Editor’s note: This is one of severalA Look Ahead 2020stories we are running this week in which we take a look at what 2020 has in store for our coverage area.
Downtown Jaffrey is poised to look very different within the next few years – changes residents hope will stimulate the downtown and draw in more shops and restaurants, and overall stir the economy of Main Street.
The first big change to the landscape is expected to launch within only a few months – the reconstructed Park Theatre is expected to open and become a home for films and live performances alike sometime in the first half of the year.
And early this year, the state’s Executive Council is expected to make a decision on whether another big Main Street project will begin – construction of a roundabout on Main Street, connected by a bridge to another roundabout on River Street, allowing truck traffic to bypass Main Street and creating a continuous flow of traffic in the downtown.
Though the roundabout plan has received mixed reviews from residents and business owners, the plan comes with additional downtown improvements such as widened sidewalks and additional on-street parking that some town officials embrace as being a downtown boon.
Stephanie Porter, Executive Director of TEAM Jaffrey, said the organization is excited to see the changes both projects will bring to Jaffrey.
“It will revitalize and rejuvenate the downtown,” Porter said. “The theater will bring more people to downtown, and stimulate more restaurants and shops. The roundabout will help create a more downtown atmosphere, and be more pedestrian-friendly. It’s all positive.”
The Park Theatre will fill a hole downtown Jaffrey has right now, and become a building point for further development, Matt McCarthy, President of Jaffrey’s Chamber of Commerce said.
“What is Jaffrey missing? We have some wonderful beds and breakfasts, a few restaurants, but one of the things we’re lacking is the opportunity for entertainment, and opportunity for young people to get involved in exploring the culture of the area,” McCarthy said.
The addition of that element has the potential to become an anchor point to drive other economic development, McCarthy said.
For instance, the Jaffrey Chamber offers a yearly vacation deal to its members, offering a package for a out-of-country tour. But there’s no reason it couldn’t help facilitate the same kind of package to bring people from outside the region to Jaffrey – by coordinating a packaged entertainment, meal and stay with the Park Theatre and local restaurants and inns.
“It’s an opportunity to draw in people from other towns, but it’s also got the potential to become a center point for the entire area,” McCarthy said.
“I think once it does open it’ll be a magnet for downtown activity,” agreed Selectman Franklin Sterling. “It should be quite a draw for downtown, and is an impetus for other changes.”
Sterling said Main Street has room for additional businesses, and he would particularly like to see professional spaces come back to Main Street, things like a doctor or dentist, which once had a home there, but haven’t for many years.
If approved, the Main Street roundabout is slated to acquire and tear down the Lab n’ Lager Pub, a loss Sterling said would be “regrettable.” However, he said, with the widened sidewalks and the draw of the theater, he hoped to see additional food vendors move in.
And with the closing of Peterborough’s Sharon Arts Center, Jaffrey could be a prime location to fill the gaps left by that loss.
“We have a golden opportunity here,” he said. “It’s wide open. Anything could happen. You need an anchor to start, and the theater will provide that, and there will be some very good spin-outs from that.”
Jaffrey officials are aware of how the changes might change the landscape, Sterling said, and this year plan to arrange a focus group to discuss changes downtown, if the roundabout construction is approved, to ensure the character is maintained.