Top Story No. 6: Construction begins at Ridgeline Community

Being developed by Continuum North Conway, Ridgeline is to encompass 55-and-older housing, “first step” workforce housing, condominiums, eateries, commercial space, medical office buildings, and memory care and assisted living facilities. It will also include a biomass wood heating plant, with Ridgeline speaking with the Conway School Board about possibly collaborating with the school system to provide heating for neighboring Kennett High School.

Accomplishments of work this year included the completion in September of 17 small “first step” single-story rental cottages. According to Continuum officials, those rental units are expected to come online in January, pending the arrival of a generator to power the electricity and sewer as well as a certificate of occupancy from the town.

Also completed this year was Commercial Way, the internal granite-curbed roadway in allegiance to town standards that extends from Eagles Way to the partially completed Bonita’s Way. The aforementioned 17 first-step rental units are located on the lot off Commercial Way near the Bonita’s Way-Commercial Way intersection.

Also under construction in Lot 1 at the corner of Eagles Way and Eastman Road (Route 302) but accessed via Eagles Way to Commercial Way is a branch of Norway Savings Bank, scheduled for completion in 2025. Headquartered in Norway, Maine, this site will be Norway Savings Bank’s first location in New Hampshire.

Approved for the same lot is a Dunkin' Donuts. The lot may also include a retail store, but tenants have yet to commit to the site, pending what Continuum does with Lot 10, the lot that Continuum has a purchase-and-sales agreement with the state department of transportation, which owned the lot located east of Lot 1 and west of Bonita’s Way off Commercial Drive, according to Continuum principal Joe Hogan and project manager Mike Black.

“It’s been an exciting start in 2024 and we’re looking forward to 2025,” said Hogan, of Lovell, Maine, who is head of Continuum Health of Lewiston, Maine.

The project also sparked a minor controversy when Redstone residents objected to the length of the raised median strip on Route 302/Eastman Road that was erected by Continuum at the behest of the state department of transportation and the town of Conway’s engineering department. Residents complained that it made access to Redstone Village difficult, especially for eastbound emergency first responder vehicles.

The strip prevents westbound traffic from entering state-made Ridgeline’s Bonita’s Way, requiring access only from Eagles Way to the development’s Commercial Way, which then connects with Bonita’s.

Town and state officials looked at the median but decided before revisiting to give it some time see if it is really a problem.

For further information, go to ridgelinecommunity.com.