From TELEGRAM & GAZETTE:
http://www.telegram..../704290459/1002
Apr 29, 2007
Starting over
Partnerships fuel Worcester’s reconstruction
By Martin Luttrell TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
mluttrell@telegram.com
WORCESTER— The downtown area, which for years bore the effects of urban decay, is undergoing a renaissance of redevelopment and investment that officials and investors hope will turn the urban core into a vibrant destination.
More than $1.3 billion in public and private development is under construction or proposed in the city, with whole blocks of underused or vacant buildings being renovated or razed to make room for housing, retail, office and classroom space.
While the largest project, CitySquare, is a public-private partnership to tear down most of the former outlet mall on Front Street and build $563 million in retail, residential, entertainment, office and medical space, some of the city’s colleges and universities have formed partnerships with the city for economic development.
Armand W. Carriere, executive director of Worcester UniverCity Partnership, cited the city’s nine colleges as being partly responsible for the community remaining viable after manufacturing left the city and urban decay affected the downtown.
“There is a shared vision in this community,” he said at an Urban Land Institute forum last week. “An economically healthy Worcester is in everyone’s best interests.”
He said his organization looks to the colleges to play a vital role as employer, real estate developer and provider of what he termed intellectual capital.
While CitySquare developer Berkeley Investments Inc. of Boston recruits tenants for its buildings, it received its first disbursement of $6.1 million from the city on Thursday in the state’s first District Improvement Financing program. The funds will reimburse Berkeley for relocating tenants of the former outlet mall, engineering, land transfers and design work needed to extend Front Street to Washington Square, the creation of two new streets in the development and a public underground garage.
Barbara Smith-Bacon, vice president and project manager for Berkeley, said that three new tenants will move into a portion of the former mall by the end of June.
“For the larger project we are still working on committing tenants,” she said. “Currently, we’re half done with improvements. The Registry of Deeds will be in the former food court by the end of June. Two retail tenants will be on Front Street, in the space where Media Play used to be.
“Those will be some things that people will see.”
She declined to name the two retail entities.
Ms. Smith-Bacon said she is hopeful that demolition of the vacant mall will begin later this year. Once that occurs, one of the first new tenants will be Portland, Ore.-based Hollywood Theaters, which will build a 43,000-square-foot, 12-screen cinema complex
The theater complex will be built in the southeast corner of the old mall, behind Notre Dame Church, near the Union Station transportation hub and Interstate 290.
Timothy J. McGourthy, director of economic development for the city, said the CitySquare project, as well as renovations done nearby at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences, will contribute to the downtown eventually being a destination for shopping and entertainment.
During a panel discussion last week at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Mr. McGourthy said Worcester’s colleges, location, low housing costs and transportation will help continue the trend of economic development.
“This is the only city in the commonwealth to have a DIF,” he said, referring to the vehicle for disbursement of funds to the CitySquare developer. Those funds are later repaid to the city in the form of taxes.
“Worcester’s neighborhoods are diverse. We have arts and three professional sports teams. All these things create a great quality of life.”
Mr. McGourthy said more interest from outside investors will be needed to keep momentum in downtown economic development.
“An important piece in downtown revitalization is seeing more interest in outside folks in buying downtown and investing,” he said. “Worcester is seeing a turnover in its land that it has not seen in a long time. It’s a sign that change is coming, that Worcester is seen as a place to invest, and that there’s money to be made here.”
Just to the north of Main Street, Worcester Polytechnic Institute has partnered with the Worcester Business Development Corp. to create Gateway Park, a 55-acre development of brownfields land, former factory sites and existing buildings.
Craig L. Blais, executive vice president of the WBDC, said Gateway Park is creating affordable lab space for bioengineering and biotech companies. WPI is creating incubator space for start-up companies that will expand the city’s tax base, he added. When fully developed, the park will contribute an estimated $1.4 million in annual taxes, he said.
So far, 800,000 square feet of space has been permitted under the city’s master plan and the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act, he said. The $43 million WPI Life Science and Bioengineering Center, comprising 125,000 square feet, and housing research programs and biotech incubators, will be complete in two to three weeks, Mr. Blais said.
A nearby $11 million parking garage will open on May 1, he added.
WBDC also announced last week that it is in discussion with a Boston developer to potentially build a 120,000-square-foot to 140,000-square-foot building at the corner of Lincoln and Concord streets.
Meanwhile, construction is proceeding on schedule to renovate the former Loew’s theater at Southbridge and Main streets into the 2,300-seat Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts. The theater is slated to open in January 2008. WBDC announced last week that it would make a $250,000 donation to the theater in memory of Alexander E. Drapos, a Worcester lawyer who was chairman of the WBDC when he died last July.
The $180 million Worcester Trial Courts building is under construction at 201-249 Main St., and scheduled to open in the fall. The six-story, 427,500-square-foot courthouse will have 26 rooms, housing Superior, District, Probate, Juvenile and Housing courts.
The Economic Development Finance Corp. of Dedham began renovations two months ago on the former David Burwick Furniture Co. building at the corner of Main and Madison streets, and has purchased the other three buildings on the block comprising Madison, Main and Beacon streets and Ionic Avenue.
That urban village-type development, slated for completion in fall 2008, will have 185 mixed-income condominium and apartment units in four buildings and at least 5,000 square feet of commercial space.
The $32 million Gardner-Kilby-Hammond project, launched in 2000 with assistance from Clark University, will revitalize a portion of Main South with 80 units of new or renovated housing for people with low and moderate incomes. Several dozen homes have been completed and sold, including many on formerly vacant, polluted lots. Clark University was also among the private-sector participants in the new Boys & Girls Club that opened its $9 million facility at 65 Tainter St. last year.
Recchia, on Nov 18 2005, 09:14 AM, said:
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