Construction is underway at the Garg Complex building, seen here May 7, as the Conway Village building, which was once the Echo Building and before that a shopping center, is being converted into apartments. (Photo by Rachel Sharples)
Work has hastened in recent weeks on converting the former Echo Group building in Conway Village into housing, with the project calling for 24 one-bedroom rental apartments and a manager’s apartment along with a 4,552-square-foot commercial space at the eastern end of the building being built by Neha and Pankaj “Prince” Garg.
Known as the Garg Complex LLC, the building at 15 Washington St. near the Four Corners, it was once a shopping center, and according to Garg spokesman Jim Doucette,
“Workers are removing the partitions, floors, mezzanine wiring and plumbing; changing the roofline; adding dormer windows and almost literally gutting the interior of the buildings,” he said.
Doucette, owner of Jim Doucette Real Estate of Conway, added: “If this was ground-up construction, we’d be at the stage where you would finish framing. But we wanted to preserve as much of the exterior shell as possible.”
The project was conditionally approved by the Conway Planning Board in April 2023 with final plans approved in May 2024.
The N.H. Department of Transportation’s second phase of its Main Street project from the Four Corners to the Irving station slated for fall will impact the Route 16 frontage. The majority of parking will be in back.
During its planning board site-plan review, board member Eliza Grant pushed for more green space.
As a result of Grant’s lobbying, it was ultimately agreed to that any buffer removed as part of the Main Street project must be replaced with green space where asphalt is now located for parking.
General contractor for the project is MW Contractors of Falmouth, Maine
Architect is Tony Fallon Architecture of Wolfeboro.
According to town records, the project involves “gutting 75 percent of the structure.” The town building permit states that the project is estimated to cost $3,950,000.
The Gargs purchased the site in June 2022 for $2.2 million, according to Doucette, who said the 24 one-bedroom apartments of 700-plus-square-feet will have a kitchen, living and dining space and a bathroom downstairs and a bedroom upstairs.
Doucette said an elevator will provide access from the basement level and that one of the units will be handicapped accessible.
The basement will be finished with 56 climate-controlled storage units, which will be available for rent for tenants as well as the public.
There will be a communal laundry room in the basement; the ADA apartment will have a washer-dryer of its own as well but the basement will be handicapped accessible via the elevator, according to Fallon.
According to Doucette, the entire building will have a new sprinkler system. He said a fall completion date is targeted.
Asked what the rates would be, Doucette said it still is to be determined, citing rising construction costs caused by the uncertainties in the national and international market for building materials.
He said Garg will begin marketing the rental units once a completion date is in sight this fall.
The Gargs obtained a special exception from the Conway Zoning Board of Adjustment on July 20, 2022, to allow for greater density for the project, in exchange for a deed restriction requiring 25 percent of the units be used for long-term rentals for 25 years.
The approval in April 2024 followed an appearance by representatives before the planning board in September 2023, when the board voted 5-2 to require full site-plan review.
The 2.5-acre commercially zoned site, which is served by municipal water and sewer, at one point was the Conway Crossroads Shopping Center in the mid-1990s.
Long ago, it was the location of the Samuel Thom house and became the Presidential Inn in 1916. The large, rambling inn was partially razed in 1971.
Although short-term rentals are allowed in the commercial zone, with 25 percent deed-restricted, Doucette said the original plan was to have one-year rental leases only. However, he said, given added costs, “We will see how the protracted process affects the viability of the plan.”
Interviewed by the Sun this week, Fallon said he was glad to have been part of the project, given the area’s housing needs.
“We had no original building plans from when it was built, so that that was very challenging — but it all worked,” he said.
“It was a bit of a Rubik’s Cube concerning the geometry and making the pieces fit. I thnk the concept (of a 709-square-foot-on-average-size) will work for couples and singles just starting out and seniors,” he said, noting he recently toured a project in Massachusetts with units that measured 350 square feet, so these may be small to some but are double those.
Ben Colbath, chair of the Conway Planning Board then and now, said in an interview with the Sun at the time, “It’s something that’s badly needed in Conway — this is a respectable developer who will keep the town’s best interests in mind as they work to ease these housing needs.”
In addition to the Garg Complex, the Gargs also own Merrill Farm Resort in Conway; Saco Pines Motel in Center Conway; and two local operating convenience stores — one in Center Conway and another in North Conway; as well as the closed Meena station/store in Effingham, according to Doucette.
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