Manchester’s reinvention is well underway

Jodie Nazaka, economic development director for the City of Manchester, kicks off an economic forum at the Rex Theatre on Oct. 30. (Photo by Jeffrey Hastings)

Mayor Jay Ruais was wrapping up his introductory comments when I arrived for an economic forum Oct. 30 organized by staffers from the City of Manchester at the Rex Theatre.

Sometimes you are rewarded for running late: I walked into the lobby just in time to bump into Peter Ramsey, president and CEO of the Palace Theatres, whose nonprofit owns the newly restored Rex.

Over the weekend, my wife and I double-dated with my brother and sister-in-law to go see “Jersey Boys,” the Broadway musical about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons now enjoying a successful run at the Palace. I told Ramsey how much we loved the show. He asked if I noticed how cool the lighting was and whether the occasional off-color language bothered me. (Seriously, this is a story about street kids from Jersey! No big deal.)

Before the show, we dined at Ignite, where my niece is a waitress. The Hanover Street restaurant was hopping — as it is whenever its neighborhood theater is hosting a show. Despite having a reservation, we were seated on the Hooked seafood side of the restaurant, due to some diners lingering longer than expected.

I was thinking about that when John Clayton, the unofficial “mayor” of Manchester and longtime historian, was joking during a panel talk about how all the new apartments downtown are going to make it harder for him to find a seat at the bar at Ignite.

He should know. Clayton and his wife recently sold their home and moved into a high-rise apartment in the former Amoskeag Bank (now Citizens bank) building on Elm Street.

The former Union Leader columnist was moderating a panel discussion that included an executive from the company that just built the 250-unit 75 Canal complex across the street from Market Basket.

Several people who work in the Millyard are among the first crop of tenants, said Eric LeClair, managing director of acquisitions for Jones Street, a Boston-based real estate investment firm. The Millyard and its promise for Manchester’s future had a lot to do with attracting investors, he said.

The 7,000 Manchester-area jobs expected to be created over the next several years associated with the nonprofit Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute is driving downtown development. The people who are coming to work in “ReGen Valley” — which has been primed by nearly $500 million in federal and in-kind investment since 2017 — are going to need places to live and places to hang out.

“Starting” prices for apartments at 75 Canal range from $1,800 for a 500-square-foot studio to $3,500 for a 1,200-square-foot three-bedroom — affordable for tech workers in the Millyard perhaps but pricey for servers and other folks needed to fill downtown jobs as restaurants and retail expand to meet demand.

Manchester developer Michael Ketchen, whose company redeveloped the 55 Manchester St. building, said his company plans to create 1,500 apartment units over the next several years, including as many as 700 in the Queen City. He noted some of those will be designed to be affordable for those restaurant workers.

That’s the kind of news Jodie Nazaka, the city’s economic development director and a Manchester native, might want to share with her brother, Joe, who is a chef at 815. The Elm Street cocktail bar has the kind of vibe you would find in a big city like Boston but is right here in the Queen City, which not so long ago was not a place you would visit to check out a hipster bar.

That’s the boomerang snob in me surfacing. I moved back to the Queen City in 2012, after living most of my adult life elsewhere, most recently in the Denver/Boulder area. These big apartment complexes popping up with the funky designs and color schemes? You see them all over urban areas.

Nazaka and her team are branding Manchester as “anything but run of the mill,” and borrowing inspiration for a new city website from Burlington, Vermont, and Austin, Texas. They aim to capture the excitement of new activity that has kept Manchester one of the hottest real estate markets in the country for several years running.

Manchester keeps waiting for its big moment to arrive. Guess what, folks? It’s already here.

Manchester developer Michael Ketchen says his company plans to create 1,500 apartment units over the next several years, including as many as 700 in the Queen City. (Photo by Jeffrey Hastings)