Hampton Beach leaders back major Casino redevelopment: 'It needs to be revitalized'

HAMPTON — Beach officials are endorsing a future redevelopment of the Hampton Beach Casino , though a bill that failed in the Legislature could delay plans being filed with the town to at least 2025.

The Hampton Beach Village District commissioners voted 3-0 in June to endorse the project by Casino majority owner Sal Lupoli , who plans to invest up to $600 million in the redevelopment. His team has shown town officials schematics of a new hotel, convention center and concert venue, though no official plans have been submitted to the town's planning and building department.

The project would address what Lupoli and part-owner Freddie Schaake have described as an outdated Casino building, built in 1899, that is worn and difficult to maintain. Chuck Rage, chairman of the commissioners, said upgrading the beach’s centerpiece attraction is pivotal to the beach's success.

“As the Casino goes, the beach goes,” Rage said. “It needs a lot of work. It needs to be revitalized.”

The scope of the redevelopment project would span from C to F Street, eliminating D Street. A bill filed in the state Legislature would have allowed Hampton's Board of Selectmen to bypass a Town Meeting vote to discontinue the 1/10th of a mile D Street. The bill was defeated in the New Hampshire House by a vote of 261-102.

Rage, also a member of the Board of Selectmen , said he expects the issue of permanently discontinuing D Street will now go before Town Meeting voters as a warrant article.

“It’s something the select board should put on the ballot,” Rage said. “It gives the people a chance to understand it.”

C and D streets are where a beloved waterslide once existed. The property also includes North of Nola and JB’s restaurants and a string of walkup eateries like Sal’s Pizza. Also on that block are Candy Corner, Farr's Famous Chicken and the Community Church, also known as the Singing Church.

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Schaake and engineer Rick Friberg presented conceptual designs to the town's Planning Board in March, stating the new development would extend the season and potentially become a year-round attraction. Those designs included a convention center, doubling the Hampton Beach Casino's Ballroom's concert capacity, a 500-room hotel and a new parking garage.

But to implement that vision, they said it would require the takeover and elimination of D Street, which state law only allows to take place via town vote.

To speed up the process, state Sen. Debra Altschiller, D-Stratham, was asked by Town Manager Jamie Sullivan to file the bill to enable the Board of Selectmen to approve the closure. Altschiller then worked with state Rep. Chris Muns, D-Hampton, to add an amendment in the Senate to an existing House bill. The bill, HB 1215, included changes to building and fire codes and lengthened the exemption for approved development plans from changes in building codes from 5 to 10 years.

While the bill passed in the Senate, Muns said the opposition to the local building and fire code changes was greater than anticipated in the House.

Others did not want to take away the vote of Hampton residents to decide the fate of D Street.

State Rep. Kelly Potenza, R-Rochester, said the bill would cut out the voice of 16,500-plus Hampton residents who “actually have the skin in the game here.” Hampton Selectmen Carleigh Beriont and Amy Hansen in public meetings also expressed their concern the bill would have circumvented voters.

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Rage said it is unlikely Hampton's Board of Selectmen will seek a special Town Meeting to get the street removal passed sooner than the March 2025 Town Meeting. The town has called special town meetings in the past, like in 2018 when they replaced two sewer pipes with a midsummer vote.

Rage said it would probably be on the Casino ownership to push for a special Town Meeting.

“If the developer wants to pay for it, we’d definitely do it,” Rage said.

Rage said he would like the Select Board to put forth a warrant article at the March 2025 Town Meeting. If the board decides not to do that, he said the Casino owners could file a citizens' petition.

A spokesperson for Lupoli did not respond to an inquiry about whether the need for a town meeting is affecting plans to redevelop the Casino and when the development plans will be filed with the town.

Whether Casino ownership needs the town vote before presenting plans to the town's Zoning Board and Planning Board was not immediately clear. Town Planner Jason Bachand said he has never come across a plan that involved the closure of a street like the project being envisioned for the Casino.

“It’s a unique thing,” Bachand said. “My hunch would be they would want to address that first.”

Town officials are waiting for an application to be filed with the Zoning Board for at least a height variance, as the project is expected to be 29 feet higher than the 70-foot limit.

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Hampton Beach leaders: 'This project may be really good for us'

Rage’s fellow commissioners for the Hampton Beach Village District said they liked the ideas presented by Schaake and Friberg to the Planning Board. They noted the location of the Casino in front of the Seashell Stage prevented it from casting any shadow on the sand, a concern with development at the beach.

Commissioner Maureen Buckley said she was concerned about the impact of construction on beach activity given the magnitude of the project. She said she hopes the developers coordinate with the Village District about their nearby activities.

“It would be nice if they would be a part of the community,” Buckley said, “And not just build this enormous beautiful thing and not be part of what we do.”

Commissioner Bob Ladd said he looked forward to the new parking garage that the Planning Board was told could house 1,500 parking spaces. He also liked the project’s intention to create a year-round facility.

“No project is ever going to be perfect, but this project may be really good for us,” Ladd said.

Editor's note: State Sen. Debra Altschiller, D-Stratham, is the wife of Howard Altschiller, Seacoast Media Group's executive editor.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Hampton Beach leaders back major Casino redevelopment: 'It needs to be revitalized'