Image courtesy of Kelleher & Sadowsky

A Rhode Island investor is the new owner of a pair of downtown Worcester parcels that could be developed with hundreds of apartment units.

Foresight Capital LLC of Pawtucket paid $5 million for 5 Salem Square and 1 CitySquare, which span nearly 5.3 acres. The 5 Salem Square property is the former site of the Notre Dame des Canadiens church, which was demolished in 2018.

Kelleher & Sadowsky represented seller CitySquare II Development, master developer of the 2 million-square-foot CitySquare mixed-use project. The property is located in a federal Opportunity Zone, Kelleher & Sadowski Principal Jim Umphrey said, and qualifies for 180-day fast-track permitting from the city of Worcester. Both parcels are zoned for multifamily use by-right, so the new owner only needs to require site plan approval from the Worcester Planning Board.

Umphrey estimated the two parcels could accommodate at least 350,000 square feet of multifamily development, potentially built in two phases.

“If you look at other uses, office was the natural one that some were thinking about prior to the pandemic,” he said. “Given the amount of vacancies, office is not really a viable use for that.”

Insurer Unum, an anchor of the CitySquare office space where it had occupied 214,000 square feet, offered the space for sublease in mid-2020 after switching to a remote working arrangement.