Worcester Improvements

[Jouhou]

Originally Posted by meddlepal

Citing projects that succeeded in Europe doesn't help your case because they're not realistic for Worcester.

Sorry, but preservation be damned, this isn't one of the buildings in the city worth saving. Downtown Worcester needs a massive injection of housing and this parcel is a huge piece of that puzzle.

Worcester has no shortage of underutilized downtown parcels to build housing on. There just needs to be more investment in housing.

I think someone should build a hotel around/in this church. Would that not make for a bad ass hotel lobby?

*I hope a hotel developer reads this and thinks it's a good idea.*

[cubalibre]

Exactly. I don't see how this church is impeding downtown redevelopment. Keep it around a few more years, once the area is revitalized they'll find use for it. Perhaps a fancy marijuana dispensery à la Brookline bank.

[Hubman]

Originally Posted by Jouhou

Worcester has no shortage of underutilized downtown parcels to build housing on. There just needs to be more investment in housing.

+1! It would be cool if they renovated the interior and turned it to a food court.!

[JohnJ]

http://www.telegram.com/news/2017061...-kelley-square

http://www.wbjournal.com/article/201...170619981/1002

Farmers Market and Apartments, 4 story development for the Canal District in Worcester. This would really improve the aesthetics of Kelly Square along with getting more residents in the neighborhood. This will be a great win for the neighborhood and the city when its actually built.

[meddlepal]

Should've gone for a little bit more height in this location. It's very transit friendly to Union Station. The whole Canal District / Kelley Square area should be up zoned.

[FK4]

Originally Posted by meddlepal

Should've gone for a little bit more height in this location. It's very transit friendly to Union Station. The whole Canal District / Kelley Square area should be up zoned.

Transit or not, it's basically the downtown of a city. So I agree.

[WormtownNative]

Attempt #2 at developing the courthouse:

Worcester picks $53M development for old courthouse

BY GRANT WELKER

A $53-million project with 125 apartment units and retail has been chosen by the city to be built at the long-vacant Worcester County Courthouse, city officials announced Monday.

The development, from the Boston firm Trinity Financial, would help revitalize the city's Lincoln Square area, which has several grand but empty buildings, including the Worcester Memorial Auditorium and the former Boys & Girls Club. The city is also working to find new uses for both of those sites.

The Worcester County Courthouse site is proposed to be reborn as the Courthouse Lofts, with its 125 units split evenly between market-rate and affordable units. Several retail spaces are also envisioned, but Trinity representatives said exact details are being determined. Work is slated to begin in the fall of 2018 and be complete by the summer of 2020. Trinity agreed to buy the 4.3-acre courthouse site from the city for $1.3 million.

"We're tremendously excited about this," said Patrick Lee, a principal at Trinity.

Lee said he hadn't been to Worcester for several years and was impressed by the city. He and other Trinity representatives said they were attracted to the site because of its historical character and development potential. It is the firm's first project in the city.

"Worcester has all of the things that we look for," said Kenan Bigby, one of the company's managing directors, referring to Worcester's growing vitality.

The oldest part of the courthouse, the Greek Revival building on Main Street, was built in 1843 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A rear addition by Harvard Street, which was built in 1954, will remain as part of the project but will be entirely redone. Trinity officials said they haven't yet determined market-rate prices, but said affordable units will be set aside for those earning 60 percent or less of the area's median income.

The project is expected to use historic tax credits, private debt and other funding sources, Trinity said.

Trinity's proposal, one of four received by the city earlier this year, is the second go-around for remaking the nearly 250,000-square-foot courthouse, which has been vacant since its replacement opened a decade ago a few blocks down Main Street. Brady Sullivan Properties, the New Hampshire firm that bought the property from the city in 2015 for $1.2 million with plans for 115 apartments, backed out last December.

FULL ARTICLE

Some of the renders:







(Side note: Yes, I'm still here on the forums. Just finally getting settled into a new job.)

[SlothofDespond]

In that loft: a 20-something artist who owns a $5,000 chair and no kitchen equipment. Probably not the affordable unit.

[meddlepal]

Worcester gearing up for serious Pawsox run? http://www.telegram.com/news/2017070...tch-for-pawsox

Definitely could be interesting. I'd love to see a AAA team in Worcester.

[WormtownNative]

Originally Posted by meddlepal

Worcester gearing up for serious Pawsox run? http://www.telegram.com/news/2017070...tch-for-pawsox

Definitely could be interesting. I'd love to see a AAA team in Worcester.

Please no. This will destroy any opportunity for redevelopment near the stadium's location.

[meddlepal]

I don't really see how you figure that. Are you worried about a sea of parking lots? I think a garage is probably the answer. Luchinno is pretty keen to building urban fabric ball parks so I don't really see how this would be a negative. The Providence proposals all have restaurants, bars and office space around the park.

[WormtownNative]

Originally Posted by meddlepal

I don't really see how you figure that. Are you worried about a sea of parking lots? I think a garage is probably the answer. Luchinno is pretty keen to building urban fabric ball parks so I don't really see how this would be a negative. The Providence proposals all have restaurants, bars and office space around the park.

Data crunching by a Professor from Holy Cross shows that stadiums tend to be a net negative for surrounding areas.

Not saying it can't be done, but I don't hold out much hope.

[meddlepal]

That paper is dealing with Major League teams. The PawSox aren't in that category:

For example:

The nature of professional sports is that
the athletes generally command as wages a large share of revenues generated by sporting
events. However, the athletes themselves are typically unlikely to live in the metropolitan
area in which they play. (Siegfried and Zimbalist, 2002). Therefore, the income earned by
athletes is not likely to re-circulate in the local economy, leading to a lower multiplier
effect. In the extreme, spending at a sporting event could actually reduce local incomes,
as money is diverted from an activity with a high multiplier, for example a dinner at a
locally owned and operated restaurant, towards sports, an activity with high leakages.

Doesn't apply. Pawsox players are likely to be living in Worcester or one of the immediate towns around Worcester (e.g. Shrewbury, Auburn).

I think there are a number of other flaws with that paper, for example:

A night at the ballpark means more money in the players‟ and team
owner‟s pockets, but it also means less money in the pockets of local theater or restaurant
owners.

Not sure how much overlap there is with the type of person that goes to a Pawsox Game vs. a person that goes to a Hanover Theater production. I doubt there is a lot of overlap. As for restaurants... I have a hard time buying into that as often you go out to get food before the game.

[found5dollar]

So It looks like we will lose the Notre Dame church to a 4 story "luxury apartment building". Boooooooo.

http://www.masslive.com/news/worcest...worcester.html

http://www.masslive.com/news/worcest...orcesters.html

[cubalibre]

In addition to the MassLive article above:

Notre Dame des Canadiens Church is slated to be demolished and replaced by a four story apartment building with 84 Units and retail space. While it's not a terrible design, it is sad to see that beautiful church being razed. It will contribute to make downtown Worcester look more and more like Anywhere Ville.
Anyways, I do hope they have some sort of plan to add interesting retail/ entertainment a la Assembly Square, but no signs of that yet.

http://www.wbjournal.com/article/201...170729987/1002

[cubalibre]

Less upsetting, across the street the Paris Cinema is being torn down to make space for a beer garden and other gastronomy:

http://www.masslive.com/news/worcest..._expected.html

Interior shots towards the end:
http://www.masslive.com/news/worcest...aris_cine.html

[found5dollar]

The demolition of the Paris Cinema should not be a celebratory moment for Worcester. It was a beautiful movie palace that we allowed to fall apart and decay until it was no longer salvageable purely because we are scared of sex, gay people, and specifically gay sex.

What it used to look like:

from http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/6464/photos/58325

What it looked like before demolition:


From http://www.masslive.com/news/worcest...aris_cine.html


A great article about the history of the Paris cinema is here:
https://afterthefinalcurtain.net/201...-worcester-ma/

[itchy]

Originally Posted by found5dollar

So It looks like we will lose the Notre Dame church to a 4 story "luxury apartment building".

That is pretty shameful. It shows Worcester has no pride, no sense of place, no historical memory, and no standards. In short, it shows Worcester is unlikely to dig itself out of its current hole any time soon if it can't restore and celebrate the finer things still remaining in the city.

[WormtownNative]

Originally Posted by found5dollar

The demolition of the Paris Cinema should not be a celebratory moment for Worcester. It was a beautiful movie palace that we allowed to fall apart and decay until it was no longer salvageable purely because we are scared of sex, gay people, and specifically gay sex.

What it used to look like:

from http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/6464/photos/58325

What it looked like before demolition:


From http://www.masslive.com/news/worcest...aris_cine.html


A great article about the history of the Paris cinema is here:
https://afterthefinalcurtain.net/201...-worcester-ma/

It annoys me to no end that the city was making a "theater district" master plan, but there's only one venue in the area. This would've gone a long way to making the area a proper theatre district. But no, we can't have nice things. (Although the beer garden isn't completely horrible, because my understanding is that the parcel will eventually see proper redevelopment.)

Originally Posted by itchy

That is pretty shameful. It shows Worcester has no pride, no sense of place, no historical memory, and no standards. In short, it shows Worcester is unlikely to dig itself out of its current hole any time soon if it can't restore and celebrate the finer things still remaining in the city.

Forgive my cynicism......but we have finer things? I thought we were a dried up mill town.

[meddlepal]

Originally Posted by itchy

That is pretty shameful. It shows Worcester has no pride, no sense of place, no historical memory, and no standards. In short, it shows Worcester is unlikely to dig itself out of its current hole any time soon if it can't restore and celebrate the finer things still remaining in the city.

This is so far from the truth that it could only be spoken by someone who is not from Worcester or does not have any connection to it beyond knowing it as that city far to the west of Boston in the Massachusetts hinterlands. I spend many weekends still in Worcester for a variety of reasons and regularly go out to restaurants and bars in the city despite living in Boston.

I grew up in Worcester. I still have a lot of connection to Worcester. Compared to what the city was in the 90's and early 2000's it is absolutely thriving right now and seems poised for a great run in the next 10 to 20 years as it gets greater connections to the Boston economy.