New Bedford Developments

I really hope NB gets one as well. It would be much better to redevelop and existing site such as that, than to start construction on a wooded site.

How will the winning casino sites be determined? I would hope it would go to the highest bidder for a license but knowing this state.
 
I really hope NB gets one as well. It would be much better to redevelop and existing site such as that, than to start construction on a wooded site.

How will the winning casino sites be determined? I would hope it would go to the highest bidder for a license but knowing this state.

It would be a great redevelopment opportunity for that particular location. It was slated to be an Aquarium at one point but they've since moved that toward the center of Downtown. New Bedford really supports the casino project. Middleborough (and other small towns) residents seem to be very much against it. If I were the developers and the state, I'd want to build where the support is. It will mean more revenue (and less headache) sooner.

Frankly, I have no idea how the sites will be determined. There's a lot of optimism in NB that they'll get one, but I haven't heard a state official or anyone else for that matter commit to the city. I think New Bedford's chances are good because of the support from city hall (which will mean expedited permitting). However, I would have to imagine that these licenses would go to high bidders which is the fairest way to do it. I'd assume that a developer with rights to the land locked up and a real proposal (not to mention significant community support) would be willing to bid high, but who knows?
 
Do you happen to know anything about the other casino that has been proposed for NB?

casinos_mass__1271408954_0071.gif
 
The other Casino plan for New Bedford is for the waterfront area along I-195 just North of downtown. It was the first proposal for New Bedford, but no one has heard anything for a while about it. In fact, the Northeast Resorts Group who is behind that plan (and also the Palmer one) is really difficult to find ANY information on.

This is their proposal (from an old Standard Times article):


I don't like the location as it's cut off from the city by two highways and it's North of downtown meaning you won't pull any traffic into that area. I also don't know how it gets built. It was proposed before the Wamsutta Mill Complex was renovated into market rate and high end apartments and condos and the photo above seems to imply that they would use that facility. I can't imagine residents of the Wamsutta Mill would be too supportive.
 
New Bedford's current revival will be featured as part the History Channel's new "America: The Story of Us" series.

City's rebirth featured in Bank of America film


By CHARIS ANDERSON
canderson@s-t.com
April 25, 2010 12:00 AM

NEW BEDFORD ? The city and its ongoing revitalization efforts will be showcased tonight at 9 on national television through a mini-documentary created by Bank of America to air during a new series on The History Channel.

The two-minute-long mini-documentary ? one of 12 created by Bank of America as part of its sponsorship of the series "America The Story of Us" ? will talk about the bank's efforts to help revitalize city neighborhoods through real estate development, mortgage and small business loans.

Mayor Scott W. Lang said he was surprised and flattered that Bank of America had chosen to highlight New Bedford.

full story


Also, Part of the Whaling Museum's $5 Million expansion will include reuse of an attached historic bank building and a new Water St. entrance.

Whaling museum to unwrap hidden space

By Steve Urbon
surbon@s-t.com
April 24, 2010 12:00 AM

NEW BEDFORD ? Hidden from the public for nearly a century, the original core of the whaling museum will soon be restored to exhibit space with an added entrance on Water Street, according to Arthur P. Motta Jr., the museum's senior director of marketing

and communications.

Originally the National Bank of Commerce, the building was acquired by Henry Huttleston Rogers for use as a whaling museum in 1907, Motta said. A decade later, the Bourne building, which houses the half-scale ship model Lagoda, the world's largest, was built. The original space, which is immediately adjacent to the central Jacobs Gallery, became furniture storage and work space and still retains most of its lavish woodwork and fittings. full story
 
Hope some of these possible developments go forward. I have always had a fondness for New Bedford and consider it a "real" city that has the right amount of grit and a tremendous amount of potential due to it's great location on the coast.
 
Yes, "potential" is the key word. Downtown is actually starting to look great (pockets of some other neighborhoods are too) with some moderate and small scale development taking place (the new waterfront hotel opens next month). They actually opened some 40 new stores downtown between 2007-10 (while losing only about 8). The tallest building in the city is getting a complete renovation (new condos instead of affordable rentals) and a reclad currently. It's getting there, but it's a lengthy process.

Still, there's too much grit. A little is nice (the diverse populations certainly adds a bit) and adds character, but New Bedford has too much. The coastal location is great and the bones of the city are excellent
 

New Bedford pitches for UMass bio site

Boston Business Journal - by Michelle Lang

The City of New Bedford is rolling out the red carpet to land a $15 million biomanufacturing facility planned by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. The facility was originally slated for Fall River, which has since refocused its efforts to potentially site a casino at the same location, according to a report by SouthCoastToday.com.

New Bedford made its pitch in a formal proposal to UMass Dartmouth Chancellor Jean MacCormack. The offer was submitted via a letter from Massachusetts state representatives Antonio Cabral, Stephen Canessa and Robert Koczera.

Original plans called for Fall River to site the biomanufacturing facility in a 300-acre proposed BioPark, but the location has more recently drawn attention as a potential casino site proposed by the Mashpee Wampanoag.

http://boston.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2010/05/17/daily42.html

Very smart move IMO. Lrfox, any idea where they might try and put this?
 
^Yeah, I've been following that one a bit.

That story is actually a little strange. The mayor of Fall River seems to have shot himself in the foot with the Casino proposal and New Bedford is right there to pick up the pieces.

Fall River has been trying to sell the Wampanoag Indians on that land for the casino for some time. The land had originally been earmarked for the UMass facility. Obviously, the city of Fall River's pitch for the casino annoyed UMass Dartmouth. What's worse is that Fall River didn't do its research. First, the city had secured state and federal money and has just about begun work on a new highway on/off ramp on Route 24. Deval Patrick has made it clear that if the casino goes in, the state will withdraw the funding for the highway ramp, not too small a project.

Second, and perhaps the biggest oversight, is Fall River's complete oversight of the land involved. It turns out that 33 acres of the site the city has pitched to the casino developers aren't in Fall River at all. They're in Freetown which absolutely won't support a casino on their land.

It looks as if New Bedford will end up with the UMass development, and if legislation passes, it's still by far the most likely spot for a South Coast casino to end up as well. The Fall River mayor is taking some serious heat on this blunder.

If it does end up in New Bedford, it will be in the bio tech park in the city's North End.
 
It's been a while since the last update. I've been busy.

The new Waterfront hotel opened last weekend and is 100% booked through the summer already. For a mediocre hotel (Marriott Fairfield Inn and Suites), it looks O.K. on the inside, but the exterior is sort of "blah" (tries too hard to look "maritime"). At least it's not cookie cutter. I'm also glad that only about 12 parking spaces were added. A major surface lot adjacent to a downtown hotel is counter-productive. The addition of this hotel to the downtown area is huge and is already paying dividends.

Also, the re-clad of the Regency Tower (New Bedford's tallest) and the interior renovations are well underway (it looks naked).

Finally, the reason I'm posting is because there is a real push to model the new railroad station downtown after the old one that was leveled long ago. Current renderings show a large, glass, mixed-use structure (office on the upper floors, retail and platforms on the lower levels). I'm a big fan of the mixed-use, but glass is so redundant nowadays. If they could model it correctly (not entirely precast) off of the old station, I'd be all for it.

Let's avoid bad planning with train station
Jack Spillane column



"Just rebuild the old station!"

Peter Barney was whispering to me as we sat at the South Coast Rail Project's public meeting Tuesday night.

The latest "best and brightest" planners were unveiling their vision of a post-modernist, glass-encased rail station for New Bedford ? complete with unemployment center located on the second floor.

It looked nothing like New Bedford, and nothing like a train station.

It didn't remind you at all of the quaint MBTA depots that make Massachusetts places like Beverly and Concord terrific places to live.

It looked more along the lines of the impersonal Quincy station, the concrete modernist jungle off Route 128 that is the kind of spot you wouldn't want to be caught alone in after dark.

more

despite the fact that Spillane is entirely misinformed on almost every level (there's a difference between Post-Modernism and Modernism/Brutalism as well as the fact that there's a big difference between quaint platforms and urban terminal stations), he does have a point. There's no need to get fancy (especially when fancy state projects are not fancy at all) when you could do good by recreating the station that was once there (minus the front yard of course). I like the idea. I like it because I doubt the state will pay for anything modern AND good. It just needs to be done right.


The other big news for New Bedford is that Cape Wind is nearing a deal to make New Bedford its home port for staging and development of the 150 turbine project. This would bring over 1,000 jobs to the city with about 50% of them permanent. Big news for New Bedford.

Cape Wind, New Bedford near deal

By CHARIS ANDERSON
canderson@s-t.com
June 10, 2010 12:00 AM

NEW BEDFORD ? A Cape Wind official said Wednesday the project's developers are in ongoing discussions with the city about using New Bedford as a staging port for the project and hope to make a formal announcement soon.

"I'll tell you, that's an announcement we want to make, and we're working very hard with (the city) to make that a reality," said Mark Rodgers, communications director for Cape Wind.

Rodgers spoke in New Bedford during a seminar on offshore wind projects held during the opening day of the Commercial Marine Expo, a major marine trade show being held in the city this year for the first time.

more
 
If/When a casino in New Bedford is approved and constructed, I wonder if said casino would be interested in a partial funding of the south coast rail.

Then, they could run a train from Boston to New Bedford similar to the Aces train that goes from NY - AC.

http://www.acestrain.com/

However, i think for that to happen, there will need to be a stop almost at the casino.
 
Is there a rendering of the proposed station floating around the internets?
 
Is there a rendering of the proposed station floating around the internets?

Man, I need to update this thread. No, there isn't a proposal online. I'm trying to get one. I saw the initial one and it was complete and utter crap. The project manager said it's just to give an idea of the scale and not an actual architectural rendering... they're still "working on that." That contradicts the notion that construction could begin this year.

In other news, the Route 18 project (converting it from a highway to a pedestrian friendly boulevard) is well underway and the conversion of the Regency Tower from affordable housing to market rate condos is currently happening as we speak too.

Victoria Lofts, another mill conversion to market rate/ high end condos is about midway through construction right now. It's located in the north end along the river and will have a community boathouse behind it as well as a riverside park which will connect to the Riverside Landing mixed use development (office, retail, condos) located just North of 195 along the river. That's a project that's about 25% complete too.

Brick Mill Apartments (yet another mill conversion) along the river on the South End is now leasing and nearing completion. Great harbor views from there.

That's what's going on in a nutshell. I'll have to come back with links and photos when I have time later on.
 
That must be some view. Usually mill conversion projects don't make financial sense, or so I have been told. What are (or will be) the going rates for units? Don't get me wrong, from a reuse standpoint, mill renovations are great, but I have heard from a financial standpoint it would usually be cheaper to tear the whole thing down and start again (which would, obviously, probably be prohibited in most locales).
 
That must be some view. Usually mill conversion projects don't make financial sense, or so I have been told. What are (or will be) the going rates for units? Don't get me wrong, from a reuse standpoint, mill renovations are great, but I have heard from a financial standpoint it would usually be cheaper to tear the whole thing down and start again (which would, obviously, probably be prohibited in most locales).

Some of the mill conversions in New Bedford (and in places like Lowell, Haverhill, and probably Manchester, I assume) can do well enough as long as there's a market for the units (and there is a growing one). Many of these old mills haven't been out of use too long so they may not have to be torn apart as the most recent uses often have somewhat modernized the insulation, heating/cooling systems, etc. One of my favorites is the recently opened Lofts at Wamsutta in New Bedford. It really beautified a HUGE chunk of the city (there's a major antique store there and a small museum inside as well). The units are great too.

Personally, I think it's a case by case basis. I mentioned the Riverside Landing development right near the Victoria mill conversion. That site was the Fairhaven Mills location. It was a big controversy when the developer said they wanted to take it down. It was deemed a historic site, but it just wasn't feasible to renovate it so they took it down and are now building a relatively large, three-phase, mixed use project. Wamsutta was financially doable while Fairhaven Mill (about 1/4 mile away from Wamsutta) wasn't. I like Wamsutta, but at the same time the Fairhaven Mill Complex was sprawling. The new development includes new streets (smaller blocks) and essentially a new neighborhood center along the waterfront. It's more pedestrian friendly and integrated with the neighborhood better than a mill complex can really ever be (most essentially turn their back on their surroundings).

New Bedford is lucky enough to grown as a seaport/maritime colonial city (as evidenced by the city's focal point, the Whaling District National Historic Park) for a long time before industry came to town. Because of this, the old mills are a ways outside of downtown (where in industrial cities like nearby Fall River or Pawtucket, Haverhill, Biddeford, etc they are right in downtown). This means they don't really effect how the city's center functions or appears aesthetically.

Personally, I'd rather see most of them go, feasible or not. Wamsutta is great. I really like what's happening at Victoria (here is the website, by the way) too since it's right on the river near another new project. Those two developments are an influx of over $100 Million in that small pocket of the North End that can go a long way. Still, old mills occupy a lot of space and I'd rather see that space used to tie back together the urban fabric of a neighborhood (like Riverside Landing) instead of just sprucing up a giant old dinosaur. Like I said, it's a case-by-case basis and some can be retrofitted nicely; but more often than not, I'd rather see them leveled.

I don't see the prices posted, but I think the rentals at Victoria are going to start at about $950 (1 bedroom) and the condos at about $250,000. I'm not sure at all what they're going for at Brick Mill.
 
Nice. Reclads can be just as good as a new building sometimes. I thought this project was complete now, hasn't it been going on for some time?
 
That rendering doesn't look too bad for Sketchup quality. Anything is better than the faux-brick. What's been lost in all of the "reclad" news is the actual conversion going on in the building. It was originally low-income housing, but it's being converted into market rate condos and apartments. That's a big upgrade for the downtown neighborhood where it's located.

In other news this is a good article highlighting (with statistics for support) areas that New Bedford has really progressed. It's amazing to me that New Bedford's assessed property values are rising higher than any other city in Massachusetts. Furthermore, the number of permits pulled for construction in the city have decreased less than just about any other city in the state. There's a lot of other great info in that article too.

*Edit* Forgot to add... Patrick, the project has only been underway since late spring (May, I think). It had been discussed for a while, but finally began construction in the spring. There are some other renovations and reclads elsewhere in the city (including a number downtown) but this is the largest.
 
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Er, it's kind of just a commieblock with a nice hat.

Still nice to see this kind of development in NB, though.
 
It was originally low-income housing, but it's being converted into market rate condos and apartments. That's a big upgrade for the downtown neighborhood where it's located.

But what's it like for the people who used to live there? Did they find equally good housing elsewhere in the city, or are they now walking the streets homeless?
 

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