Briefing: More downtown action
It's all starting to come together for those who want to transform Worcester into an 18-hour-a-day city that buzzes late into the evening. News earlier this month that The Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts bought an adjacent Main Street building that formerly housed offices is the latest positive development for the downtown, now the site of multiple planned development projects.
Why is the Hanover acquisition important?
Theatre President and CEO Troy Siebels has highlighted the creation of a true downtown theater district as an important goal.
While the additional building will be used as function space and house the theater's education and outreach programs, Siebels told the WBJ in July that organizers are working to develop a smaller theater, a sort of “off-Broadway” site, which would be accompanied by an art gallery and parking garage.
What role does higher education play?
Quinsigamond Community College (QCC) opened a downtown campus adjacent to the theater district, at 20 Franklin St. — the former Telegram & Gazette building.
When complete, those involved with developing the theater district hope the increased student foot traffic will buoy it. Meanwhile, MCPHS University has been driving student foot traffic downtown since it arrived in Worcester in 2000. Last year, MCPHS increased its presence when it acquired the former Morgan Construction Co. in Lincoln Square to convert it to student housing.
What's new with CitySquare?
The CitySquare project also got a boost when Leggat McCall Properties of Boston announced last month that a private developer will build 300 apartments on the now-vacant site of the former Galleria Mall, the Telegram & Gazette reported recently. Leggat McCall, which is in charge of redeveloping CitySquare, also has a deal with a New Hampshire hotel developer to build a four-star, Renaissance by Marriott Hotel nearby, filling the full-service hotel void created when the former Crowne Plaza Hotel in Lincoln Square closed in 2010. The new hotel is slated to open in 2016.
These projects were preceded by new Unum Group and Saint Vincent Cancer & Wellness Center buildings, both of which have opened in the last two years. The city is building an underground parking garage behind those two buildings.
(CORRECTION: The original version of this article incorrectly described the status of Quinsigamond Community College's downtown Worcester campus on Franklin Street. It opened Sept. 2.)
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