Improvements included adding new apartments, townhomes, commercial space and better roads. After successfully redeveloping several properties in and around Portsmouth, Torrington Properties assembled a number of parcels, totaling 12.2 acres, between Route 1 Bypass and Bartlett Street. Other developers had tried to redevelop this area in the past, but none were successful. Starting in 2018, Torrington Properties began working with August Consulting, PLLC, Fuss & O’Neill, and PCA to reimagine the depressed and underutilized commercial/light industrial land. Early in the process, it was realized that to succeed, Torrington Properties would need to partner with the city of Portsmouth. After entering into a Public Private Partnership with the city, Torrington Properties was able to realize its goal of redeveloping the land into a vibrant addition to Portsmouth’s West End neighborhood while allowing the city to achieve some long-held goals for the area. Torrington and its partners were able to redevelop the site with 250 much-needed apartments, more than 40,000 square feet of commercial space, and 23 townhomes. The city was able to create commercial connection to Route 1 Bypass for the West End, removing commercial truck traffic from the roads in the residential neighborhood north of the project area. The project also reconfigured the intersection of Cate Street and Bartlett Street (a notorious traffic conundrum in the city); improved the buffer area to Hodgson Brook (an impaired stream leading to Mill Pond and the Bay beyond); and created the first leg of the Seacoast Greenway Rail Trail between Bartlett Street and Route 1 Bypass. The greenway will ultimately span between Vaughn Street in the heart of Downtown Portsmouth to the Massachusetts border. During the design process, the New Hampshire Department of Transportation required improvements to Route 1 Bypass, including turn lane additions and intersection traffic light improvements at Route 1 Bypass, Borthwick Avenue, and Hodgdon Way, the new extension of Cate Street, as well as improvements at the intersection with Route 1 Bypass, Cottage, and Coakley Streets. Through perseverance, compromise, and collaboration, the design team on behalf of Torrington Properties, the city of Portsmouth and the state New Hampshire were able to create a project that reinvigorated underperforming properties, provided public benefits that had been long sought by the city, utilized sustainable and low impact design stormwater control and treatment techniques, generated ecological improvements to an impaired waterbody, and allowed the developer to fulfill its goals. West End Yards is a project that exemplifies how different entities — with different goals and challenges — can come together and figure out how to redevelop an area creating positive outcomes for the community and private developers. West End Yards truly was a Public Private Partnership.