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June 26, 2017

Worcester revitalization gets aggressive

PHOTO/GRANT WELKER The buildings housing the Great Wall Chinese restaurant and MetroPCS cell phone store, with a combined value of more than $500,000, have been targeted for eminent domain by the city.
The last developable parcel (far right) in Washington Square is now for sale.
Michael Traynor, WRA CEO
Michael Angelini, WRA board member

The Worcester Redevelopment Authority is turning more proactive in helping to remake downtown and beyond, including what would be the first two properties taken as part of a sprawling revitalization plan.

The city agency has begun the process of potentially taking over two small Main Street buildings around the corner from Worcester Common – by eminent domain, if necessary – and is moving ahead on selling a one-acre parcel on Washington Square across the street from the new Homewood Suites hotel.

In another move, the authority is terminating a lease in Union Station for the night spot Lava Lounge and Night Club, which ran into multiple alleged code, alcohol and lease violations.

First threat of eminent domain

The potential taking of the side-by-side Main Street properties comes a year ago this month since the City Council approved a revitalization plan authorizing the redevelopment authority to use eminent domain to buy properties in a 118-acre zone stretching from downtown to the Canal District (see map).

The properties include the Great Wall Chinese restaurant and a MetroPCS cellphone store. Both have been closed since part of a wall fell down there last month.

“Both are in an interesting situation,” said Vincent Pedone, who chairs the authority's board of directors. The owners of both properties have failed to improve the sites over the years, he added. “They can't get these properties rehabbed.”

The adjoining sites are part of a large 20-year downtown urban renewal plan, from just past Front Street in the north to the area around the intersection of Southbridge Street and Quinsigamond Avenue, including many vacant or contaminated parcels like the Wyman-Gordon site. In all, the zone includes 380 properties covering around 67 businesses and 214 condominium units.

A 2016 study conducted for the city as part of its revitalization plan found the zone to be hurt by crime – both real and perceived – a lack of higher-quality office space, a high retail vacancy rate and a shortage of attractions to bring visitors downtown.

As a necessary first step, the authority will seek two appraisals of each property before what could be use of eminent domain to force the property owners to sell to the city. Eminent domain, which can be controversial, is the path of last resort for the city, said Michael Traynor, Worcester's top development official as CEO of the Worcester Redevelopment Authority.

The Great Wall site, at 521 Main St., was built in 1930, is owned by Mindy Jiang Realty Trust and was last assessed at $296,900, according to city property records. The MetroPCS site, at 517 Main St., was built in 1955, is owned by James Isperduli of Paxton, who died in April, and is assessed at $210,500. Both have less than 10,000 square feet of gross space.

Both properties are eyed by the city for first-floor commercial floor and upper-floor residences.

The two sites are among six singled out by the city for rehabilitation under the revitalization plan, because, Traynor said, both have suffered from disinvestment for years. Upper stories in both buildings have been vacant for 15 to 20 years and are out of compliance with today's building codes, he said.

The Great Wall site, known as the Holbrook-Sawyer Building, and the Cheney-Ballard Building, as its neighbor is historically known, are both seen as contributing to the area's historical feel and are eligible for inclusion on the state and national registers of historic buildings, according to the city.

Finding a better fit for Union Station

WRA has started the process of terminating a lease for Lava Lounge and Night Club, a Union Station tenant subject to a number of citations for overcrowding and not adhering to liquor laws.

The authority's board voted unanimously June 9 to end the lease.

Lava Lounge ran into legal issues several times, including just this month, when the city's License Commission suspended the club's liquor license for 22 days. The club allegedly was serving liquor from an unapproved vendor, illegally had full bottles of liquor on tables, failed to appoint a crowd-control manager and changed or diluted the context of alcoholic drinks, according to a police report.

Police reported multiple fights at the club in the early hours of May 20 and in other incidents last September and October.

Deputy City Solicitor Jennifer Beaton, an attorney for the city, said the club has also been violating its lease because it operates only a few days a week and not as a full-service restaurant as it was intended to be.

“We have a tenant who is troubled, not performing in accordance with the lease,” board member Michael Angelini said.

The board, Angelini added, should be “guided by whether the activities of this tenant enhance or enrich the value and dignity of the building that we want it to be enriched or enhanced.”

“It seems to me that this is not this tenant,” he said.

Lava Lounge did not respond to messages seeking comment. The club, the former GD Lounge and Byblos Lounge, often operates on just one or two weekend nights. Its lease was to run through May 31, 2019.

Board member Jennifer Gaskin criticized Lava Lounge's poor fit with the authority-owned train station.

“I don't think that we'd ever intend to have a club in that area,” she said. “It doesn't fit with what we're trying to do with Union Station.”

More Washington Square development

WRA is also moving ahead on selling a one-acre property on Washington Square.

The authority plans to request from the City Council a roadway on the site once leading from Summer Street to Foster Street be legally discontinued so that the dead-end street could be built upon. The Washington Square rotary was also made smaller nearly a decade ago in part to increase the amount of developable land there.

While the legality is ironed out, word has gotten out that the city is interested in selling the site, Traynor said. A 2006 study conducted for the city called for a four-story office building on the property.

The sale listing of the one-acre property comes as the Homewood Suites by Hilton hotel finished construction on a separate Washington Square parcel, opening for customers on June 25.

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