News/Business
The Upper Valley has become a booming hub for biotech firms
By DAVE SOLOMON
In 2001, when Phil Ferneau and his partners were launching a venture capital firm focused on New Hampshire startups, they met with several academics at Dartmouth College. Ferneau had been an advocate for converting academic research into viable...
Developer proposes 204 middle-income apartments in Lebanon
By JOHN LIPPMAN
LEBANON – Two Northern New England real estate developers are teaming up on a 204-unit housing complex proposed along Route 120 and designed for middle-income tenantsDick Anagnost, of Manchester, who has developed other residential and commercial...
Bottom Line: With Woodstock farm-to-table restaurant tabled, farm keeps farming
By JOHN LIPPMAN
For Woodstock farmer Matt Lombard, he was smitten at first sight.“I’ve wanted to farm Peace Field Farm ever since I first drove past that piece of land,” Lombard said last week of the former Conklin Farm on Pomfret Road outside the village of...
After death of owner in balloon crash, quirky Post Mills airport has uncertain horizon
By ALEX HANSON
Since its founding in 1945, Post Mills Airport has changed hands only a few times, most recently in 1988, when Brian Boland acquired it.And since its founding, the small grass airstrip has been privately held.Boland’s death in a July 15 hot air...
Developer buys up 2nd downtown Claremont property this year
By JOHN LIPPMAN
CLAREMONT — With one redevelopment of a historic downtown building underway, New Hampshire developer Eric Chinburg has now acquired his second landmark Claremont property.Chinburg recently purchased the Moody Building, the four-story Queen Anne-style...
Women recount sexual harassment at Upper Valley cleaning companies
By JOHN LIPPMAN
LEBANON — This past summer, Nikkea Kimball, property manager of the new Treetops condominium complex on Etna Road, had a big cleaning job to put out to bid: A New York investor had purchased 32 units and wanted them ready for new tenants.Kimball, a...
Bottom Line: Big move, renovation for Upper Valley auto dealership
By JOHN LIPPMAN
Key Auto of Portsmouth, N.H., which owns the new Chevrolet dealership in White River Junction and the Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep/Ram dealership in Lebanon, has purchased the former Gateway Motors facility on Sykes Mountain Avenue in White River Junction,...
Target date: West Lebanon location of chain retailer to open Nov. 7
Staff Report
WEST LEBANON — The long wait is finally over.The Upper Valley’s first Target store, located in the TJ Maxx Plaza on Route 12A in West Lebanon, will open next Sunday. Six days later, on Nov. 13, outdoor apparel and gear store Sierra will open next...
Bottom Line: Woodstock farm denied permit for already-built restaurant
By JOHN LIPPMAN
Note to developers in the Upper Valley: It’s a risky idea to build a project without first getting the required permits, even when you think you are legally in the right.Otherwise you might wind up in the uncomfortable position of John Holland, a...
Canadian firm buys Simbex, a Lebanon company that designs tech to track sports head injuries
By JOHN LIPPMAN
LEBANON — Simbex, a Lebanon company known for technology that tracks impacts to athletes’ heads during contact sports, has been bought by a Canadian firm with U.S. headquarters in San Diego.Founded in 2000 by Rick Greenwald, who had earned a master’s...
Claremont mill apartment conversion grinding along after tricky financing
By JOHN LIPPMAN
CLAREMONT — An 83-unit apartment complex being built in the husk of a historic mill overlooking the Sugar River is in the home stretch after a complicated financing package came together for the $11 million construction project.Newmarket, N.H.-based...
Subterranean nightclub planned in downtown Hanover
By JOHN LIPPMAN
HANOVER — Hanover has never been a town known as a destination for nightlife, but an ambitious project now underway in the basement of the former Dartmouth Bookstore on South Main Street may change that.Hanover developer Jay Campion is building a...
Bottom Line: Deal between Upper Valley restaurant families keeps a namesake eatery alive
By JOHN LIPPMAN
A friendship extending back decades between two Upper Valley restaurant families has led to one family carrying on the tradition of the other family’s popular family restaurant.Maria Limon and Nick Yager, the husband-and-wife team behind Gusanoz...
Woodstock gets new pharmacy after 12 months sans scripts
By JOHN LIPPMAN
WOODSTOCK — Area residents no longer have to drive all the way to West Lebanon, Randolph or Rutland to pick up their prescriptions.Smilin Steve’s Ottauquechee Pharmacy recently opened in Woodstock, bringing a pharmacy back to the town after the...
Biotech startup sells for $150 million
By JOHN LIPPMAN
LEBANON — An Upper Valley biotech startup co-founded by Dartmouth engineering professor Tillman Gerngross is being acquired by a Boston-area biotech firm in a cash and stock deal valued at $150 million, the latest milestone for the star Thayer School...
Abandoned Springfield, Vt., factory the focus of event hailing state brownfields cleanup money
By JOHN LIPPMAN
SPRINGFIELD, Vt. — An abandoned and sprawling machine tool factory at the gateway to downtown, long a ghostly reminder of the region’s economic decline, will finally be demolished and the site remediated thanks to a new funding program from the state...
Labor Day: Jobs around the Upper Valley in words and photos
Valley News Photography Staff
Labor Day was established in the 1890s as a federal holiday to recognize how workers contribute to the American economy and society.In recent weeks, the Valley News interviewed and photographed several people across the Upper Valley about their...
Bottom Line: Wall Street investor buys up Lebanon condos with rental in mind
By JOHN LIPPMAN
The smart money has just placed a big bet on the upscale Lebanon rental market.A Wall Street investment banker and Dartmouth alum, in a single swoop, snatched up 32 units in the new Treetops condo complex on Etna Road in Lebanon for a total of $10.5...
Tropical Storm Irene, 10 years later: Businesses look back on disaster, recovery
By CLAIRE POTTER
The Ottauquechee River had always been part of the charm of the White Cottage Snack Bar. The seasonal Route 4 restaurant’s website entices customers with the promise of char-broiled burgers and whole fried clams enjoyed on the banks of a bucolic river...
Planned restaurant on Woodstock farm faces procedural hurdles, ire from neighbors
By JOHN LIPPMAN
WOODSTOCK — Outrage, bewilderment and unpleasant name-calling are roiling Woodstock this summer in a dispute over a proposal to open a “barn-style” restaurant and sell other farm products at a 194-acre property outside of the village.John Holland, who...
