Lincoln Square Spotlight
We read with great interest a draft copy of the final report of the city’s North Main Economic Development Strategy and wholeheartedly support the effort to remake one of the city’s most distinctive and impressive squares.
If the North Main Economic Development Strategy is adopted as it’s presented in the draft final report, the city is well on its way to making Lincoln Square one of New England’s most distinctive and impressive places.
The city and project consultant Vanasse Hangen Brustlin Inc. repeatedly mention in the report that they sought the input of local residents, businesses and students in the formation of the North Main strategy. They should listen to them.
High Priority
Nearly a year ago, about 75 participants in a public forum made one of the single best economic development suggestions for Worcester that we’ve read: Refurbish the city-owned Worcester War Memorial Auditorium as “a Faneuil Hall style marketplace.”
Anyone familiar with Faneuil Hall in Boston should realize that this idea is a stroke of genius and a perfect fit for Worcester in general and Lincoln Square in particular. What’s even better is that the city and VHB have pegged the auditorium project as a “near term” project that should be completed within the first five years.
Other suggestions for the area are that the reuse of the former Boys Club be a priority, that the road between the auditorium and the boys club be closed for green space and a farmer’s market and that a trolley service be established between Lincoln Square and downtown.
Other priority properties identified by the city and VHB are the parking lots at 252 and 288 Main St., Main Street near 90 Commercial St., 20 Exchange St. and 35 Central St., the AT&T building on Main Street, Honey Farms at School and Thomas Streets, the old Court House, the Crowne Plaza hotel, the Worcester police station, Salisbury Mansion, Morgan Construction at 15 Belmont St. and the intersection of Lincoln and Catherine Streets.
The report estimates that after at least 15 years, more than 1.6 million square feet of development will have taken place among these properties. Most of that development, 860,000 square feet, will be office space. Another 400,000 square feet will be flex or research and development space. Another 250,000 square feet will be retail space. The rest will be made up of convention and meeting space, “cultural” space, a 220-room hotel and 300 units of residential space.
What’s perhaps most impressive about the North Main Economic Development Strategy is that the city and VHB have realized, unlike many other cities and Worcester itself up to this point, that not every neighborhood can be an arts and entertainment district.
And while there are some tired, decades-old urban revitalization catch words like “vibrancy” in the new report, the plan itself lays out a common sense approach to connecting the project’s northernmost areas to downtown, making Lincoln Square much friendlier to pedestrians and students and creating new uses for some woefully underused buildings.
However, some of the most woefully underused buildings in the project — the auditorium, the former Boys’ Club and the old court house — are city-owned. Hardly a mention is made in the report of putting those building into private hands and back on the tax rolls, which should be one of the project’s long-term priorities.
Another concern that we have is that the city may be “sacrificing the good on the altar of the perfect” when it comes to identifying the Morgan Construction site off Belmont Street as a location for reuse. Of course, the Morgan site is not ideal for a downtown.
But Morgan is also one of the last manufacturers left in Worcester and is an economic development story to be celebrated. That property should be left off any redevelopment lists, lest the company’s owners get the idea that the city isn’t happy to have them.
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