LAKE PLACID – Clothing and home goods retailer Marshalls has plans for the Cold Brook Plaza. It wants to open what would be the biggest clothing store in the Tri-Lakes region.

But at about 21,500 square feet, it would be smaller than most Marshalls stores, according to the project’s architect.

“We are at a point where we asked Marshalls to go down as far as they can go,” said Patrick Mahoney of the architectural firm Lauer-Manguso and Associates.

Marshalls’ move into the shopping center is not expected to displace any of the four businesses currently there: The Wine & Spirit Shoppe, Olympia Sports, Gold Medal Laundromat and Dry Cleaning, and Hannaford supermarket. The storefront around the first three, smaller businesses would be altered to fit Marshalls’ design. The Hannaford portion of the building would not be changed, but the building’s facade would be renovated and re-themed from the far, unoccupied end of the building to the laundromat.

A small portion of retail space between Marshalls and the liquor store would remain unoccupied. The empty storefronts where Marshalls plans to move used to be an Aubuchon Hardware and an Eckerd drug store. Eckerd closed, and Aubuchon moved to a new store on Saranac Avenue.

Marshalls sells women’s, men’s and children’s clothing, shoes, home goods and accessories. The nearest Marshalls store to Lake Placid is in Williston, Vermont, according to the company’s website. Marshalls is owned by the T.J. Maxx company.

The Widewaters Group based in Dewitt, near Syracuse, is the contractor for the project, and the architect is Lauer-Manguso and Associates based in Amherst, near Buffalo. The building is owned by Cold Brook Plaza LLC and located at 45 Hadjis Way.

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Design

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The main color of the building’s siding will be “birdseye maple.” The color scheme also includes a dark green roof and light green trim. “Vermont blend” corondao stone is planned to run along the bottom of the facade.

Mahoney said the computer rendering’s colors always look different than the real thing, and the best way to get a sense of the color is to see a paint chip.

“(It’s) a mustardy-yellow; it’s between gold and mustard,” Mahoney said, describing the building’s main color. “It’s a little warmer than the Hannaford.”

Mahoney said if the board members strongly oppose the color, it could be modified, but the color scheme did not come under any major criticism at Wednesday night’s review board meeting.

Code Enforcement Officer Jim Morganson advised the contractor not to exceed 40 feet in height because that would trigger the state Adirondack Park Agency to review the project. The contractor does not plan to do so. The building’s highest point is expected to be 38 feet.

Mahoney described the design of the building as timeless. He said the design is slightly based on Lake Placid architecture, such as a clipped gable roof that is a homage to the Lake Placid Club.

“When an owner puts a serious investment into a shopping center like this, we want to give it a look that will last,” he said.

Because the contractor plans to build a taller roof, it will need to build a stronger roof-support-system next to the liquor store’s retail space.

“If we are higher than the liquor store, the snow will drift onto it, and that’s what we are trying to avoid,” Mahoney said.

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Expansion, variance

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The contractor plans to add about 3,000 to 5,000 square feet to the building. The entire building, including Hannaford and all of the other retail space, would increase to about 70,327 square feet if Marshalls renovates it, according to review board documents.

That means the plan would exceed zoning law and require a variance, which would need to be approved by the Zoning Board of Appeals. A meeting to discuss the variance will be held at 5:30 p.m. Monday, March 30 on the third floor of the North Elba Town Hall.

After that, a public hearing is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 1, when the public will be able to react to the design and impact of the store.