An architectural rendering shows a 500,000-square-foot mixed-use development proposed by Cathartes for a brownfield site in Dover. Image courtesy of Cathartes.

The Dover City Council unanimously approved an agreement with Boston-based developer Cathartes on March 14 to turn the 21-acre former site of the city’s wastewater treatment plant into a 500,000-square-foot mixed-use development. 

A bluff on the site, located next to downtown on a bend in the Cocheco River, will be flattened and the site graded by the city to protect against sea level rise. The city is also responsible for paying for roads and streetscape enhancements on the site plus sitework to bring the development parcels to “pad ready” condition. The city also plans a public waterfront park between the project and the river. 

The city’s improvements will be funded with $6.6 million in tax increment financing, while Cathartes will pay the city $3.37 million to buy the land. The land will revert to the city if Cathartes does not complete the project by a date to be agreed upon with the city. 

The final design must still be approved by the city’s planning board, but the agreement allows Cathartes to develop roughly 475 units of housing or hotel rooms and about 25,000 square feet of street-level commercial space in buildings up to 5 stories tall. 

The as-yet-unnamed project is being built on land that was once a bustling port area in the 1800s and is just the latest in a series of downtown projects Dover has welcomed over the last decade, including an apartment building Cathartes is currently building a short distance away.