Decades After Losing A Major Employer, Worcester's Quinsigamond Village Works Toward Revival
PHOTO/JACQUELYN GUTC
Sally Jablonski, owner of Herbert Berg Florist, hopes to use funding from Quinsigamond Village's Storefront & Façade Improvement Grant program to make updates to her shop, which has been in business for 78 years. It's in one of the last remaining houses used by American Steel & Wire workers in the 1800s.
Worcester's Quinsigamond Village, which once thrived as the home of Swedish workers from the nearby American Steel & Wire factory, was never the same once the company left town in the late 1970s.
Buildings either house new businesses or have been abandoned. Although developments off Route 146 eventually replaced the wire manufacturer, the jobs are different now, and those employees don't necessarily live in the village, and the Swedish population has given way to immigrants from other parts of the world. Sally Jablonski, owner of Herbert Berg Florist in the village, said that population of immigrants is more diverse than ever.
A long-time resident who has worked at the florist for 30 years, owning it for the last 17, Jablonski said the diversity is a big part of what holds the area back, as people from different backgrounds may have cultural barriers and different goals.
Since the wire plant closed, “the village itself doesn't have the glue it used to,” she said.
But Jablonski, along with city officials and about a dozen other business leaders, are working to give the village its adhesive edge back. This summer, they launched a Quinsigamond Village Business Association. Jackson Restrepo, business programs manager for the city, is helping to get business and commercial property owners engaged. He's pleasantly surprised by the number of participants the association has drawn.
He said that, based on the success business associations in other areas of Worcester, it wanted to do the same with businessowners in the village.
“This gave them a venue to really get to know each other better,” he said, and to have a unified voice to face the issues that come up in the neighborhood.
Jablonski said organized efforts in the village stalled about three years ago when the historical building meant to be a visitors' center burned down. But with new business owners onboard and this year's highly controversial tax assessments, interest in organizing was reignited, she said.
“You need to have a unified voice to address city government,” Jablonski said.
She said the association's first goal is to create an identity, including a logo and signage. Where the village is located is another top priority.
“That has been one of the focuses of the businesses, is where are we,” Jablonski said, because some mapping software and global positioning satellites can't find the neighborhood. “We've always had a hard time getting people to find us,” she said, especially its main stretch, Blackstone River Road, formerly Millbury Street.
Another goal is to help businesses become more attractive to customers who do find them.
Restrepo said about $500,000 is available through three financial assistance programs in the village. New businesses and those looking to expand can get a grant of up to $5,000, while owners of commercial or mixed-use buildings can get reimbursed for improvements to their buildings' exteriors though a façade improvement program. Microloans of up to $10,000 are also available.
Restrepo and the association are working to help make business owners aware of the funding available through tipping fee revenue from the nearby Greenwood Street landfill.
Restrepo said $35,000 has been spent, but more has been allocated to upcoming projects. The money has been available since 2010, and Beth Proko, owner of the building that's home to Sweet T Southern Kitchen, was the first to take advantage of the façade program with a $40,000 project.
“We would never have done those improvements if that program wasn't there, so it's really an opportunity to help you make improvements at potentially half the cost,” she said.
Jablonski is in the process of getting approval for her expansion and façade updates and said she has been encouraging other business owners to take part.
“The economy had been bad, so a lot of people had been a little bit scared to take the grant money,” she said. She added that now that the economy is improving, and new businesses are moving into the neighborhood, businesses are more eager to tap that funding.
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