'The New Lakeport': 51 Elm launches condos, commercial spaces as developer acquires new property

LACONIA — "Are you ready for the new Lakeport?"

That’s what the website for 51 Elm Street asks its viewers. The complex’s 20 residential units have gone up for sale and three of its five commercial spaces have tenants.

Alongside a recent purchase of the abutting Park Street home of Peter Brunette and the expected early fall completion of its artists space and offices on Clinton Street, the near realization of the complex marks another Lakeport milestone for developer Scott Everett. In addition to the 51 Elm Street project, Everett also purchased and revived the Lakeport Opera House and is in the early stages of an additional project across the street on the shore of Lake Opechee.

A sale closed July 21 for the neighboring home of Brunette, a longtime Lakeport resident and former planning board member who had disputed a decision of the city’s planning department with regard to Paugus-Elm's construction of the complex.

Everett first approached him about buying his property in 2020, Brunette said. Complimenting Everett and his vision for the Lakeport neighborhood, he said he recently decided it was no longer the right place for him.

“Me and the church were the only holdouts left on Park Street. And we were just standing there, back to back, surrounded by what was clearly a changing neighborhood,” Brunette said. He’s supportive of Everett’s vision for the city and thinks the development “is what the city needs,” but told The Daily Sun “I decided I was done with living in an urban environment.”

Brunette now lives in Gilford, and resigned from the city planning board on July 11. He had been its chair since rejoining it in 2018. He served an additional 10 years in the early 2000s.

Both Brunette and Mike Lokken, the project manager for the Elm Street development, described the sale as an amicable agreement.

Talks about a potential sale had “always been ongoing,” Lokken said. “He was mentally and physically ready ... He’s at peace with it, and he thanked us so much.”

“The only disagreements we ever had were about the planning department,” Brunette said. “[Everett’s] negotiations with me were direct and to the point. He never made any misrepresentations.”

The sale closed almost a week before 51 Elm’s condominiums hit the market. 

The 20 luxury condos, in sizes ranging from studio to three bedrooms, went up for sale last Thursday, according to Lokken. The mixed-use building’s five commercial spaces will house the investment firm Reed Wealth Management, which is in the final stages of its move-in process, Lokken said, and Social Club Creamery, an ice cream shop, as well as coworking space WORK Lakes Region, scheduled for a fall opening. The other two spaces are currently open.

In the corner unit, “We’re hoping for a sports bar or pub,” Lokken said. A range of tenants are being considered for the fifth.

Renovations on the Clinton Street building also owned by Everett are nearing completion. The building will serve not only as offices for administrative staff of the Opera House and 51 Elm, Lokken said, but as a casual space for performers to spend down time ahead of shows. 

Though, according to Lokken, they have submitted an application for a demolition permit and it “does not make financial sense” to renovate or rehabilitate the home, no final decisions have been made about the future of the Park Street property, which lies between the new construction and the United Baptist Church.

Brunette said he suggested it be used to help preserve access to greenspace in Lakeport as it develops, but emphasized “what they do with it now is none of my business.” 

Brunette believes new development in the city is good for all residents because it draws in tax revenue, and, with ongoing projects by Everett and the large scale ambitions of a new buyer at the State School property, the city is on the cusp of its largest period of reinvention since Urban Renewal. 

“I personally think that [Everett’s] vision is good for the city,” Brunette said. At the same time, “but it's the whole character. The neighborhood has changed ... I have to accept, just like anyone else my age, that things change.”