Why North Andover?

The Route 125 Corridor crosses through the northwestern part of town, running in a south-north direction from Andover to the Haverhill town line. While it contains a mix of small local retailers and numerous restaurants, as well as small industrial users, it is dominated by an airport industrial area and the combined 168-acre Osgood Landing and Hillwood property.  In 2021, the Town developed the Route 125 Corridor Study, which outlines the vision for the future of land use and transportation along the corridor.

Industrial properties abutting the airport site include Peabody Supply Company, a large regional distribution center for commercial and residential gas and plumbing products, and Comfort Foods, Inc., which supplies food products to several regional grocery stores.  More recently, 6K Inc. established itself at 25 Commerce Way, where it hosts 100+ employees and is investing $32 Million into its Battery Center for Excellence, a new 33,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility.

The largest parcel along Route 125 is the combined Osgood Landing/Hillwood property. A former manufacturing facility for Western Electric/Lucent, one portion of the two million square foot property now operates as a multi-tenant office and industrial complex and the other as an approximately 3,800,000 square foot Amazon e-commerce storage, warehouse, and distribution facility that employs upwards of 1,500 people.  The site also has extensive parking areas and includes a 6-megawatt solar array.

The corridor also features retail plazas as well as public institutional facilities including the Town’s police station, fire station, middle school, and high school. Also, within the corridor are health care/assisted living facilities; and Barker’s Farm, one of the nation’s oldest farming operations.

Construction of a new mixed-use development at 1252 and 1274 Osgood Street, consisting of 192 market-rate apartments and more than 40,000 sf. of new retail/commercial space was completed in 2020.

The Downtown District hosts Town Hall as well as some religious and institutional uses, financial services companies, restaurants, and personal service businesses. While there are a number of older mixed-use buildings, many of which include first floor retail or office space with housing located on upper stories, the district is anchored by the major properties of First & Main; Bradstreet on Main; and, most prominently, the Davis & Furber Mill Complex.

The 35.3-acre Davis & Furber Mills property is leading the transformation and revitalization of the downtown area. The 600,000 square foot complex is home to over ninety (90) operating businesses, ranging from restaurants to fitness, and from law offices to tech startups. The development offers flexible spaces with brick and beam character, cutting-edge technology, and quality of life that attracts the most desirable professionals in a highly competitive labor market. Some of the larger tenants include Schylling Toys, L-Com Global Connectivity, Semcasting, Ivenix, and ERS Inc. There are 66 loft-style apartments in the mills, accompanied by another 221 units recently built directly adjacent to the mill properties by national developer Avalon Bay.

Other key properties for downtown revitalization include Bradstreet on Main, the 1.15-acre former Bradstreet School property, which includes a 15-unit market-rate apartment building and an 18,000± square foot two-story commercial building; and the 3.3-acre First & Main Plaza, which includes both retail and second-floor office space and is anchored by a CVS store and has long been the center of commercial activity within the downtown. 

To ensure continuous improvement of the downtown, the Town in 2019 engaged BETA Group, a professional engineering firm, to assist it in developing a Downtown Improvement Master Plan.  This plan addresses improvements to vehicular and pedestrian circulation and safety as well as connectivity and aesthetics of the downtown.  The plan was finalized in June 2021.