Worcester Infill and Developments

[WormtownNative]

Modifications to City Square - article initially talks about permit payment modifictions and a change in payment plans, but the larger thing about it, IMO, is a reduction of a parking garage that is soon to be built.

CitySquare financing amendments sought
By Nick Kotsopoulos TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
nicholas.kotsopoulos@telegram.com

....The District Improvement Financing program, a mechanism in which tax revenues generated within the project area are used to pay bonds issued by the city to finance public infrastructure aspects of the project, was last amendment in December 2013 to reflect the hotel, residential and retail components of the project.

Since then, the project developer, CitySquare II Development Co. LLC, made modifications to the overall site plan that reconfigured and reduced the size of the underground public garage.

The garage was originally supposed to have 1,025 spaces, but has since been reduced to 550 spaces.

Also, the garage has been reconfigured so it does not encompass as much space within the project site.

The garage is being built under the area bounded by Mercantile Street, Front Street and the to-be-built Eaton Place. Part of the garage will also extend under a small section of Front Street into part of the development where a full-service, 150-room hotel is to be built.

The garage footprint was originally supposed to go as far as behind the former Notre Dame des Canadiens Church property.

As a result of the reduction in the size of the garage and its reconfiguration, Mr. Traynor said, it necessitates adjustments to the parking garage ground lease and easement agreements.

The $35 million two-level parking garage will be owned by the city. Of its 550 spaces, the city plans on setting aside 120 spaces for the hotel through a long-term lease.

Construction of the parking garage began last year and has continued through the winter.

Paul J. Moosey, commissioner of public works and parks, said the parking garage is expected to open in October.

Another change that has been made to the CitySquare plan is for the building planned as the anchor on what is known as "Parcel F" — above the site of the underground garage, bounded by Front Street, Mercantile Street, the Unum building, the St. Vincent Cancer and Wellness Center and the East Parking garage.

In 2005, the building had been approved as a multistory building, set back from Mercantile Street with a courtyard in front of it.

Under the latest revision, that building will now be located along Mercantile and Front streets.

Plans for Parcel F have yet to go before the Planning Board, though an office building was originally envisioned on it.

"This phased project is complex and has required extensive due diligence and planning to ensure that the vision for CitySquare is maintained and progress is achieved," Mr. Traynor said. "The city and its construction manager, Tishman Construction Co., have worked closely with the developer to ensure that every project element and associated cost is appropriate."

FULL ARTICLE

 

[WormtownNative]

Oi.........where's my Picard facepalm gif?

Worcester labor leaders say proposed old courthouse developer would 'lock out' local jobs

By Lindsay Corcoran

WORCESTER -- The City Council called for further discussion of the sale agreement for the old courthouse after labor leaders spoke out against the proposed developer, Brady Sullivan Properties.

City officials announced last week that they reached an agreement to sell the Worcester County Courthouse on North Main Street for $1.2 million to the New Hampshire-based developer that plans to create about 115 market rate residential apartments with 3,000 square feet of retail space.

The Worcester Community Labor Coalition wrote in a statement to the council that they find the choice of Brady Sullivan as "troubling and frustrating."

"I understand development at all cost in Worcester," said Jack Donahue, a representative of the Carpenters Local 107. "There is a cost here somewhere along the line."

Labor leaders accused the developer of "locking out" locals from jobs at their other other project in the city, Junction Shops on Beacon Street. They also noted that state investigators shut down the work site after a raid and found the developer's contractor, Interior Partition Specialists, was not carrying workers compensation for their employees.

City Manager Edward Augustus, Jr. explained the selection of Brady Sullivan after a request for interest process.

"Everyone else who responded to the RFI suggested we give it to them for a dollar," Augustus said.

The city took over the former courthouse, located at 2 Main St., from the state in August for the price of a dollar. The state couldn't find a buyer for the property even though it had searched for more than five years.
Augustus also noted Brady Sullivan is willing to pay the full tax revenue, estimated to be around $150,000 annually, rather than seeking an exemption that would limit tax revenue to $30,000.

"The idea he wants to come to this city should be met with open arms," Augustus said.

The labor coalition members at the meeting also wore "Local Jobs for Local People" stickers, a concern many city councilors echoed when talking about language in the agreement calling for the developer to make a "best effort" to hire 50 percent local workers.

FULL ARTICLE

 

[WormtownNative]

Worcester planners OK 600 apartments near Union Station

By Nick Kotsopoulos TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
nicholas.kotsopoulos@telegram.com

WORCESTER — The Planning Board has given conditional approval to redevelopment plans that will turn 2.6 acres of under-used property off Franklin Street, near Union Station, into a 600-unit apartment complex.

By a 4-0 vote, the board Wednesday night approved an amendment to a previously approved site plan for that property that called for the construction of a 350-unit apartment building there.

Since that approval in January 2014, DOK Realty LLC acquired an 11,380-square-foot property at 274 Franklin St., adjacent to the original development site on Arctic Street.

That enabled the developer, Ding On "Tony" Kwan of Framingham, to increase the number of dwelling units to 600 and reconfigure parking for the project.

The increase in apartment units was also made possible by the Commercial Corridors Overlay District recently approved by the City Council. That ordinance, among other things, reduces some parking space requirements.

Under the old requirements, developers had to provide two parking spaces per dwelling unit. Within the Commercial Corridors Overlay District, that requirement is lowered to one parking space per dwelling unit plus one space for guests for every 10 units.

The revised plans call for construction of an eight-story building in an area bounded by Franklin Street, Arctic Street and Plastic Street, according to Jeff Howland of JH Engineering.

The first two stories of the building will be a parking garage for more than 500 vehicles, he said.

Meanwhile, the six floors above the garage will have apartments — 76 studio units, 30 two-bedroom and 494 one-bedroom units.

There will also be two courtyards within the complex.

In addition, a separate two-level garage for 88 vehicles will be constructed on Arctic Street and a surface parking lot will be constructed in the rear of the property.

The development will have parking for 671 vehicles total, which is 11 more than required under city zoning requirements.

FULL ARTICLE

Area in question is next to the Franklin St. fire station and across from the CSX trans-load terminal. Aside from having 1 restaurant relocate, this entire area in question is basically abandoned old mills and cold storage. Hell, there's even a shell of a building still standing back there. There is one exception to that, and that is 1 old factory in that area visible from 290 that was converted to offices.

 

[WormtownNative]

Oi.........where's my Picard facepalm gif?



FULL ARTICLE

A little op-ed from Woo Mag on this:

OPINION: Worcester Council whiffs on courthouse
By Walter Bird Jr.

In all likelihood, Worcester's City Council, whether it is next week, the week after or whenever, will vote to approve the deal that will have developer Brady Sullivan acquire the old courthouse in Lincoln Square for $1.2 million. There is a better than decent chance that vote will be unanimous; District 5 City Councilor Gary Rosen said as much during a taping of his cable access TV show "Rosen's Roundtable" on WCCA-TV 194 Wednesday afternoon. Rosen said the approval will likely be given regardless of whether the developer makes concessions concerning local jobs.

So here's a question: If that is the case, what, exactly, is the point in the dog-and-pony show that will be next week's Economic Development Committee meeting?

Here is what we know. The state had ownership of the courthouse for the past four or five years when it was vacant and could not unload it to anyone. The city bought it for $1 and over the past several months managed to find someone who not only would take it off their hands, but would pay $1,199,999 more than what the city paid. The developer would convert it to residential and commercial space, putting it back on the tax rolls, providing the city with about $150,000 in annual tax revenue. The developer would have builders in the city every day, with many of them ostensibly buying meals and spending a lot of time in Worcester.

At Tuesday night's Council meeting, several folks turned out to advocate for local jobs as part of the deal. Carpenters Local 104 rep Jack Donahue spoke as well, raising questions about the developer's past history when it comes to hiring contractors.

What this should not become is "us versus them." Donahue is doing what he is paid to do: advocate for his people. Folks like community activist Kevin Ksen are trying to make sure a city that has many residents looking for jobs does its best to find employment for them.

However, when the Council decided to hold off on voting in favor of the deal, and instead approved sending it to At-Large Councilor Rick Rushton's committee next Tuesday, just prior to the next Council meeting, you could forgive the cynics - us - for wondering why. Why can't the city manager just talk to the developer again and report the Council's concerns. This is the guy who got mega-cable giant Comcast to bend over the future of a call center in Worcester. He couldn't handle this?

FULL OP-ED


Annnnnnd this just in......shots fired from the developer:

Brady Sullivan: Labor coalition’s allegations are untrue

Written by Tom Quinn

Brady Sullivan, the New Hampshire developer hoping to buy the old Worcester county courthouse property on Main Street, had its reputation dragged through the mud at the March 24 City Council meeting. Union members and others from the Worcester Community Labor Coalition took aim at the company's track record, pointing to out-of-state subcontractors and worker's compensation citations by the Commonwealth, to the point where the deal's facilitator, city manager Ed Augustus Jr., warned councilors that the meeting could discourage private investment in a city that has been aggressively courting developers to fill vacant buildings.

Marc Pinard, general counsel for Brady Sullivan, spoke out against what he called “misinformation” spread by speakers at the council meeting. He said the deal will go forward without a hitch once councilors are presented with the truth at the Economic Development committee meeting March 31 at 5 p.m.

“The statements made at that [council] meeting were untrue and were intended to derail the agreement,” Pinard said. “We won't let the agreement be derailed with inaccurate information.”

FULL ARTICLE

 

[FK4]

FULL ARTICLE

Area in question is next to the Franklin St. fire station and across from the CSX trans-load terminal. Aside from having 1 restaurant relocate, this entire area in question is basically abandoned old mills and cold storage. Hell, there's even a shell of a building still standing back there. There is one exception to that, and that is 1 old factory in that area visible from 290 that was converted to offices.

As I remember it's a lot of cool old brick buildings, many of which were sadly torn down about 6 or so years ago? Oh well... I just hope this isnt some incredibly, stultifying yucky series of piles, but I worry we'll get something like THIS


Now - do you know what's happening with that truck-only flyover to the freight yard from Grafton St? Is it still being built? I thought it was gonna go more or less right through this property here.

 

[WormtownNative]

As I remember it's a lot of cool old brick buildings, many of which were sadly torn down about 6 or so years ago? Oh well... I just hope this isnt some incredibly, stultifying yucky series of piles, but I worry we'll get something like THIS

Let me get back to you on that. I remember seeing some renders of it awhile back.

EDIT - Found a small render from 2013.

Now - do you know what's happening with that truck-only flyover to the freight yard from Grafton St? Is it still being built? I thought it was gonna go more or less right through this property here.

Actually Franklin St. flies over the access road between the yard and the trailer area. It's about 200 feet east of this. It's been done for about 2 years now.

In other news -

Worcester Planning Board OKs apartments in former Salter School building

By Nick Kotsopoulos TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

WORCESTER — The owner of the former Indian Hill Elementary School building has been given a green light to renovate it into 27 market-rate apartment units.

By a unanimous vote, the Planning Board Wednesday night granted a special permit to White Pickett Fence LLC for the conversion of the vacant school building, which at one time was also home to the Salter School, into housing.

It is the first project to come about under the city's new adaptive reuse ordinance, which allows the conversion for former school buildings built before 1950 into multifamily residential use by special permit from the Planing Board.

The former Indian Hill School, located at 155 Ararat St., was built in 1925 and has been vacant since Salter School moved out.

White Picket Fence has proposed converting the building into 14 one-bedroom apartments and 13 two-bedroom apartments. There would be off-street parking for 54 vehicles and the developer plans on removing 9,000 square feet of pavement from the site.

"This residential use is a good fit for the neighborhood," said Todd Rodman, a lawyer representing the developer

Mr. Rodman said 27 is the minimum number of units that the developer needs to make the project financially feasible.

But the proposal encountered opposition from residents who live in that area.

They argued that having a multifamily apartment building in what is predominately a single-family home area would not be harmonious with the neighborhood

They also said it would make what is a very bad traffic situation on Ararat Street even worse.

"I suggest that this is not an appropriate project because it is much too big," said Timothy McGee of 148 Ararat St. "It is out of character with the neighborhood and without a doubt it would have an adverse impact. We live in a neighborhood of single-family homes and plopping down a (27-) unit apartment complex there would change the character of the neighborhood."

Mr. McGee suggested that a more appropriate size would be 10-12 units.

FULL ARTICLE

That building has been boarded up for years. This would be a nice reuse.

And lastly - this is a few days old, but a nice write up by the Telegram on what MCPHS has done for Worcester. IMO, they could improve a few things here and there (they own the parking garage on the corner of Lincoln Square for example), but they've put there money where others saw an empty hole.

First bet on downtown worth a little gratitude

By Aaron Nicodemus ON BUSINESS
Aaron.Nicodemus@telegram.com

When it comes to development — especially redevelopment — no one wants to be first.

Developers have to answer to their financial backers. They have to justify loans to banks. And since their reason for existing in the first place is to make a profit, there is always that to consider, as well.

All of these factors are impediments to redeveloping areas that have seen better days. They explain why it has taken years for Worcester's downtown, and its vacant and underutilized properties, to reclaim their past glory.

The days of downtown Worcester being a retail center are long gone. As a collection of office space, the downtown has pockets of success, of fully occupied Class A office space, but it has just as many buildings with empty space, empty storefronts and the like.

Last week, purchases by private developers were announced for two of the downtown's white elephants — the former Unum Group/Paul Revere Insurance building at 18 Chestnut St. and the former Worcester County Courthouse at 2 Main St.

These sales may be the tipping point in the slow transformation of the downtown from a commercial/retail center into a neighborhood dominated by colleges, classrooms, dorm space and student-leased apartments.

If Worcester's downtown does become a hub of collegiate life, it is time to thank the man who was first, who stepped out in front of the others, put money down and placed a big bet on Worcester's downtown.

That man is Charles F. "Charlie" Monahan Jr., president of the Mass. College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences University.

Mr. Monahan's pharmacy school had already committed to downtown in the form of several classroom buildings when it purchased the former Crowne Plaza Hotel in 2011. MCPHS converted the hotel into a dormitory as well as classroom and laboratory space.

Since then, the college has continued its buying spree, buying apartments and condominiums in and around the downtown area for its professors and students.

Then, other developers — armed with the knowledge that MCPHS was committed to downtown and would supply a steady stream of students — started showing interest in redeveloping properties. The Mayo Group, which had already purchased several downtown properties and converted them into apartments, has leased a Franklin Street building to Becker College as a dormitory. Quinsigamond Community College and the Worcester Business Development Corp. converted the former Telegram & Gazette building into classroom and business incubator space. Upper floors of some office and retail buildings on Main Street have been converted into microlofts — with MCPHS signing agreements to lease some of the tiny apartments for graduate students.

In addition, there is development planned for student housing at the Osgood Bradley building at Union Station; residential plans for the former Worcester Voke building and Boys Club buildings in Lincoln Square; WPI has built a dorm, parking garage and business incubator space near Lincoln Square; and there are other projects as well.

The private developer's plans for the former Unum Group building, in case you missed it, are to convert the 300,000-square-foot, six-story office building into college classroom/academic space and student housing. The private developer who has purchased the former courthouse plans to convert it into 115 market-rate apartments with a small amount of retail space.

FULL ARTICLE

 

[WormtownNative]

Sorry if I'm spamming, but I missed these earlier this month:

From March 6th:

Vacant Central Building in line for facelift
By Nick Kotsopoulos TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
nicholas.kotsopoulos@telegram.com

WORCESTER — The Historical Commission has given the owner of the vacant Central Building on Main Street a green light to renovate the downtown landmark into a mixed-used redevelopment.

The commission Thursday night unanimously agreed to the developer's request for a waiver to the city's demolition delay ordinance so that the building's windows and doors can be removed and replaced.

Also, work will be done to restore and repair historic façade features to the building's ground-floor storefront spaces.

In granting the waiver, the commission determined that the exterior work to be done to the Central Building will not be detrimental to the historical or architectural resources of the city.

Without the waiver from the Historical Commission, the owner would have had to wait one year before any of that work could begin.

The eight-story building, at 322-332 Main St., was built in 1925. It is owned by 332 Main Street Associates, a group controlled by the Krock family. The building has been vacant the past few years.

It was formerly an office building, with commercial space on the first two floors.

Brian Lever, a preservation planner with Epsilon Associates Inc., said the owner wants to renovate the building into 59 units of housing, with commercial/retail uses in the ground-floor storefronts.

The housing units would be a mix of studio, one- and two-bedroom units, and the project would have a mix of market-rate and affordable housing.

Mr. Lever said the owner is looking to obtain state and federal historic preservation tax credits to help finance the project.

The Historical Commission had been told previously that the estimated cost of the project is roughly $26 million.

Andrew Shveda, vice chairman of the commission, said he was very pleased to hear that pieces of the truly historic elements of the building's storefronts will be restored and preserved.

"It sounds like great care is going to be taken to refurbish them, and that is very, very nice," he said. "This is a very good thing for downtown Worcester, and it's a great thing to bring in more people to live in the downtown area. This project, as presented to us, is sympathetic to the historical features of the building, particularly at the ground level, where there is going to be an effort to save as much as possible with the storefronts."

The Central Building had actually come close to a date with the wrecking ball.

In November 2012, its owner petitioned the Historical Commission for a waiver to the demolition-delay ordinance so the building could be demolished. It was claimed that the vacant building had become an economic hardship to maintain because it was no longer generating any income.

But the Historical Commission denied the waiver request in March 2013, saying an adequate case of economic hardship was not made.

After the one-year delay expired, the owner was free to demolish the building last year without any approval from the Historical Commission.

Instead of going ahead with the demolition, however, the owner decided to save the building and have it renovated into a mixed-used development.

FULL ARTICLE

And in other news, from March 19th:

Reliant Medical plans walk-in care center on Shrewsbury Street in Worcester
By Nick Kotsopoulos TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
nicholas.kotsopoulos@telegram.com

WORCESTER — Reliant Medical Group wants to establish a "ReadyMED" center on the site of the vacant former Gallo Oldsmobile dealership lot at 366 Shrewsbury St.

Gary J. Vecchio, president of the Shrewsbury Street Neighborhood Association, said Thursday night he has met with the parties involved with the project and they authorized him to publicly release details about it.

He said the current owner of the property, Szeto Investments LLC, would maintain ownership of the 61,855-square-foot vacant lot, construct a multimillion-dollar, one-story building on it and then lease it to Reliant.

He said lease negotiations between the two parties are still ongoing, and they hope to finalize a deal soon so construction can begin this spring.

ReadyMED centers provide people with same-day and walk-in non-emergency care options for adults and children.

Reliant current operates such centers in Shrewsbury, Auburn and Milford.

Mr. Vecchio said the center being planned for Worcester would have 16 examination rooms with a staff of about 20 people and parking for about 75 vehicles. It would be open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week.

He said it would be Reliant's largest ReadyMED center yet.

FULL ARTICLE

Pardon my language - but holy sh*t things are actually happening out here.

This calls for this iconic gif:

 

[The EGE]

This thread is, overall, incredibly heartening to read. Between what looks like a good mix of commercial and residential development, and slowly but steadily improving transit connections, Worcester is placing itself to be a major player in New England.

 

[WormtownNative]

College students weighed in to city officials at Action! Worcester's ThinkWoo event last night.

Some very similar suggestions to what has been thrown out here earlier:

Worcester college students say cool stuff, better transportation would keep them around

By Lindsay Corcoran | lindsay.corcoran@masslive.com

WORCESTER -- By all accounts it isn't something that happens often, but last night students from four different colleges in Worcester came together in one place.

The fact that it isn't a common occurrence was one of the issues the students raised at Action! Worcester's ThinkWoo: We can solve that! event Thursday night that was designed to bring the city's collegiate together with local officials to discuss retention efforts.

Co-founder Kyla Pacheco explained that Action! Worcester, a nonprofit created in September, is focused on building connectivity within the city to help with college graduate retention and economic development. ThinkWoo, it's first event, was aimed at gaining a better perspective from the stakeholders on these issues to help guide the group's work moving forward, Pacheco said.

Although topics of the focus group discussions at the event varied from public safety to internship opportunities, much of the discussion in the different groups came back to the same themes of transportation, interconnectivity between the schools and the desire for more cool events and businesses in the city.

"If you have a great four years at school here, why would you leave?" said Faith Kelnhofer, a Clark University student who was speaking in a talent retention focus group. "I think that saying, if you build it, they will come, is really true."

Kelnhofer called for more large chain stores, like Urban Outfitters, to open in the city.

Chris Dibble, another Clark University student, called for the creation of a college coffeehouse that would bring together students from all of the different universities and colleges.

The challenge with his idea and some of the other things students discussed was transportation.

Ideas bounced around on transportation included a street tram or trolley to take students from the campuses to major city attractions, a college-specific Uber ride-sharing service, or even just a better smartphone app for the Worcester Regional Transit Authority.

FULL ARTICLE

Normally, I ignore the comments on articles - but this one was too good to pass up and ignore it:

michaelbrazell 2 hours ago

It seems that the most obvious way to keep recent grads in the city would be with jobs, which unless you're looking to work in Education or Health Care, there just aren't a lot of corporate options for a city of Worcester's size. Of the 10 employers in Worcester that have over 1,000 employees, 6 of them are either in education or health care, there are only 2 other employers in that top 10 outside of those industries -- Hanover Insurance and Saint Gobain (both St. Gobain & Hanover consume 4 of those top 10, accounting for the bad math)

4 or 5 colleges in the city have excellent programs in the Humanities, and the city graduates a disproportionate amount of students with degrees in the Humanities. But, as Liberal Arts grads know, they have to be willing to look outside of their major to find viable jobs, and those are often in corporations that have a large spectrum of opportunities. There is a dearth of corporations in the city that can fill this need, so recent graduates have to look elsewhere... To Marlborough, Westborough, Framingham, Natick, Norwood, and so on, and the further east you go for work (where there is an excess of corporations and a lack of colleges graduating students in those towns/cities), there is less interest in taking an insufferable commute to live in a city that doesn't appeal to many young people in a lot of other ways.

The "funky things" are valuable, they're great cultural experiences. Worcester has some of those but they're split apart around the city and there is no cohesive central area like that. But, those are auxillery benefits... Those are the things you consider living in a city for if you have a 20 minute commute or can be on a short bus or train ride to work. The real thing that keeps students in a city after college is the availability of viable jobs in a variety of fields, which Worcester lacks. A good public transport system, funky shops, a bustling art community, robust nightlife, hip coffee shops, street level retail... These are the cart; the post-grad population is the horse.

As the editor in chief of Worcester Mag said back in late December, early January - Worcester is not a college town. It has colleges in it, but it is not a college town. If we take advantage of the free input these college students are saying they want, this could be help us become a college town.

 

[WormtownNative]

As much as I'm posting here, there's a guy on Skyscraperpage.com that's been literally posting almost everything Worcester development related back to 2010 in this thread.

It's a good archive if you want to take a look into the past 5 years of development.

 

[George_Apley]

Transportation is the sticking point for many small-to-mid-sized industrial-era cities. They never developed/maintained good transit systems in their day or after the rise of the freeway, and it's too expensive to really develop them now. It's hard to get the youths to stick around in sustainable numbers that drive population growth, smart urbanism, and employer interest.

 

[WormtownNative]

Blackstone Visitor Center hearing sets hopes high

Written by Tom Quinn

A public hearing required for the Blackstone Visitor Center to move into phase 1 of construction went off without a hitch March 26, as residents walked away satisfied after grilling project leaders on specific details of the center.

Phase 1 of the project will consist mostly of preparing the site for the planned structures. The site will be graded, and the majority of the site will be hydro seeded. Future parking lots and bike paths will be covered with an interim cover, and the canal walls from Dryden Access Road to McKeon Street Extension will be restored and rehabilitated.

Contaminated soil and other hazardous materials will also be removed or dealt with. The area used to house several industrial buildings. Design lead Jason Benoit from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation said that fact initially made him nervous about taking on the project.

“I went from being a little pessimistic – it's right in the middle of an industrial area – and then I actually drove down to the site,” Benoit said. “The project had a lot of strength in the roots in the community and its connectivity.”

FULL ARTICLE

A few renders from the Woo Mag article (Done by Design Lab Architects)

 

[WormtownNative]

While the courthouse is delayed by local labor activists playing to the City Council, this came across my News Feed over on Facebook. Mass Live has posted photos of the Osgood Bradley building over the years - including construction:

For the full slideshow - including photos of the building's current state of disrepair -Click Here

 

[393b40]

Nothing to do with the Osgood, but I came into Worcester the other night on the T to visit family and I am so happy that they were able to restore Union Station... it truly is an architectural gem and I remember when it was practically falling down in the 90's.

It would be nice if they could get that whole area around the roundabout built up a bit with ground level retail and residences... I could see living in that area someday and commuting to Boston.

 

[WormtownNative]

Nothing to do with the Osgood, but I came into Worcester the other night on the T to visit family and I am so happy that they were able to restore Union Station... it truly is an architectural gem and I remember when it was practically falling down in the 90's.

It would be nice if they could get that whole area around the roundabout built up a bit with ground level retail and residences... I could see living in that area someday and commuting to Boston.

If you scroll up, the lot next to the old KJ Barron's liquor store (next to 290 across from Union Station is in the works to be a hotel.

In other news, the courthouse deal has stalled thanks to the local labor coalition.

In no particular order:

The coalition said the goals it is putting forth are intended to address concerns that have been raised by coalition members, Mayor Joseph M. Petty and some members of the City Council.

They are:

•Requiring Brady Sullivan to mandate to its contractors and subcontractors that at least 50 percent of the workforce they hire for the courthouse project be made up of Worcester residents." When Worcester residents have steady jobs, there is an economic multiplier effect that benefits all businesses in Worcester," the coalition said.

•Requiring that at least 15 percent of the construction workforce be made up of people of color and 7 percent women.

•Requiring all contractors have a bona fide apprenticeship program and that 15 percent of the total work hours be completed by apprentices."

Research shows that apprenticeship programs decrease the costs of construction," the coalition said. "Apprenticeship provides a pipeline to a good career for youth and other local residents that have been traditionally excluded from construction.

•Establishing a penalty for contractors/subcontractors at any tier for tax fraud, insurance fraud, wage theft, paying their workers in cash and misclassifying their workers as independent subcontractors. "These illegal business practices hurt local economies and legitimate businesses," the coalition said. "It hurts taxpayers, and it burdens the state budget. We all pay for the "lie, cheat and steal"economy."

•Having a compliance officer assigned to the courthouse project to ensure the local hiring provisions of the agreement are met, and that appropriate state wage and hours are being followed."

But Ronald N. Cogliano, president of the Kingston-based Merit ConstructionAlliance, said what is being sought by the Worcester Community-Labor Coalition is unreasonable and even unlawful in some instances.

He said any attempt by the city to impose on Brady Sullivan, or any other developer, a local hiring requirement and/or a requirement that contractors shall have an apprentice program in order to bid and work on the redevelopment of the former courthouse would be a violation of federal laws.

"It is now widely held that mandates imposing local hiring requirements violate the United States Constitution," Mr. Cogliano said. "Similar residency requirements have been struck down in Worcester and Lowell and abandoned elsewhere."

While a local residency requirement on the redevelopment of the Worcester County Courthouse may not be mandated by ordinance, but as a condition of the sale of the property or through the permitting process, the imposition of such a mandate would be subject to the legal opinion that have been rendered in cases in the cities of Quincy and Fall River," he added.

FULL ARTICLE

 

[WormtownNative]

Courthouse update: SOLD!

City Council approves sale of old courthouse
LOCAL WORKERS GET SOME PREFERENCE

By Nick Kotsopoulos TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

WORCESTER — The proposed sale of the former Worcester County Courthouse is a done deal.

The City Council Tuesday night unanimously approved sale of the courthouse property on the north end of Main Street to Brady Sullivan Properties LLC for $1.2 million.

The New Hampshire-based developer intends to renovate the historic courthouse, which has been vacant for several years, into 115 market-rate apartments and 3,000 square feet of retail space.

The agreement approved by the council includes two changes to the deal City Manager Edward M. Augustus Jr. submitted to the council on March 24, in response to issues and concerns raised by members of the Worcester Community-Labor Coalition.

In the original agreement, Brady Sullivan said it would use "best efforts" to hire local residents for 50 percent of the construction jobs.

Meanwhile, the community coalition wanted greater assurances that at least 50 percent of the construction jobs will go to Worcester residents, and that all contractors hired for the project have a bona fide apprenticeship program.

As a compromise, Brady Sullivan has agreed to allocate 50 percent of the total construction budget to hire contractors and sub-contractors from qualified local companies (within 30 miles of the property) or from qualified companies with approved apprenticeship programs, according to Michael E. Traynor, the city's chief development officer.

By basing the local hiring on the total construction budget, it creates an opportunity for more local people to be hired for the project, it was noted.

Brady Sullivan has also agreed to include wording in each contract for the project stipulating that all "contractors and sub-contractors, at every tier, shall comply with all state and federal labor, wage and hour, workers compensation and tax laws, and shall not misclassify employees as independent contractors or pay them off the books."

FULL ARTICLE

I have but one response to this whole deboggle.

 

[WormtownNative]

WRTA has put out a RFP for the current bus storage and maintenance facility on Grove St.

Minimum bid of $3 million.

Building is a former streetcar barn, according to the WRTA.

Loopnet Posting

 

[WormtownNative]

Not much in development news out here lately. That said, in other news Holy Cross athletics continues its crusade against the top of College/Pakachoag Hill. This time in a Hart Center Renovation/Expansion.

Holy Cross to give Hart Center a new look
By Jennifer Toland TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

WORCESTER — When Bill Carmody was interviewing for the Holy Cross men's basketball job, one of the things he talked to HC director of athletics Nathan Pine about was the college's and the athletic department's commitment to its sports teams.

"Do you want to win?" Carmody asked. Pine assured him that he — and the school — did.

Pine also shared with Carmody Holy Cross' plans to renovate and expand the 40-year-old Hart Center, a $90 million undertaking that HC hopes to break ground on in the very near future.

"That's clear commitment to me," Carmody said. "Just the perception, I think, is important, and there's substance behind it because it's a major endeavor."

There have been plans for much-needed improvements to the Hart Center, which opened Dec. 1, 1975, for a few years, and Holy Cross recently unveiled renderings of the final project, which will transform the Hart Center into a state-of-the-art facility that includes an indoor practice area for football and all field sports, and a practice gym for the basketball teams.

The renderings are most impressive. The indoor practice area for football and other field sports will be 100 yards of wall-to-wall turf and make Holy Cross one of the few FCS teams with such a facility.

"The new facilities are really going to help us do the things we need to do in season and out of season to develop our guys," HC football coach Tom Gilmore said. "You look at this winter, and not having an indoor facility really limited our ability to do a lot of things. This will give us the tools to do the things you need to do."

The new practice basketball gym will double as a competition court for the volleyball team. The footprint of the existing basketball arena will remain. Pine said seating options are being considered for the lower section. The original floor will be rebuilt, and video boards will be added.

"It's a great footprint," Pine said. "Now we want to make it a first-class playing facility."

The sports medicine and strength and conditioning areas will be expanded.

There are no plans to renovate the ice hockey rink or bleachers. The hockey offices and women's locker room will be redone. The sound system will be re-engineered and video boards added.

Other new locker rooms will be built as well as team meeting rooms and office space. Athletics department staff and coaches will move from the Field House to the Hart Center.

The Field House will undergo a $14 million renovation and become a recreation center for HC students. The building will include basketball courts, weight room, yoga studio and other training areas.

FULL ARTICLE

A few renders:

Planned Floor Layouts:

Holy Cross has more renders of the interior up over HERE on Flickr.

This will also be a nice change to their Field House:

 

[WormtownNative]

Some news about the Osgood Bradley building:

State approves one set of tax credits for student housing project in Worcester
By Michael D. Kane | mkane@masslive.com

WORCESTER -- Worcester is one step closer to further in its vision for downtown redevelopment after the state Department of Housing and Economic Development on Monday gave its approval of up to $2 million in state tax credits for the developer of the Osgood Bradley project.

Plans call for Vision Companies, a development company out of Pennsylvania, to turn the former manufacturing building into more than 80 units of market-rate, student housing. About 250 students are expected to live in the building, starting as early as next year.

Vision Companies President Rick Shaffer said the tax credits, which fall under the state's Housing Development Incentive Program (HDIP), are one of the final hurdles the company needs before closing on the sale of the building. The company is also seeking historic tax credits from the state.

Shaffer said he hopes to close the sale by the end of May.

"A lot has to happen in a short amount of time," Shaffer said. "Today we were assured that we qualify for the HDIP program, which is one of the hurdles we need to clear."

Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce president Timothy Murray said the HDIP program operates similar to the states Tax Increment Finance program, except for market-rate housing projects. The legislation was signed into law by Governor Deval Patrick and adopted by the Worcester City Council in December 2013, Murray said.

Under Shaffer's timeline, the building will open a rental office in a secondary building on the Grafton Street site by this September, in time for returning students. He expects complete redevelopment of the building to take between 10 and 12 months.

Overall, the expected investment is around $33 million. The city can expect up to $300,000 in next tax revenue from the building, which is now empty and has been underutilized for many years, according to Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito, who was in Worcester with Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Jay Ash to make the announcement.

FULL ARTICLE

 

[WormtownNative]

Worcester industrial building eyed for demolition......

Toxic chemicals, filth inside old Worcester factory eyed for tear-down

By Nick Kotsopoulos
Telegram & Gazette Staff

WORCESTER — A vacant former manufacturing building on Hermon Street being eyed for demolition to make way for a parking lot has been found to have all sorts of hazardous materials inside it.

In fact, the conditions inside the building are such that members of the Historical Commission were recently advised against entering it for an inspection, as part of their assessment of a petition to waive the city's demolition delay ordinance for the property.

According to a preliminary evaluation done by Williamson Environmental LLC on behalf of the building’s owner, containers ranging in size from one quart to 55 gallons, containing various hazardous substances and hazardous waste, were observed throughout the inside.

Some of the chemicals identified by labeling include hydrochloric acid, potassium cyanide, sulfuric acid, xylene, toluene, lubricating oil and gasoline.
Evidence of leakage from many of the containers was also observed, according to the report which was submitted to the Historical Commission last week.

The report said many of the wooden features of the building, such as its floors, beams and columns, appeared heavily stained and saturated with currently unknown chemical residuals.

A large volume of debris and trash were also observed throughout the building, and there is some concern that other containers of hazardous material may be concealed within the debris, the report said.

Other potential hazards identified in the building include suspected friable asbestos-containing material, broken glass, hypodermic needles, and a large volume of bird, rodent and human fecal material, animal carcasses as well as dust and mold.

Members of the Historical Commission had wanted to inspect the inside of the building before its May 14 meeting to assess its condition in regard to a request to demolish it, but the consultant advised against because of what was found inside.

Thomas Williamson Jr., president of Williamson Environmental, recommended that access to the building be limited to hazmat-trained personnel at this time.

The four-story brick-and-stone building is owned by 35 Hermon Street, LLC.
While the owner is a separate entity from the developer of the nearby Junction Shops mill complex, the two are said to be affiliated.

The owner wants to raze the building to make way for more off-street parking for the soon-to-be-opened Junction Shops residential development.
The main building was originally constructed around 1888, and an addition was built around 1950.

Because it is listed on the Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System, it falls under the purview of the city's demolition delay ordinance, which put a 12-month delay on demolition of historic structures to allow time to explore alternative uses.

The building is also in a National Register District and National Register Multiple Resource Area.

FULL ARTICLE

A few images from Google Streetview: