Worcester Approves $583M City Square

Me too ^. I can't remember the last time i was in Worcester, but i am really interested in this project.
 
http://www.telegram.com/article/20100317/NEWS/3170418/1116

Hanover buys into CitySquare project

WORCESTER ? The long dormant $563 million CitySquare redevelopment project has new life.

City Manager Michael V. O'Brien informed the City Council last night that a subsidiary of the Hanover Insurance Group Inc. has signed a purchase-and-sale agreement with Berkeley Investments Inc. to become the new developer of the downtown redevelopment project.

Mr. O'Brien said the deal will be finalized pending satisfaction of the conditions of that purchase-and-sale agreement.

The manager said Berkeley Investments, which took on the CitySquare project six years ago, will retain ownership of the two office towers on Front Street and the parking garage at Commercial and Foster streets.

CitySquare II LLC, a subsidiary of Opus Investments of the Hanover Group, will acquire the developable parcels of CitySquare, which include the former Worcester Common Outlets mall and about half of the parking garage along Foster Street, both of which will be razed to clear the way for CitySquare.

In addition, Mr. O'Brien said he has been told that Hanover and Unum Group have reached agreement on major lease terms for Unum to become the first tenant for CitySquare. He said a letter of intent has been fully executed for that purpose.

Unum had signed a letter of intent with Berkeley last spring to lease more than 194,000 square feet of space in a building to be constructed at Foster Street, across from St. Vincent Hospital. That lease is considered key to trigger the release of $25 million in public money for infrastructure work associated with the project, including demolition of the vacant Worcester Common Outlets mall.

The manager said the final lease documents for Unum to be part of CitySquare are being prepared.

These are ?two major achievements in this long-awaited project,? Mr. O'Brien told the City Council. ?I am grateful for the leadership that now has us at this juncture. I look forward to the successful completion of all these steps in the weeks ahead.

?The commonwealth has also been instrumental to get us to this juncture,? he added. ?The governor (Deval L. Patrick), lieutenant governor (Timothy P. Murray) and their team understand what this means in terms of jobs and progress. We greatly appreciate that level of focus and attention.?

Because the deal between CitySquare II and Berkeley Investments is a private transaction, Mr. O'Brien said, he could not offer a timetable as to when the deal would be wrapped up and when groundbreaking for CitySquare would take place. But he emphasized the milestones that have been achieved are ?concrete actions? toward making groundbreaking a reality.

CitySquare is an ambitious plan to reinvigorate a 20-acre swath of downtown by tearing down the vacant mall, creating new streets through the area and building offices, homes and stores. Berkeley Investments, a Boston real estate development firm that proposed the project in 2004, had said it would commit about $470 million to the urban makeover. Public funds for road and infrastructure work were estimated at $93 million.

For a variety of reasons fueled in large part by the downturn in the economy, little work has taken place with the project.

With a new developer on board, Mr. O'Brien said, he does expect some changes to the CitySquare plans that had been previously approved by the City Council.

He said the new developer has expressed an interest in being much more aggressive in Phase 1A of the project, which includes the construction of the new building for Unum. As part of that phase, he said, Front Street may be extended all the way to Washington Square.
 
Sounds like good news! Maybe construction can begin soon now.
 
Worcester officials said the initial phase of the project will create 300 construction jobs and 50 permanent full-time jobs.
Click to expand...

Hahahahaha FAIL.


Still this is great news. We can't really tell how this will man out for a good generation, unfortunately.
 
I can only hope that in 30 years, future Boston leaders do to the superblocks of the Seaport what Worcester is doing to its moribund mall.
 
3276457075_c49d879f16.jpg


The developer bought the Notre Dame des Canadiens church, and has said that they'd like to incorporate it into the final project - cool looking church, hope that works out.

Historic Worcester church saved by developers
By Associated Press
Saturday, October 9, 2010 - Added 2 days ago

WORCESTER ? A landmark Catholic church in downtown Worcester has been bought by developers who say they will try to incorporate the building into an adjacent redevelopment project.

Notre Dame des Canadiens Church was closed in 2007 and recently sold by the Diocese of Worcester for $875,000 to CitySquare II Development Co. LLC.

Preservationists feared the high cost of repairing the building would force developers to tear down the 80-year-old church, which was originally built to serve the city?s French-Canadian population.

But the developers tell The Telegram & Gazette of Worcester that there are no plans to bulldoze the building and they may find a way to include the church in the project.

Diocese officials say they are pleased the church will be preserved.
Click to expand...

From another angle: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cureanything/2470049135
 
Anyone know what was there before the mall? I bet that the mall was the previous generation's solution to "revitalizing" downtown. Now the solution is to tear down the mall.
 
Curious to see how this commitment to Worcester will affect the company's operations in Portland and Chattanooga. Corporate headquarters were shifted to Tennessee after Unum and Provident Life merged. There has been no press in Portland concerning the company's future expansion in downtown Worcester? It would be sad to see Unum eventually bail out on Portland, especially considering this is where it all started as Union Mutual Life Insurance Company in 1848. Props to Worcester!
 
Portlander said:
Curious to see how this commitment to Worcester will affect the company's operations in Portland and Chattanooga. Corporate headquarters were shifted to Tennessee after Unum and Provident Life merged. There has been no press in Portland concerning the company's future expansion in downtown Worcester? It would be sad to see Unum eventually bail out on Portland, especially considering this is where it all started as Union Mutual Life Insurance Company in 1848. Props to Worcester!
Click to expand...

The new Unum building looks great, I would be enthusiastic about Unum moving from the outskirts of Portland to downtown but they are pretty entrenched in their property out by the airport. I work at Unum and we don't hear much about Worcester, but I don't know of any plans to move anything from Portland or Chattanooga to Worcester. Despite corporate being in Chattanooga, there are more employees in Portland.
 
Corey, I agree. If any company could pull off a new signature building downtown it would be Unum, IDEXX or TD Bank. Do you know the square footage of the complex where you work? Wonder how the workforce is divided up between Portland, Chattanooga and Worcester?
 
that is a beautiful church-- very clever. I wish the open arches in the front towers were as well integrated into the main massing as the area below them. But I like it nonetheless, could stare at it for quite awhile
 
Those pictures in the top of the page are old ones though. They were taken in the fall and nothing has been done to the outside of the building since then. It says that demolition is to begin Summer 2011. Considering the whole original project was to be done by now I say that we will be dead before this happens. I will say that I am sad to see that it will be demolished starting in the summer because I'll miss the bulk of the demolition when I move away to college. :(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top