Gardner gets $3.2M Massworks grant; will prep 10 acres 'ripe' for redevelopment
City of Gardner
The former Garbose property in Gardner, outlined in yellow, will be cleaned up by a $2 million MassWorks grant.
The City of Gardner has received $3.2 million in grants from MassWorks that will open up 10 acres of commercial property that is “ripe for development” and improve the city’s downtown.
The MassWorks grant that was announced Friday will have $2 million going towards the final steps of cleaning up 10 acres at the former Garbose metal recycling site. The 10-acre commercially zoned site with frontage on Route 68 will be ready for redevelopment by summer, according to Gardner Mayor Mark Hawke. The property abuts an existing shopping center (Timpany Plaza) and is a quarter mile away from a Walmart.
“There’s a lot of traffic so it’s ripe for commercial development,” Hawke said of the property.
The land abuts 10 acres of industrial-zoned property along Mill Street that is ready to be redeveloped and is owned by the city and the Gardner Redevelopment Authority. The city is planning an overlay district that would allow commercial uses all along the Mill Street corridor, Gardner’s Community Development and Planning Director Trevor Beauregard said.
The city took over the Garbose property in 2010 from the former owner and has been working to clean up the site.
The MassWorks funding also covers $1.2 million for the first phase of a downtown project that will include tearing down a former factory building at 158 Rear Main St. and building a road connecting the city’s library and new police station. The second phase of the project will add parking, community space and retail opportunities for the Main Street properties that abut the land, Beauregard said.
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