In the Know—February ‘06

Rebuilt, Refurbished, Renovated
Worcester Gets a Face Lift
By Christina Andrianopoulos

On a true pinnacle of growth, Worcester is launching into the 21st Century with the help of many visionaries. Since it was established as a town on June 14, 1722 and a City on February 29, 1848, Worcester has evolved into an education, medical and research center. Worcester, MA, the third largest city in New England, is the home of nine colleges and universities, the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, and the Massachusetts Bio-Technology Research Park, among other things. But until the last few year’s Worcester’s evolution was more osmosis due to its central location in the hub of Massachusetts, rather than proactive. But today, when you drive past Worcester on Route 290, you can see the magnitude of new construction and renovation that is occurring. Is Worcester getting a face lift kicking and screaming? Or is it part of a strategic growth plan being implemented methodically from the minds, and pocket books of those that have vision? Many of us believe it is the latter.

Worcester is rich in history that boasts having taken an important role in the political development of the United States. Woostah you ask had a hand in the development of the U.S.? During the American Revolution (1775—1783), it was home to pamphleteer Isaiah Thomas, whose words helped unite opposition to the British. The City was also active in Shay’s Rebellion (1786-1787), a revolt against excessive land taxation that helped spur the creation of the Constitution of the United States. Residents were also early supporters of reform movements such as the abolition of slavery, and the first National Women’s Rights Convention was held in Worcester in 1850. Worcester was home to industrial innovation, including new methods of making wire, textiles, grinding wheels, and envelopes. In 1926 rocketry pioneer Robert H. Goddard, a professor at Clark University, fired his first liquid fuel rocket in nearby Auburn.

Therefore, Worcester’s current climate to make it a thriving, productive and modern mid sized city appears to be a karmic journey that needs to happen. To ensure this impetuous continues City leaders and private investors are carving a path toward a successful and most ambitious remake in the “history” of Worcester. New England….watchout! Are you ready for this?

Old School to New School—Projects that promise a new and improved Worcester

Gateway Park
The ambitious Gateway Park is a 63-acre commercial industrial district project, is the redevelopment of brownfields land, fomer sites and existing buildings at the north end of downtown Worcester, and has so far assembled and cleaned up 11 acres, and completed selective demolition. Initial funding for the project came from the WBDC and WPI (one of its anchor tenants), Flagship Bank and the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency, which also guaranteed part of the borrowing. Gateway Park LLC, is a partnership between the Worcester Business Development Corporation and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The project’s master plan calls for the rehabilitation and construction of buildings containing 1,564,800 square feet of building space, 680- space surface and deck parking, which will be located behind 60 and 68 Prescott St. on a 5.1 care EDA district, much of it on the former site of New England Planting Co., considered one of the most difficult brownstone parcels to clean up. Work is expected to start later this spring, by the end of May or early June, at the same time prep work for the building would begin sooner.

Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MCPHS), the largest pharmacy college in the United States, recently dedicated a new $20M, 90,000 square foot Living & Learning Center in Downtown Worcester. Visionaries, which included MCPHS President Charles F. Monahan, Jr., as well as City Manager, Mayor Murray, City Council and various departments, pulled together to create a model public/private partnership that purchased and renovated 25 Foster Street property known as the Graphic Arts Building into a student housing, offices, and MassMedLine, the College’s state-wide prescription information hotline, ensuring the goal to stimulate the area’s economy as well as move Worcester closer to its goal of a more vibrant downtown.

Hilton Garden Inn
This new $20 million, first-rate, 200-room hotel, which includes a pool, fitness center and 100-seat Pizzeria Uno Restaurant, is slated to open in the summer of 2006. It promises to compliment the DCU Center and enhancing the ability to attract new convention and hotel business and draw multi-day conventions to Worcester, as well as benefit restaurants, other hotels and hospitality related industry throughout the region. Believed by many City visionaries to be a signature project for downtown Worcester, they hope it sets the tone in encouraging future investment in our City, as well as represent the physical prominence of the spectacular design envisioned throughout the future downtown. In addition, the new proposed skybridge that links to the DCU Convention Center and the City’s 970-space Worcester Center Boulevard parking garage, is expected to be a significant focal connection that will celebrate the synergy of convention and hotel activities. At the City scale, for those arriving in Worcester from Route 290 along Central Street, the mostly glass and steel skybridge will serve as a gateway to the City.
Regional Justice Center
Following nearly a decade of debate and deliberation, the City of Worcester is poised to welcome a new state courthouse to its Main Street. 430,000 square feet of space on six levels will house a fully integrated courthouse for the state’s Worcester district, inclusive of the new Worcester Trial Courthouse, District Court, Housing Court, Superior Court, Juvenile Court as well as the Probate and Family Court. Groundbreaking for the project took place in July, 2004, with an anticipated 36- month construction period. As designed, the new courthouse will reinforce the spatial character of the City's Main Street.

GKH Project—Steve Teadale at MSCDC (Still waiting for information on this project)

GAR Hall—New home of TiNovo Restaurant
Through creative financing and working with Preservation Worcester, Mitch Terricciano purchased Bull Mansion/G.A.R. Hall in excess of $2.4 million, in order to preserve the building and bring upscale dining back to the downtown area. Bull Mansion/G.A.R. Hall is an extremely well preserved example of the High Victorian Gothic style built in 1876 as a professional residence for Dr. George Bull and his wife Sarah for $125,000. The solid masonry building, with its granite exterior and high-pitched roof and dormers, is an unusually fine example of late-nineteenth century American architecture. A distinctive contribution to its downtown street, the building is a rare reminder that this was once a residential neighborhood. Not only is the exterior intact and well preserved, but the major interior rooms of the building have been restored to an unusually good state of preservation.

Bull Mansion/G.A.R. Hall is individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places (placed on the Register 3/13/1975).

Canal MarketPlace—former home of Patrick Subaru and Saint John’s High School, Harding and Temple Streets
Pursuant to the City receiving a $200,000 state grant to support an extensive feasibility study of the Blackstone Canal, with the objective of studying the possibility of Worcester to use the canal to impact the local economy, several private investors have decided to make an initial stake. Two local visionaries, William Chase, and Paul Robbins, investing multi millions of their own cash have spearheaded this district’s evolution with the Canal MarketPlace. A multi-use indoor marketplace which will house, under one roof, Castellana’s, an upscale rustic Mediterranean and European restaurant, Carrington Hall, an elegant Banquet and Business Conference Center, as well as the possibility of many gourmet shops, boutiques, bakeries and more, promises to give Providence Place some real competition. Look for grand opening, Spring 2006.

“C” is for Chevalier Condos—
Worcester needs more state-of-the-art luxury housing with the convenience and amenities provided in many urban cities’ downtown area. Steven Gubb, one of the original Worcester visionaries, and developer of the former Worcester Envelope Building condominiums on Shrewsbury Street, is at it again. Promising something spectacular that will truly be instrumental in launching Worcester’s millennium facelift….look for more info in the next City Living Magazine issue.