Worcester Infill and Developments

Are there any conspiracy theorists out there that this has been planned all along from the beginning? I bet the school would have been asked to jump through more hoops for approval of dorms, especially from towns' folk backlash who don't want to see the city taken over by schools. Also the city welcomes business development so much it's ready to offer tax breaks/ pay taxes in arrears. And I wonder if buildings codes would be more stringent for dorms so this could be another way of the school saving on construction costs? This is all conjecture, feel free to call it BS.
 
It is very hypocritical for city leaders to express outrage given they happily donated over $100M in public funds toward the construction of Polar Park for the benefit of the team's wealthy owners. WPI contributes far more benefits to the city than a minor league baseball team.
 
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dhawkins said:
Are there any conspiracy theorists out there that this has been planned all along from the beginning? I bet the school would have been asked to jump through more hoops for approval of dorms, especially from towns' folk backlash who don't want to see the city taken over by schools. Also the city welcomes business development so much it's ready to offer tax breaks/ pay taxes in arrears. And I wonder if buildings codes would be more stringent for dorms so this could be another way of the school saving on construction costs? This is all conjecture, feel free to call it BS.
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There's almost definitely at least a first right of refusal in whatever agreements were signed when they sold that land to the hotel operators. Whether it was premeditated that they could take over the buildings themselves as dorms I'd question, but it would have been negligence to fully cede control of that land when the school effectively owns all the surrounding sites.
 
New England Born & Raised said:
It is very hypocritical for city leaders to express outrage given they happily donated over $100M in public funds toward the construction of Polar Park for the benefit of the team's wealthy owners. WPI contributes far more benefits to the city than a minor league baseball team.
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The city owns the ballpark though and the get rent from the woosox in leiu of taxes and the surrounding developments are generating millions in taxes. not the same situation at all
 
This WPI campus map shows the two hotels which are located on the block bounded by Grove, Prescott, Faraday, and Concord Streets (top right corner). Note that there are already five WPI structures that presently surround the hotels. One of these is Faraday Hall, a dorm residence.


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cubalibre said:
Pretty good indication that business in these hotels wasn’t booming, otherwise why would they look to sell?
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I have no idea about their actual financials but I go by the Marriott several times a week and the parking lot always seems busy / mostly full. I'm wondering if at least the Marriott is hitting an age when it's going to need an internal refresh / renovation and that cost is making them look to sell. The Hampton is relatively new IIRC.

Also, more generally, I tend to think WPI has been hugely good for that area.
 
Meanwhile in the Main South neighborhood, Clark University is about to demolish two older structures in order to construct an entirely new building. They will do so with little to no opposition from city leaders.
 
New England Born & Raised said:
Meanwhile in the Main South neighborhood, Clark University is about to demolish two older structures in order to construct an entirely new building. They will do so with little to no opposition from city leaders.
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they already owned the buildings they are demolishing so it's not altering tax. Different scenario
 
New England Born & Raised said:
They were originally privately owned before Clark purchased them. It the exact same scenario.
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I mean they owned them long before the proposed demo and rebuild and if the original builders were part of a multi million dollar city investment like gateway park, it's still not the same scenario. The city is made they spent millions remediation the area to get some tax dollars out of it only for this to happen. That's the scenario. Clark has owned those buildings for as long as I knew they were there.
 
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