| Worcester’s kicking up a lot of dust these days – literally.
Development is taking place across the city, with investment coming from a new wave of developers and investors who recognize the high quality, lower-cost alternative that Worcester provides to the Greater Boston market.
Led by Worcester’s Economic Development Coordinating Council – comprised of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, the city, the Worcester Business Development Corp. and Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives – over the past decade the city has welcomed developers who are eager to capitalize on this momentum and to provide housing, entertainment, retail, office and industrial space for our growing population.
Mall Removal Brought Success
The City Square project has transformed Worcester’s downtown by tearing down much of the former Galleria Mall to reinstitute the former street grid layout and create pad-ready sites next to Worcester’s Intermodal Transportation Center, Union Station. This development now includes Roseland’s 365 luxury apartments, a new 200,000-square-foot office building and a 3-story, 65,000-square-foot Cancer and Wellness Center operated by Saint Vincent’s Hospital. In addition, a new 170-room AC Marriott hotel, 110 Grill, Fidelity Bank, Elizabeth Grady day spa and Protein House fast casual restaurant have opened on the retail front.
A major component of the City Square project are the properties owned by Franklin Realty. Franklin Realty’s owner, Chip Norton, has invested over $70 million in renovating two office towers and creating some of Worcester’s newest class A office space, with new retail including Fuel America and a recently announced Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse location.
Adjacent to City Square is The Grid/Theatre district anchored by the Hanover Theatre. The Hanover Theater has been a catalyst by bringing thousands of new visitors annually to Worcester. Developer John McGrail’s company MG2, has reinvested and created new housing in the district as well as retail that includes a new popular beer garden, restaurants Craft Table and Revolution Pie and Pint, as well as the WooHaHa Comedy Club. The WBDC also repurposed the Telegram Building into modern office space attracting new tech companies such as Ten24.
A Growing Retail Footprint
Once a trolley barn, a former transportation facility has been converted into 55,000 square feet of new retail space in the Gold Star-Grove Street neighborhood now dubbed The Trolley Yard. Galaxy Development LLC recognized the central location of the site, paired with its accessibility to Park Avenue and Grove Street and decided to invest in growing the city’s retail footprint. Since then, a Chipotle Mexican Grill, Orange Theory gym and a Gentle Dental location have moved in. Galaxy Development principal Michael O’Brien called the project “an exciting challenge to create a first-class retail development property in the heart of the city.”
Despite challenges posed by the city’s high dual tax rate, several manufacturing and industrial sites have also been redeveloped. The former U.S. Steel site, located in the Quinsigamond Village neighborhood, was a 632,000 square-foot reuse project by GFI Partners and is fully leased. Close by, the Kraft Group’s Rand-Whitney Packaging Corp. recently completed a 45,000 square-foot, $20 million expansion. And iconic Worcester manufacturer Table Talk Pies completed a 50,000 square-foot $4.6 million expansion in the South Worcester neighborhood and has begun another 27,000-square-foot addition.
Meats, Pies and Pop Flies
With the launch of everything from mom-and-pop-style Stillman Quality Meats Butcher Shop to the soon-to-come Worcester Public Market and 48-unit, high-end Kelley Square Lofts and long-time, city-defining gems like Table Talk Pies – not to mention the Triple-A Worcester Red Sox’s Polar Park and the surrounding development – the Canal District has a little bit of everything.
In addition to the 10,000-seat, publicly-owned, multi-use ballpark, the site’s developers, Madison Downtown Holdings LLC, plans to surround the ballpark with 225 market-rate apartments, a 150-room hotel, an approximately 100-room high-end hotel overlooking the ballpark, 65,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space and 200,000 square feet of mixed-use office and retail space.
There is a lot happening in Worcester and the region. The chamber and our partners have no plans to let the dust settle.
Timothy Murray is president and CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce.
