Worcester approves tax break for manufacturing space
Grant Welker
The city council has approved a 20-year TIF agreement with Steven Rothschild for this property in the South Worcester Industrial Park.
A new research and development building of at least 20,000 square feet will rise in the South Worcester Industrial Park, thanks to a 20-year tax break the project has received from the city.
The building is being developed by businessman Steven Rothschild, who already runs a similar center at 40 Jackson St. in the Ivy Corset Building.
"The idea is jobs, jobs, jobs,” Rothschild told the City Council Tuesday, before the council unanimously approved a tax break for the building.
The facility at Canterbury and Gardner streets will have 10 suites for various users, from technology companies to breweries, Rothschild said. It will feature high ceilings, loading docks and drive-in doors, “things that any high-tech business would want,” he said.
It’s also being designed with aesthetics in mind. A black granite exterior will be lighted in various colors depending on holidays, Rotschild said.
The $1.6 million project is expected to bring at least 34 jobs to an area of the city that’s being reborn with newer manufacturing and industrial uses. The South Worcester Industrial Park, an 11-acre former brownfield site between Main Street and Route 290, will also include a 50,000-square-foot Table Talk Pies factory on a neighboring property.
Rotschild said the building was initially going to be smaller before investors began backing the project. The city’s 20-year tax break will also help, saving Armory Business Center LLC 70 percent off its property taxes, an estimated $986,000. The city has estimated that with a higher property value, the site will still bring the city an additional $486,000 over that period.
City officials strongly backed Rotschild’s project. Anthony Economou, who chairs the council’s economic development committee, called it a “fantastic project” that will make the long-vacant site useful again.
Councilor Sarai Rivera, who represents the South Worcester neighborhood, spoke highly of Rotschild.
“He’s very well respected,” she said, “and if you talk to him, you know he’s pro-Worcester 100 percent.”
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