Bulldozers Near Worcester Hotel And Conference Center
The Worcester Hotel and Conference Center off Lincoln Street is too old, too run down and too far from the city center to continue as a hotel.
In about three weeks, it'll be too demolished to continue as a hotel.
The conference center is a former Holiday Inn, and commercial real estate brokers in the city say it would be highly unlikely for a national hotel chain to ever consider that site again. The hotel's owner, the Procaccianti Group of Cranston, R.I., seems to agree. Procaccianti has owned the single-story, 142-room hotel since 2005, and ended its affiliation with Holiday Inn in March 2006. Now, the building is boarded up and undergoing asbestos removal.
"Within about three weeks, we do expect demolition to commence," said Ralph V. Izzi Jr., Procaccianti spokesman.
Izzi said the company hasn't finalized its redevelopment plans for the property, but said, "I think the current plans we have do not include a hotel component." He said the property was more likely to become a mixed-used development, "restaurant, retail, something along those lines."
That would certainly fit in better with the surrounding neighborhood, which is heavily commercial - and includes the Hanover Insurance Group's headquarters - but nearly 3.5 miles from downtown Worcester. When it ended its relationship with Holiday Inn, Procaccianti said the company intended to renovate the hotel.
Out Of Bounds
But these days, people who visit Worcester visit the city with a purpose, said Will Kelleher, a broker with commercial real estate firm Kelleher & Sadowsky. Visitors to the city have meetings, conferences or events to attend, and those meetings, conferences and events are more often than not held downtown. And downtown has its fill of venues, like the brand new Hilton Garden Inn and the Crowne Plaza. The Beechwood Hotel, located at the corner of Route 9 and Plantation Street, is still closer to downtown than the Worcester Hotel and Conference Center.
For businesses that look for hotels not just as places to sleep, but also as places to hold meetings, and conferences and as places to entertain, the more-than-30-year-old Worcester Hotel and Conference Center is "probably pretty well worn at this point, and it's probably pretty inefficient," Kelleher said. He said the wrecking ball is the best thing for the more-than-30-year-old hotel.
The Lincoln Street location doesn't have the accessibility of newer, more attractive hotels. And without major renovations, "I would suspect it's a challenge for them to provide the services that newer facilities offer," like large conference rooms, wireless internet and other technological amenities.
Kelleher said, "You look at that building, and the age of the property, and it's pretty dated in terms of the other construction" in Worcester.
Tim McGourthy, the city's economic development director, said, "I haven't been out to the site, but I know it's a dated hotel. It's old, and it hasn't seen a lot of investment." It's been left behind by a market that is "right now pushing more for extended stay hotels rather than single night," he said.
Turn-Down Service
It also may have been left behind by a long stagnant Worcester hotel market that is only recently coming to life. According to Smith Travel Research, occupancy in Worcester hotel rooms hasn't reached 70 percent since 2001, and the supply of rooms has remained relatively unchanged in that time.
According to STR, Worcester hotels have shown revenue growth since 2005 after dreadful years between 2001 and 2004. And demand, which was down in 2006, is up 3.9 percent as of September of this year.
McGourthy said the hotel and conference center property is one the city pitches to potential developers and tenants alike in the hope of making a love connection that will result in a renovated and fully leased property somewhere down the line. But he too, said it's unlikely that the Worcester Hotel and Conference Center property would find new life as a hotel property.
McGourthy said the city is in "three serious conversations with three serious developers" interested in putting extended stay hotels in Worcester. But "the sites we've talked about are predominantly downtown, or near the highway with easy access on and off," he said.
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