[mcdude]

New plans afoot

ONCE A FAST-FOOD RESTAURANT, this building at 1218 Union Ave., which most recently was the long-time home of Burger King, may become a marine supply store and marina.

LACONIA — Several years after the last French fry was fried there, the building that most recently housed a Burger King restaurant may be converted into a marine supply store and the new home of one of the Lakes Region’s leading marine construction contractors.
Paul Goodwin, president of Watermark Marine Systems — currently located in Gilford across from the Laconia municipal airport — filed a site plan application this week with the city’s planning department, asking for an opportunity to appear before the planning board, possibly as soon as March.
Goodwin’s proposal for the property at 1218 Union Ave., which is owned by Legacy Realty Trust of Gilford and is assessed by the city at $1.024 million, calls for adding onto the existing, 7,511-square-foot structure built in 1972 that for many years let people have a hamburger “their way” regardless of whether they came in by motor vehicle or boat.
The plan also includes building a new, two-story shop structure, 13 boat slips, a launch ramp, a pump-out facility, and a breakwater.
In addition to the planning board’s approval, the project will require state permits, said Seth Creighton, the city’s assistant planner, on Friday. Creighton added that the municipal technical review committee, comprising representatives of the police, fire, planning, public works and water departments, will meet on Jan. 4 to give a first look at the Watermark Marine project.
Assuming a favorable recommendation by the review committee, the site plan would go before the planning board which, once it accepts it as complete, would, separately, hold a public hearing on the application.
The 1.10-acre parcel has 380 feet of frontage on Paugus Bay. When it was a thriving business, there were docks for hungry boaters to tie up at from which they could then walk the short distance to the eatery.
When the restaurant closed its doors, a development group led by Paul Bordeau, a former Laconia city councilor, came forward with plans for a yacht club on the southern end of the former Burger King property. That project, known as Crowne Shores Yacht Club and comprising 52 boat slips, a gazebo and a 900-square-foot clubhouse, is still viable, said Creighton, explaining that he recently spoke with Bordeau who he said was in touch with Goodwin and concluded that their respective endeavors were complementary and could move forward without impinging on the other.