HANOVER — The Hanover Consumer Cooperative Society’s Lyme Road market is closing next month after more than 15 years of serving the community.

The co-op announced it is expecting to close its market location at 43 Lyme Rd. on Oct. 18, in a Monday message to members. The decision comes after the town denied the co-op’s request to convert the building into a commercial kitchen.

The market is closing because the location is no longer a viable business and has lost almost $2.6 million to date, according to the letter. The location has experienced losses for 12 years, Allan Reetz, the co-op’s director of public relations, said in a Tuesday phone interview. After efforts to keep the market afloat, the co-op’s leaders eventually decided to close it because the losses started to affect the overall operation.

“There’s no doubt when a store like this ends its service to the community people are going to feel that loss and we do not take that lightly,” said Reetz. “We knew its importance and we know it’s a very tough decision that impacts people.”

Pete Shreve, a longtime customer of the co-op, came in to grab an early lunch on Tuesday.

“The whole idea of the co-op is to be a community,” he said. Shreve gestured toward store manager Ray Mitchell, “he knows my mother’s ID number, he has it typed in  before I even get to the counter, I can’t find that anywhere else.”

Employees of the co-op on Tuesday declined to comment and said they had been instructed not to speak with reporters.

In July, the co-op’s leaders sought approval from the Hanover Zoning Board of Adjustment to turn the market into a commercial kitchen where it could prepare food for its other market locations on South Park Street in Hanover, in Centerra Marketplace off Route 120 in Lebanon and in White River Junction.

But the Zoning Board rejected the plan on July 18, stating the zoning district the market is in does not allow for “light manufacturing.” The business district allows for offices, warehouses and with a special exception, wholesale businesses.

On Aug. 22, the board declined to reconsider its decision.

“We felt that we had a shot at the variance,” said Reetz. “We thought the arguments we put forward were valid but the board itself has its process and they thought differently.”

At the public hearing for the proposal in July, nearly 100 area residents wrote or signed onto letters in opposition to the co-op’s proposal, citing a loss of a community gathering space as the main reason for their position.

“A closed-door kitchen at this location has multiple negative effects, such as loss of a valued community space and loss of services for essential workers,” said a letter signed by more than 80 residents.

Around 12:20 p.m. Tuesday, the lunch rush really picked up. Hanover firefighters, U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory employees, landscapers and construction workers all came in for a quick and easy lunch option.

“A lot of us are here everyday,” said Hanover firefighter Leif Jopek. “We don’t always have a lot of planning time before work.”

CRREL employee Lesley Pearson has come to the co-op for 10 years and said there is nowhere else nearby to get a convenient lunch.

“I just spent 20 minutes trying to drive through Hanover because of the construction,” said Pearson. Without the co-op, Pearson said she will have to start packing a lunch from home.

Cuttings, an eatery on Lyme Road that had been open since 2007, closed this July. The co-op market opened in 2008.

The future of the market building is not clear. In the near term, the co-op seeks to close “gracefully” and take care of the six employees there, Reetz said. The co-op offered the employees positions in other locations or severance packages if they choose to leave their jobs at the co-op, he said.

The board does not plan on selling the building. Instead, it will “continue to look at permitted options” for the property, Reetz said.

Emma Roth-Wells can be reached at erothwells@vnews.com or 603-727-3242.