From missiles to Mustangs: Newport Car Museum approved

Facility to be located in cavernous former Raytheon building

EastBayRI.com ·

PORTSMOUTH — A plan to operate a vintage car museum and storage facility inside a huge building formally owned by Raytheon Corp. received unanimous approval by the Zoning Board of Review Thursday night.

The Newport Car Museum, which is planning a grand opening on June 1, will be located inside the 114,000-square-foot “Constitution” building that Raytheon built in the 1980s for use as a missile-manufacturing plan. 

Gunther Buerman purchased the building from Raytheon, along with a 46,000-square-foot building to the south off West Main Road, for $2.6 million last year.

Mr. Buerman and his wife, Maggie, plan to display vintage, “high-end” automobiles — including about 50 cars from his own collection — inside the larger building, which will contain a 50,000-square-foot museum and another 30,000 square feet for temperature-controlled storage. They plan to demolish the second building and use it for outdoor car shows.

The site also has more than 300 parking spots as well as a traffic light off West Main Road. Visitors will be able to enter the main gate at Raytheon — it currently has no guard — and then take a left to get to the museum.

The Buermans, petitioning as 1947 West Main, LLC, needed a special-use permit from the zoning board to operate the museum.

Their attorney, Cort Chappell, reminded the board that it had already approved the couple’s request to operate the facility in a light industrial zone at the Portsmouth Business Park. When the sale of the property fell through, the couple decided on the current location, which he said makes even more sense.

“This is an industrial site,” said Mr. Chappell, who called the museum an “innocuous use” of the property that “makes no noise, has no odor.” There are no residential abutters within 1,000 feet of the property, the attorney added.

The main building once housed 750 employees and came complete with a cafeteria, but Mr. Chappell said that area will be used only for staging for catered events.

“We’re not going to be running a restaurant,” Mr. Buerman assured the board.

Nathan Godfrey, a real estate appraiser testifying for the petitioner, said the proposal is a compatible “and a compelling re-use of the property.”

“I can’t imagine a private museum being detrimental (to the surrounding area),” Mr. Godfrey said.

Board members agreed. “This is an excellent re-use of the property,” said board member John Borden, who called it a passive use for property that’s zoned for heavy industry.

No members of the public commented on the petition.

Signs, signs

The only matter that was debated Thursday night was the sequence of six signs that the Buermans requested for the museum and storage facility, some of which exceeded size limits under the town’s sign ordinance.

Mr. Chappell argued that larger signs were necessary due to the enormous size of the buildings, plus the fact that they would be located far from the roadway. A 130-square-foot sign proposed for the northern entrance, for example, would be nearly 400 away from West Main Road. (A gate to another entrance on the south side is locked, he said.)

The museum also requested a free-standing sign that would be 50 square feet in size, exceeding the town’s 32-square-foot limit. “Given the size of the building, we think it’s reasonable,” said Mr. Chappell.

Board member Jimmy Hall, who frequently does work at Quonset Point “where the buildings are enormous,” said he had no problem with any of the signs. “When you have a building so immense, you don’t even think (the sign) is so big,” Mr. Hall said.

Several other smaller signs will point visitors to the entrance of the museum and away from Raytheon property.

When it came to voting, the board approved every sign as requested except for one — a 130-square-foot sign that members reduced to 100 square feet.

For more information about the Newport Car Museum, visit www.newportcarmuseum.org.