West Concord's Biggest Changes Are Gathering at the Edges of the Village

The fencing at 166 Commonwealth Avenue went up in early fall. The lot sits near Laws Brooks Road, between Nashoba Brook Bakery and Art for All, and for years it was E & S Mobile Service. In the Town's review, lawyer Jonathan Silverstein said the parcel had "seen better days, to put it mildly." A country store is coming next.

That fence marks a small project. The larger ones sit nearby. The MCI-Concord prison campus is at the same end of the village. A 201-unit apartment building is going up on Baker Avenue. Each new project also comes with a hard question about how people will get from it to the storefronts on Commonwealth Avenue, on foot, by bike or by car.

The Middle That Isn't Moving

Start with what stays put. Discover Concord's September 2026 guide to West Concord lists the same core that has defined the village for years:

• Woods Hill Table, 24 Commonwealth Avenue
• Saltbox Kitchen, 84 Commonwealth Avenue
• Debra's Natural Gourmet, 98 Commonwealth Avenue
• Adelita, 1200 Main Street
• Barefoot Books, Bradford Mill, 23 Bradford Street

One address on that stretch helps explain the gateway project. A March 2026 Concord Bridge look back at West Concord recalled the West Concord 5 & 10 as a shop for everyday needs and placed its old site where Debra's Next Door is now. The 5 & 10 closed in 2020.

A Store at the Gateway

Mendon businessman Kevin Meehan bought the former E & S Mobile property. He proposed a full-service gas station and country store based on his Imperial-branded business in Mendon. The Bridge's February coverage, headlined "Back to the 5 & dime," described a 2,162-square-foot, one-story store with landscaping along Nashoba Brook. At a West Concord Advisory Committee meeting, then-member Nicole Hammond called the property "a gateway to West Concord."

Town boards approved the project over the summer. The project team has promised candy, local crafts and hardware-store goods. That mix lines up with what the 5 & 10 used to sell. The Concord Bridge reported in October that the first construction phase removes the underground gas tanks, and the team has not given a completion schedule.

The parking plan is very small. The approved layout has three standard spaces, one EV charging space, a fifth space for either charging or regular parking, and one accessible space. With so few spots, the store will draw shoppers from the neighborhood around it more than drive-in traffic from Route 2.

201 Apartments on Baker Avenue, and an Intersection Playing Catch-Up

On September 24, more than 50 people gathered on Baker Avenue for the groundbreaking of Novo Riverside Commons. Taurus Investment Holdings is building it next to the existing office building at 300-310 Baker Avenue, which the firm bought in 2020. The plans call for 201 apartments, with 51 set aside as affordable units under the state's 40B law, and a geothermal energy system. The Concord Bridge noted that guests ate pastries from Concord Teacakes. It also noted that the town has not had major multifamily construction in more than a decade.

"There's going to be a lot of dirt moving in the next decade in this town," Select Board member Paul Boehm said at the event, according to the Bridge.

Traffic is the part residents will notice day to day. Taurus pledged $100,000 toward redesigning the Baker Avenue and Main Street intersection to handle more cars. The Town had hoped to finish that work this fall, but the timeline slipped. Town Manager Kerry Lafleur told the Bridge the final design should be done in November, with construction possibly next year. Select Board Chair Wendy Rovelli said she does not expect the Route 2 and Baker Avenue Extension crossing to change "anytime soon." Town officials are still interested in a pedestrian overpass across Route 2.

Novo also ties into the prison site. Rovelli called its geothermal system a test case for geothermal at MCI-Concord.

The Prison Site, Next Door to the Gateway

The MCI-Concord campus is near Rideout Park, at the same end of the village as the country store. It is the largest of the three projects by far. The state's Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance, known as DCAMM, owns the land. The Town's Community Development Department and the MCI Concord Master Plan Committee are leading the planning. Their consultant team is led by Stantec and includes Speck Dempsey and CommunityScale.

A concept shown on September 9 in the Concord-Carlisle High School auditorium increased the plan's retail space. The Concord Bridge's report set the new figure against the June draft and against the nearby developments planners had studied:

Even at 100,000 square feet, the plan is about a third the size of Maynard Crossing and less than a fifth the size of The Point. Rovelli told the Bridge there will be no big-box stores. Consultants have been cool on new office space because demand is weak. The plan puts its retail in deeper buildings around a neighborhood core and a central green. The site still has room for up to 1,000 housing units, which is a state benchmark. Rovelli said the new version "absolutely" has less parking than the first, which she said "definitely had too much."

Other pieces of the plan would shape everyday life nearby. Room is reserved for a Concord Public Works campus. The project's FAQ lists river access, pedestrian and bike connections, a possible walking trail along the Assabet River and possible reuse of the prison gym. Later Bridge coverage in October found growing support for privately funded indoor recreation, such as multisport space or a climbing gym.

Getting in and out is where the plan meets Commonwealth Avenue. Planners dropped an earlier roundabout over traffic concerns and now propose three access points:

1. A signalized intersection on Commonwealth Avenue as the main gateway
2. A second entry near where the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail crosses Commonwealth Avenue
3. A possible Route 2 connection near the Assabet River to take pressure off Commonwealth Avenue

"We are looking for additional ways to spread that pain," consultant Erin Cameron told attendees at the September 9 meeting, according to the Bridge.

The draft zoning discussed in October would set building heights by location. It would allow up to five stories on about 19 acres facing the Route 2 rotary and three stories on 5.5 acres along the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail. Across the remaining roughly 44 acres, buildings could reach four stories. Under this draft, the shortest buildings would line the rail trail, which is the path people walking or biking from the village would use.

Where the Edges Meet the Middle

All three projects run into the same issue. The country store has six parking spaces and depends on nearby shoppers. Novo's arrival depends on an intersection redesign that has already slipped once, and on a Route 2 crossing the state is not changing soon. The prison plan has a rail-trail entrance and a height limit along the trail. The MCI Concord Master Plan Committee has also listed connectivity with West Concord retail as a topic for upcoming meetings, along with open space, recreation and development feasibility.

The schedule is long. The Town's project page set November 2026 for final planning and proposed zoning. It puts draft zoning before Town Meeting in 2027 and says construction could begin as soon as 2028. In late October, the Bridge reported that a vote could come as early as May and called that schedule "very aggressive." The paper also quoted a committee member who estimated that first ground work might not happen until 2029 or 2030.

For the latest presentations and meeting materials, the Town posts updates at mci-concord.org.

If you own a home near the gateway or along Baker Avenue and want to know how these plans could affect your property's value, Colleen Murphy and the St. Martin Team follow every one of these projects closely. Request your complimentary home valuation, and we'll talk through what's changing on your side of West Concord.