Dual block parties showcase changing downtown district
More than 3,000 people attended the first annual Blackstone CanalFest on Sept. 10, encouraged by the good mid-September weather, with a recreation of the Blackstone Canal turning Harding Street into a watery boulevard. A block or two away on Water Street, the 31st celebration of Worcester Gay Pride drew some (though not all) of the same crowd, with about equal attendance numbers reported by the event’s planners.
David Chevalier is emblematic of the change underway in the Harding/Water Street area. He’s about to sell the hulking, 19th Century mill building he owns at 48 Water St. It houses Chevalier Furniture on three floors and the company has been there since 1975. "We were here when Water Street wasn’t cool," he says. "I used to be able to go outside and if there was a car I didn’t recognize, I figured there was a customer in the store. Now, after 7 p.m., the street’s always filled."
Dino LoRusso’s redevelopment of the former Crompton Mill into apartments was also fueled by rising values. "If you go back five years, the [prevailing] rents of $400 to $600 a month didn’t work" in terms of return on investment on a rehab project. Now, rents of $1,100 a month - utilities not included - are not scaring people away. In fact, there’s a waiting list, LoRusso says. He’s owned the property for 25 years, but now, "every week I see a change in the neighborhood." But, he warns, "You have to have both vision and knowledge. Just wanting to buy a mill and do it on your own, that’s not going to work."
John Giangregorio took his redevelopment step by step. He bought 97 Water St. three years ago for $125,000 and invested $665,000 into it to bring it to the point where tenants could complete their buildout. It now houses José Murphy’s on the first floor. He’s a member of the task Force to recreate the Blackstone Canal on Harding Street, but he’s also cautious, too, particularly about the business component of the district’s rebirth, which he doesn’t see happening right now. Central Mass. cities and towns, he says, "are all tugging at the same pool of users. There’s very little new business coming into the area."
Additionally, there’s a concern about electricity. He says there’s not enough electricity on Harding Street. The burden is on property owners to get the power into their buildings, at a cost of $150,000 A lot of the Harding Street abutters and investors expect the city to pay for infrastructure improvements, and if it did, he says, it would reap the rewards.
Chevalier notes that he’s moving his business out of Water Street at the right time. The area, he says, is becoming more of a cultural center than a center for big retailers. (Note: As we went to press, Shaw’s Supermarkets announced it would shutter its two-year-old store a block away on Grafton Street due to poor business). Quoting Charles Darwin, he says it’s not the smartest, nor the strongest that survive - "It’s the ones that can handle change."
Christina P. O’Neill can be reached at coneill@wbjournal.com
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