MANCHESTER — City planners heard details of Quirk Automotive Group’s plan to locate a dealership at the former Furniture World building that faces Interstate 293 across from the Mall of New Hampshire.

The automotive group seeks permission to convert the abandoned retail space into a 144,778-square-foot automotive sales and service facility at 1300 So. Porter St.

The plan calls for renovating the first floor of the existing building to allow for 24 service bays, two wash bays, parts departments and customer waiting area. The showroom area and related office space would be located on the second floor. The plan also calls for a 1,600-square-foot expansion for a ramp to move cars to the second floor.

Daniel J. Quirk acquired the 11.7 acre-site for $4 million last August through William Toner LLC, another entity he owns. Toner seeks site plan approval to convert use of the existing building from retail to car dealership. Toner also wants a conditional-use permit to reduce the number of required parking spaces from 419 to 203.

Quirk already owns Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Volkswagen franchises along South Willow Street. According to the proposal, the owner wants to create an independent Quirk dealership at the site. Meanwhile, he expects to apply to the state for an annex license that would allow Quirk to use the site to support his South Willow Street dealerships, the proposal said.

About 50 to 100 employees would work there.

The proposed dealership would be accessible by a driveway on Porter Street Extension. A traffic study showed the project would result in 149 traffic trips during weekday evening peak hours and 200 trips during Saturday peak hours.

City planners kept the public hearing open to allow the owner to address concerns raised about landscaping, creating a buffer between the site and the neighboring Parkview Hills Condominiums and a security fence.

One resident opposed the project, saying he feared more traffic would use Huse Road as traffic became too heavy on South Willow Street.

Community college plans

Planners also heard Manchester Community College’s plans to build a 50-foot by 80-foot addition to its existing welding laboratory.

The expansion would allow the college to serve about 100 more students a year, MCC president Susan D. Huard said.

“It would increase our ability to serve our students. Welding has become a very popular subject,” she added.

This is the third expansion undertaken by the community college in the last few years.

Huard acknowledged traffic safety has become an issue at the college’s Front Street entrance. She noted a pedestrian was hit there last semester and there have been a number of collisions. Huard said the college recently did a traffic study and hopes to implement some of its recommendations once it gets funding.

Medical office building

Representatives of Anagnost Investments updated the board on changes to its planned 68,374-square-foot medical office building geared toward the elderly on a vacant lot at Edward J. Roy Drive.

They include working out an agreement to get a Manchester Transit Authority bus stop at the proposed office building and alterations to the right-turn only exit.

Planners asked the developer to address concerns raised by Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, located 100 feet away on Edward J. Roy Drive.

While Dartmouth-Hitchcock is “not opposed to development of this site,” it would be impacted by it, its director of facility planning and development, David Doyle, told the board.

Doyle said the medical center invested $1.4 million in road and utility improvements when it developed its 93-acre campus in the 1990s. DHMC would like future developers make the same commitment to infrastructure improvements so traffic flow wouldn’t deteriorate, he said.

“We have great concerns about the traffic capacity,” Doyle said.

An attorney representing adjacent Stone Terrace Condominiums presented the board with an engineering study that shows blasting required to build the project would cause loose rocks and trees to fall onto Stone Terrace property.

But one resident of the condominium complex supported building the medical office building, saying it would be better than having a gas station or convenience store built there.

“It will actually enhance the area,” Pam Rice said.