New Bedford Developments

When the Regency was built, wasnt the top floor function space before it was turned into office space? Also, I remember a restaurant on the ground floor.
 
^REally? That's good to know. I wonder why there hasn't been any interest in doing that again? Maybe there has been and it hasn't been publicized.
 
Well I think the function space has been divided into office space. There are a few tenants on the top floor I think.
 
^Cool. i didn't know that. I'm sure offices bring in more money than function space, so I doubt that'll change.
 
When I was a kid I called and asked for a brochure from the Regency, I think I still have it somewhere. It is from the late 80's/early 90's I believe. It has all the apartment layouts/details etc... Ill have to look for it!
 
That's really cool. if you could find that and scan it, that would be sweet. I'd love to see what it initially entailed. I'd also like to see what trinity's plans entail in depth as well.
 
If you're interested in seeing what's going on in New Bedford, this Saturday is a good time.
Saturday the 6th is the Downtown Holiday Stroll event from noon- 9PM ( http://www.downtownnb.org/holiday stroll program.pdf .. it's a .pdf file) to showcase local shops, restaurants, museums, and art galleries.

If you don't want to spend too much money on shopping, the New Bedford Art Museum, Whaling Museum and the new Ocean Explorium are offering free admission all day and are worth the visit alone. Other attractions include open houses at many of the downtown art galleries, a Santa Parade, live music at different venues in the city, etc (all this info is on the pdf file linked above). There is free trolley service all throughout downtown on Saturday, but it's perfectly walkable.

It would be a good time to see how much the city has done in even the past 6 months. If you can't make it, I'll be posting pictures.
 
New Bedford has reached an agreement with the developer on a financing package for the proposed Mariott Hotel on the Waterfront. Groundbreaking will start early '09.

The New York Times is even reporting on the significance of this agreement:

Old New England Whaling Center Will Soon Offer Visitors a Place to Stay

Article Tools Sponsored By
By ELIZABETH ABBOTT
Published: November 25, 2008

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. ? Convinced that this storied seaport of cobblestone streets has ended years of economic devastation and crime, a local developer plans to build a Marriott hotel on New Bedford?s waterfront ? the first downtown hotel here in decades.

Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/26/b...rss&adxnnlx=1228753188-HPoBksyIn4VQwu8KGw3jng
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New Bedford's hotel and progress was noted and "envied" by Gloucester Mayor Carolyn Kirk and its significance was mentioned recently in the Worcester Telegram.

Gloucester Story:
Kirk 'envious' of New Bedford Marriott deal Other city's challenges were different, Gloucester mayor says
By Richard Gaines
Staff Writer

Mayor Carolyn Kirk says she's "envious" of her counterpart, New Bedford Mayor Scott Lang.

Lang landed a Marriott hotel on the New Bedford waterfront through an agreement announced last week.

The developer, the Lafrance Hospitality Co. of Westport, has announced a five-story, $10 million, 106-room Marriott Fairfield Inn and Suites on a 1.6 acre parcel across the street from the fishing piers.

full story: http://www.gloucestertimes.com/punews/local_story_335211227.html
Click to expand...

and the Worcester Story:
Whale of a city

Hotel a sign of ongoing renaissance in New Bedford


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The recent announcement of plans to build a $10 million, 106-room hotel on the New Bedford waterfront is more welcome news for that traditional seaport city, which in recent years has pulled itself out of the economic doldrums and shed its 1980s reputation as a place of crime and hopelessness.

full article: http://www.telegram.com/article/20081205/NEWS/812050334/1020
Click to expand...

Also, I uploaded some pics of New Bedford from this past weekend in the "Driving Around New England" thread.
 
That's a lot of hype for a place one step above a truck stop Best Western.
 
^BARELY a step above a truck stop Best Western. Each of those articles dresses it up even more by saying, making sure they emphasize the name "Mariott," before they mention it's a Fairfield Inn and Suites (by Mariott) which is clearly a lower brand. It's better than what's there however (nothing) and given the fact that it's not a major destination, I wouldn't expect anything better for the time being.
 
Marriott hotel planned for downtown New Bedford

01:00 AM EST on Thursday, December 11, 2008

By ELIZABETH ABBOTT

The New York Times

NEW BEDFORD ? Convinced that this storied seaport of cobblestone streets has ended years of economic devastation and crime, a local developer plans to build a Marriott hotel on the city?s waterfront, the first new downtown hotel in decades.

The LaFrance Hospitality Co., a Westport family business that owns eight hotels in New England, a restaurant and catering business, is planning a $10-million 106-room Marriott Fairfield Inn and Suites on a 1.6-acre parcel across the street from New Bedford?s fishing piers. Site preparation is under way, with a groundbreaking planned for early next year.

The five-story hotel will incorporate a historic granite structure, which used to be a whale-oil refinery, a reminder of the days when New Bedford was the whaling capital of the world. Its facade will combine brick, granite and wood. The site is just outside the New Bedford Whaling National Historic Park, 13 city blocks of 18th- and 19th-century buildings where the likes of Herman Melville and Frederick Douglass once strolled.

?This is very important to the city,? New Bedford?s mayor, Scott W. Lang, said of the hotel.

New Bedford has made strides in renewing itself in recent years. But without a hotel downtown, the city remained a ?pass-through? for people catching a ferry to Martha?s Vineyard or driving on to Cape Cod, Lang said.

Now, New Bedford can be a destination in itself, opening opportunities for other tourism ventures and other industries, he said. ?You need a hotel where your assets are,? Lang said.

For New Bedford, which still has a fishing fleet of more than 225 vessels, bringing in the largest catch, in dollar value, of any port in the United States, its assets are the waterfront and its historic downtown, the mayor said.

Yet persuading a developer to build a hotel downtown has not been easy. In the last five years or so, there have been at least three attempts to do so.

The city?s only downtown hotel closed in 1958. Since then, the closest place of any repute for visitors to stay has been a Days Inn on the outskirts of the city, four miles from downtown. After a while, not having a hotel downtown became embarrassing, said Matthew A. Morrissey, executive director of the city?s Economic Development Council.

Then, LaFrance Hospitality, whose offices are only 12 miles away, stepped into the picture. Its executives said they could see enough positive changes starting to take place in New Bedford to justify the company?s taking a risk on developing a hotel there.

Since 2000, 32 buildings in the downtown have been restored, at a cost of more than $80 million, and 14 other buildings are in a ?preconstruction? stage, the city says. Most of these are historic structures that are being renovated into commercial or mixed-use space, often with the help of state and federal historic tax credits.

In addition, several developments are under way elsewhere in New Bedford, including a $35-million mill conversion into condominiums, and there are plans to build the $2-million Waterfront Community Center on the Acushnet River, which will be a recreation facility and event center.

?New Bedford is on the rebound,? said Richard LaFrance, the hotel company?s president.

The company was also swayed by a marketing study commissioned by the city, which showed there was enough visitor demand to support a hotel, Morrissey said. The Martha?s Vineyard ferry is within walking distance to the site of the new hotel. Begun five years ago, the service has had a steady rise in passengers, with a 26-percent jump in the last year, he said.

LaFrance bought the site of the hotel last year for $1.2 million. The city has been working with the company to put together a financing package that will probably include tax incentives.

Morrissey and LaFrance said they were not worried about getting financing, despite the nation?s economic crisis. ?It?s going forward,? LaFrance said. The hotel is slated to open in the spring of 2010.

New Bedford is a long and narrow city, with an area about the same as Manhattan?s and a population that hovers around 100,000. In its early years, it was a vibrant, even wealthy, place, as whaling ships returned with blubber, spermaceti and other byproducts needed to make whale oil. At its peak, in 1857, New Bedford had 329 whaling vessels.

The city was also a stop on the Underground Railroad for slaves escaping northward from the South.

Once electricity replaced whale oil as the source of light, manufacturing became the city?s economic engine, predominantly textile manufacturing.

This lasted until the 1980s, when, as in other New England cities, the factories either shut down or moved away. ?In the 1980s, essentially everything bottomed out,? Morrissey said.

That?s when New Bedford started to become known mainly for blight and despair. The notorious 1983 rape at Big Dan?s tavern made national news.

Gang violence became such a problem that John Lewis, the Georgia Democratic congressman and civil rights leader, visited New Bedford two years ago to lead a peace march in the city after the mother of a suspected gang member was found murdered in her home.

When Lang was sworn in as mayor, in 2006, he inherited these problems. A former prosecutor, he tackled them with a ?full-court press,? he said.

New Bedford has embraced a belief that the arts can be used to rebuild its fortunes. Last year, it authorized hiring a creative economy-development officer to coordinate arts programming, financing and development.

The city?s landmark Zeiterion Theater draws an average of 4,500 people downtown on weekends.

According to Morrissey, the city feels that in LaFrance Hospitality it has a developer that not only appreciates New Bedford?s past, but also its future.

?We have a lot at stake in the area,? LaFrance said. ?It?s our hometown. We want it to work.?
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^Interesting article, though I'm curious as to how this was news for the New York Times. Lafrance also didn't instill a lot of confidence in me as to where hotel funding is coming from.

I would really like to know which "14 buildings" are slated for redevelopment. It's also worth mentioning that one condo project is done, Wamsutta Mills ( http://www.loftsatwamsuttaplace.com/ ) and the other is under way.
 
I just watched the mayor of New Bedford Scott Lang on ch 10's News Conference where he talked about issues and projects in NB. He mentioned the Regency Towers. What is this projects?
 
The Regency project is the conversion of the existing tower (corner of rt. 6 and pleasant street) from rentals to market rate (mostly-- some affordable included) condos. The project is being done by Trinity Financial of Boston (they're building Avenir near N. Station). It'll include updating the exterior and interior as well as some structural upgrades to the building.
 
Just found this, not a rendering, but a model of the Waterfront Hotel:



REAL tacky architecture in my opinion. I hope the full color rendering looks better, but this is unimpressive. Better than nothing, but I'm very underwhelmed. I'd like to direct everyone's attention to the beautiful surface parking lot in front of the hotel entrance.

The pic is from a S/T article about how city council approved tax breaks for Konerka Energy (a high tech firm relocating to the city) and the hotel. the full story is available here: http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081221/NEWS/812210365/1011/TOWN10
 
I haven't updated this thread in over 2 months. Not because nothing is happening, but mostly because the news is without flash and likely wouldn't be interesting to anyone who doesn't have a real familiarity with the city.

So this is just a minor update on things that are going on/ have been going on.

Commuter rail has been in the recent news as part of Patrick's proposed gas hike is said to be intended to fund the project. Also, new ridership studies have shown increased estimates and paid particular attention to electrified rail.

Downtown is still progressing in its redevelopment even during these rough times. A few new restaurants have opened their doors in this new year including Destination Soups ( http://www.destinationsoups.com/ ) and a few others. Travessia Urban Winery ( http://www.travessiawine.com/ )has opened its doors and seen excellent success in the first few weeks of operation. They are expected to expand (their store and their line) by the end of spring.

The new Ocean Explorium ( http://www.oceanexplorium.org/) which has been partially open while under construction will be open in full capacity (charging admission) on March 1.

The proposed hotel has secured funding and is scheduled to start construction this spring. Quite frankly, I'm amazed this is still moving forward at all.

There are some interesting new shows scheduled at the Zeiterion Theatre, including Blue Oyster Cult, which would be worth checking out ( http://www.zeiterion.org/) and if you ever want to see New Bedford, heading into town during an A.H.A. (Art History Architecture) night would be the time to do it. Schedule of events: http://www.ahanewbedford.org/

I'll come back when I have some flashier material to post, but for now, that's the news.
 
I haven't been to New Bedford yet, but would love to go. Sounds like it is doing well.
 
The Fairhaven Mills Site has been completely sold, and is now about to go to meeting where city council scan decide whether or not the mill should be leveled to make way for a developer's proposal for the site which will be a mixed-used development along the riverfront.

here's an image of a rendering:


This site is just North of I-195. about 2 Miles North of Downtown.

a link to one of the stories on the mill site, there's a new one every day:
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090301/OPINION/903010333/1011/TOWN10
 
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