targeted to cookies,with even less food options than a traditional bakery;(c)
most customers arrive by foot rather than by vehicle either via Merrimack College or involve pass-by trips for customers already
at the Plaza for other reasons;and,(d)the vast majority of business is"pickup"and transacted at the counter rather than at a
table and where there is no waitstaff but only typically two staff persons located behind the service counter.
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8. The Updated Study included a detailed inventory of the existing parking supply within
the Eaglewood Shops which was conducted in August 2023. Based on this inventory, it
was determined that the parking areas that serve the Eaglewood Shops contain a total
of 426 marked parking spaces, of which four (4) parking spaces are reserved for specific
tenants.
9. The findings in the Updated Study were as follows:
(i) Segregating the parking supply into the three primary parking fields,
the north parking field that serves the Staples building includes 112 parking
spaces, including five (5) handicapped accessible spaces;
(ii) The central parking field that serves the building containing Chi potle Mexican
Grill, Club Pilates, Thyme Japanese Cuisine, B. Good, Bay State Physical
Therapy, Pure Barre, The Cookie Monstah and Five Guys includes 176 parking
spaces, including four (4) handicapped accessible spaces; and,
(iii) The south parking field that serves the building containing Ideal Image, AFC
Urgent Care, Subway, Burtons Grill and Title Boxing Club includes 138 parking
spaces, including six (6) handicapped accessible spaces, of which two (2) parking
spaces are reserved for use by AFC Urgent Care and two (2) parking spaces are
designated as 15-minute parking for Subway Restaurant;
customers.
(iv) Location of CAVA. Although not cited in the Updated Study, we note that for
purposes of the location of CAVA (the space formerly occupied by Chico's), would
straddle the "South Parking Lot" and "Central Parking Lot, both as defined
below.
(v) Plaza-Wide Parking Utilization. Based upon the findings in the Updated Study,
as found on Table 1 of the Updated Study:
(a) The observed peak parking demand on a weekday was identified to occur
at 6:00 PM with 212 parking spaces occupied, or approximately 50 percent
occupancy of the available parking spaces within the lot (422 spaces).
(b) During the Saturday observation period, the peak parking demand was
also identified to also occur at 6:00 PM, with 152 parking spaces occupied,
or approximately 31 percent occupancy.
(c) Adjusting the August conditions, which are generally representative of
average-month parking demands, to peak-month (December) conditions
would not significantly change the overall findings with regard to the
observed occupancy or space utilization within the parking fields.
(vi) Parking-Field Specific Parking Utilization. When breaking down the individual
parking fields, the Updated Study found:
(a) Parking occupancy on a weekday was not found to exceed 32 percent in the
north parking field, 53 percent in the center parking field, and 70 percent
in the south parking field.
(b) Parking occupancy on a Saturday was not found to exceed 24 percent in the
north parking field, 35 percent in the center parking field and 60 percent in
the south parking field.
(vii) CAVA Operations. Although not noted in the Updated Study,and given that
CAVA's projected peak operating times are typically between 11:45 - 2pm during
lunch, and then to a lesser extent, between 5:15 - 6:30pm, most of the peak
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operational parking for CAVA does not occur during the peak operational time of
the Plaza.
(viii) Updated Study Conclusion. The Updated Study concludes that "it is apparent
based on the parking demand observations and the distribution of parking within
the parking fields that serve the Eaglewood Shops that the parking supply is
sufficient to accommodate the current mix of retail and restaurant uses, with
sufficient parking available to accommodate occupancy of the currently vacant
commercial space by retail or restaurant uses.
Request. For the reasons described above, we feel that we have documented that adequate
parking exists to allow CAVA, as the new tenant, to occupy the vacant space as described above,
and respectfully request that both of you make this finding of adequate parking, as provided
under Para. 20 of the 2020 Amended Decision.
Thank you.
S