Board OK's 100-room hotel in Worcester's Gateway Park
By Nick Kotsopoulos TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
nkotsopoulos@telegram.com
WORCESTER — The Planning Board Wednesday night gave its stamp of approval to plans for a $10 million, 100-room Hampton Inn at Gateway Park.
The five-story hotel will be built at 65 Prescott St., adjacent to the Courtyard by Marriott at 72 Grove Street, north of Lincoln Square.
The parcel where the hotel will be built is where the Courtyard by Marriott is located.
Patricia Gates, a lawyer representing the hotel developer, said the property will be divided into two separate lots, with the new hotel having frontage on Prescott Street. The Courtyard by Marriott, meanwhile, has frontage on Grove Street.
http://www.telegram.com/article/2014...89781/0/SEARCH
Quinsig breaks ground on science center
By Sara Schweiger TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
WORCESTER — The sun shone brightly and so did the faces as Quinsigamond Community College broke ground Thursday on its much-anticipated QuEST Center, a state-of-the-art engineering, science and technology facility on campus scheduled to open in spring 2016.
"Even if it were cloudy, it would be sun-shiney here," QCC President Gail E. Carberry said, "because we are so excited about putting a shovel in the ground."
The $23.1 million center is being funded through a $23 million state bond and a recently announced $499,880 grant from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center. It is the first of two phases of a capital investment for QCC funded by the higher education bond bill. A study for the second phase, a $15.9 million classroom building, will begin this summer.
http://www.telegram.com/article/2014...09665/0/SEARCH
Industrial park gets 'fresh start' from Worcester panel
http://www.telegram.com/article/2014...99860/0/SEARCH
Worcester development official urges colleges to invest in downtown
By Bob Kievra TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
rkievra@telegram.com
WORCESTER — The president and chief executive officer of the Worcester Business Development Corp. today asked the city's colleges and universities to make an investment in downtown Worcester, saying a thriving central core aids the city's educational institutions.
Less than a month after closing on a $37 million financing package that will bring 1,500 Quinsigamond Community College students downtown, Craig L. Blais asked the city's other institutions of higher learning to consider it as a place to do business.
"I'm calling you to action," Mr. Blais said to an audience of 200 today at the WBDC's annual meeting at the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts. A robust downtown is a key selling point for colleges and universities recruiting students, he said.
"We need you downtown, we need you desperately downtown. In the past year we came knocking on your door, and some of you, gently, have opened the door," he said.
Last month the WBDC closed on a deal to turn the former Telegram & Gazette headquarters at 20 Franklin St into a downtown center for college classrooms, a theater and a café.
Quinsigamond Community College expects to occupy about 80,000 square feet of the 110,000 square foot building.
"Come in, the water's fine," said QCC president Gail E. Carberry.
Mr. Blais said he is hopeful that Worcester State University might also use some space in the building. The WBDC has also had talks with Clark University and WPI about putting graduate student housing downtown. Becker College last year leased space for 70 students at 76 Franklin St.
http://www.telegram.com/article/2014...09716/0/SEARCH
Worcester Tennis Club property for sale
By Aaron Nicodemus TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
WORCESTER — The historic Worcester Tennis Club has put its Sever Street property up for sale, although the club has promised its members that the 2014 season will open as scheduled.
The property at 69 Sever St. is listed for sale at $750,000. Consisting of just over one acre, the property has seven red clay tennis courts and a clubhouse. There are no parking spaces on the site, nor are there any lights for night play.
Timothy E. Gray, the club's treasurer and immediate past president, said the club has about 100 households and about 150 individual members. The Sever St. site, while steeped in nostaglia and history, "may have outlived its usefulness," he said.
http://www.telegram.com/article/2014...29667/0/SEARCH
Note: This is a large site in a residential neighborhood adjacent to Becker College, and near WPI. It would be great for an expansion for Becker.
Worcester developers confident: If they build renters will come
By Lisa Eckelbecker TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
"We just rented our last unit at 13 Dartmouth St.," said Mr. DiRoberto, a rental expert at the real estate agency Re/Max Advantage 1 in Worcester, referring to a building renovated into loft-style apartments. "Every unit that was done, we had a renter lined up."
It's that kind of demand that has some developers scrambling to renovate and build new rental dwellings in Worcester, even as the city's home-buying market slowly recovers from the recession of the 2000s.
WinnCompanies of Boston is renovating the former vocational high school at 34 Grove St. into 84 loft-style apartments known as the Voke Lofts, half of them reserved for low-income renters. City officials have reported discussions to bring housing development to CitySquare, the downtown development backed by an investment arm of Hanover Insurance Group Inc.
http://www.telegram.com/article/2014...39947/0/SEARCH
$37M deal to rehab former T&G building is completed
WORCESTER — A coalition of community banks, quasi-public agencies and a local development group has wrapped up a complicated $37 million financing deal to turn the former Telegram & Gazette headquarters into a downtown center for college classrooms, a theater and a café.
Financing for the project, led by the nonprofit Worcester Business Development Corp., was so intricate it was only completed in the last two weeks, even though the WBDC bought the property at 20 Franklin St. in 2011.
http://www.telegram.com/article/2014...89929/0/SEARCH
Worcester may keep some off-street parking requirements
WORCESTER City planners are taking a second look at abandoning off-street parking requirements for new development. The city administration last year proposed a Commercial Corridors Overlay District, which would have permitted developers to not supply off-street parking within the district, which covered downtown and all or parts of Highland Street, Chandler Street, Shrewsbury Street, Main Street, Grafton Street, the Canal District, Pleasant Street and Gateway Park. Planners are also exploring the potential of tailoring the requirements to individual neighborhoods within the district.
http://www.telegram.com/article/2014...79871/0/SEARCH