Boston-based WinnCompanies will lead the latest round of redevelopment efforts in Lowell’s 15-acre Hamilton Canal District, a group of vacant parcels next to former textile mills that it converted into loft-style residences in recent years.
The developer hopes to begin construction of a new 80- to 100-unit loft-style residential complex within six months, said Larry Curtis, president of WinnCompanies. The overall redevelopment calls for 2 million square feet of commercial and residential projects over the next decade.
Curtis said the city’s growing downtown residential population and public investment has “primed the pump” and rents have risen to the point that support new construction.
“Ten years ago, we weren’t even a respondent (to the city’s request for proposals) because we felt until the vacant mills had gotten rehabbed, it was premature to think about new construction,” he said. “But now we’re ready to go.”
Lowell City Councilors picked the company Tuesday to be the new master developer of the vacant peninsulas lined by industrial canals at the south end of the downtown. City officials also hope the area can attract office development and turn into a job engine.
Public investment in the downtown area includes plans for a $2.5 million bridge spanning the Lowell Pawtucket Canal, a 900-space parking garage and a new consolidated trial court building. The city recently enacted a new zoning code that gives developers flexibility to respond to market conditions and build quickly on pre-permitted sites.
The site was occupied by the Lowell Machine Shop complex and textile mills until the 1940s. By the early 21st century, the city acquired the then-vacant parcels and picked Boston-based Trinity Financial as master developer. Trinity built a 55,000-square-foot office building at 110 Canal St., part of which is occupied by UMass Lowell’s Innovation Hub incubator, and a 130-unit residential complex called Appleton Mills. After Trinity exited the project last year, the city advertised for new master developers.
The Route 495 office market has lagged suburbs closer to Boston in recent years. But some developers have had success convincing large suburban companies to relocate within the market to complexes recently upgraded with open-format office space and amenities. Kronos Inc. this month leased 435,000 square feet at the CrossPoint towers in Lowell and will move from a Chelmsford office park in mid-2017.
