Worcester Housing Plans Buoy Business Community

Jacquelyn Gutc The Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences University purchased this 3.5-acre site, formerly Morgan Construction Co., last month with the intention of turning it into student housing. The property is across the street from the school's campus in Lincoln Square.

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Downtown Worcester has been full of development activity for the past few years, as the city focuses on revitalizing the area and moving it away from only being a bustling place during office hours.

While the multimillion-dollar CitySquare development, the new WRTA hub and the renovation and expansion of the DCU Center have garnered much of the attention, a fresh push to convert vacant and underused buildings into new housing has been added to the activity and ratcheted up the level of enthusiasm.

"I'm excited about it. I think that it's really a kind of a sea change from what's been happening over the course of time," said Brian Thompson, CEO of Commerce Bank and Trust Co., based on Main Street.

"I think to have a vibrant community center, you have to have good housing available, so when people live here they have a tendency to eat here and find their entertainment and recreation here, and all of that feeds on itself."

Some of the most notable housing projects include:

• The Mayo Group's Bancroft Commons at 50 Franklin St.;

• Winn Development's ongoing renovation of the former Worcester Vocational High School into the Voke Lofts;

• The recent purchase of two Main Street buildings by SJ Realty to be converted into micro apartments; and

• January's acquisition of the former Morgan Construction Co. building on Lincoln Street by the MCPHS University (formerly Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences), which will convert the site to student housing.

Aiming At Seniors, Younger Professionals

According to a housing study commissioned by the city's economic development department last fall, there were 4,086 rental units downtown in 2010, with 200 having been added within the last decade. The study said there was an 11.3-percent vacancy rate in that area.

But it also indicated that most of the city's growth in rental housing during the next five years will come from professionals younger than 35, and senior citizens, and that's something the city's economic development director, Timothy McGourthy, said Worcester is focusing on.

Although it's been private developers who have been pursuing housing plans downtown, McGourthy said the city has been heavily involved in promoting housing efforts and developing plans. 

Advantages To Downtown Living

"We definitely heard the message in our housing study that there's a need for housing in the downtown area," he said, noting that people see benefits in urban living such as not having to shovel sidewalks or take care of a lawn.

But it's not just the residents who will benefit from more housing, community leaders said.

"The more downtown becomes a neighborhood in and of its own right, the more of an 18-hour city we'll see," McGourthy said.

He said more housing downtown will lead to additional businesses in the area to serve those residents, leading to things like restaurants that extend their hours beyond the typical 9-to-5 business day.

A plan for a downtown theater district released last month noted: "Further increasing the number of occupied market-rate residences is a critical component of a successful revitalization for downtown Worcester."

It found that in addition to 430 units under development, another 600 to 800 "are needed to create an environment where retail can flourish. Worcester has the good fortune to have several buildings downtown that are appropriate for housing and could either be converted or updated for this purpose."

William D. Kelleher IV, vice president of commercial brokerage at Worcester's Kelleher & Sadowsky Associates, is optimistic about the impact more housing would have on the commercial real estate market.

"It's certainly a positive to have more people moving into the downtown market because it's only going to spur more development," he said.

College's Expansion

The expansion of MCPHS into downtown Worcester more than a decade ago has alone brought more development to the area. The school said it has invested more than $350 million in downtown since its arrival, purchasing underutilized buildings and renovating them into student housing and academic uses.

"Mass. College of Pharmacy has been a great leader in helping revitalize … from the City Hall toward the Lincoln Square area," Thompson said, adding that the school's students who live in the area are "young, professional people who are going on for advanced degrees and, I think, will be very responsible and respectful (of) the community in which they live."

The school purchased 29 condominiums at North High Gardens on Salisbury Street last fall to provide more housing for faculty, staff and students. Then last month, the school announced it signed an agreement with SJ Realty of Westborough to lease 26 of the 60 "micro lofts" the developer is planning at 371 and 379 Main St. A week later, the school purchased the 3.5-acre Morgan property for $2.9 million.

MCPHS President Charles Monahan Jr. said the school will do a feasibility study on the new property to determine whether the current building could be renovated into graduate housing, or if it would have to be demolished in favor of new housing. But either way, "we're not going to sit on it and leave it the way it is," he said. "That's the gateway to the rest of the city."

For the time being, the condos and micro lofts will help meet growing housing demand, Monahan said.

The school recently unveiled a plan to double its 1,200-student population in the coming years and add new degree programs at the Worcester campus. But with only 400 beds, it doesn't have enough housing to meet that demand.

"Without housing, we couldn't be able to attract students," he said.

McGourthy acknowledged that by MCPHS purchasing property, the city is missing out on tax revenue, but he said the tradeoff for the city and downtown is worth it.

"The value of institutional ownership in the downtown is the demand that they create for the services around them," he said. "Yes, it's forgone tax revenue, but it's also added vitality and vibrancy that the downtown needs and that vitality adds value to other properties."

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