Businesses In Downtown Worcester See Revenue Lift With Influx Of Students

PHOTO/Matt VOLPINI MCPHS and other educational institutions in Worcester are working to form bonds with downtown firms that can benefit both the schools and businesses.

Gail Carberry said Quinsigamond Community College’s downtown interaction is by design.

MCPHS President Charles F. Monahan Jr. says downtown offers easy access to biotech firms and hospitals. “We have big plans.”

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By Livia Gershon

Think of college students and food, and you might picture a case of ramen noodles or late-night pizza deliveries, not a restaurant featuring shrimp cocktails and veal marsala. But Cyrus Mizrahi, owner of Viva Bene Italian Ristorante on Commercial Street in Worcester said being located next door to the Worcester campus of MCPHS University (formerly called the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences) is great for the Italian restaurant.

“Their families come,” he said. “Parents, when they come to town, they come and dine here... It's good to be next to a college.”

The business benefits of having college students nearby are more evident in downtown Worcester. MCPHS now has 1,500 students downtown, and the number is due to grow to 2,000 within three years. Becker College opened new housing for 75 students at a renovated Franklin Street building known as Bancroft Hall this year. And Quinsigamond Community College is in the process of taking over the old Telegram & Gazette building on Franklin Street, where its health and business programs will be housed starting in the fall.

“It makes perfect sense for a city that wants to be an 18-hour city to have a lot of young people,” said Erin Williams, cultural development officer for the city of Worcester.

Williams said colleges have been a crucial component of the city's drive in recent years to revitalize the downtown area. Officials have actively worked with colleges and developers to bring campuses downtown, and they've also created initiatives like the WOO Card, that offer discounts to students for cultural activities as way to nudge them to interact with the community.

Quinsigamond President Gail Carberry said the college's downtown plans call for interaction with the businesses and nonprofits that are already there. “We deliberately did not put a cafeteria in this building,” she said. Instead, she said, the college has been working with the Worcester Business Development Corp. to support local dining options where students are more likely to cross paths with workers from downtown businesses.

Carberry said QCC is also working with the Worcester Public Library and Black Box Theater, among others, to offer cultural resources for students outside of the college's main campus. “Our students, if they're downtown, shouldn't have to do too much travelling to (the main campus on) West Boylston Street unless they care to.”

Quinsigamond's presence may lead directly to other colleges planting flags downtown. The college has active alliances with Worcester State University, Becker and Nichols College that are designed to help students move smoothly from a two-year degree to a bachelor's program, and Carberry said some of those partners may end up sharing space and resources in the new building.

“WSU may use some space for nursing training,” she said. “Nichols is interested in hanging a shingle with us downtown.”

Room for growth

From the beginning, the prospect of relationships with local partners was what drew MCPHS to its downtown location. When the school outgrew its main Boston campus in 2000, President Charles F. Monahan Jr. said downtown Worcester was the obvious place to go because of the proximity to teaching hospitals and biotech firms.

Enrollment at the campus has been growing fast. The college has opened a variety of new student housing, and it's planning even more housing and parking space. “We have big plans for Worcester,” Monahan said. “Our expansion is going to be in Worcester.”

Becker also came to downtown due to expansion in its enrollment. With many new students from other parts of the country, CFO David Ellis said the school simply needed more housing space. “We're very fortunate that we came upon Bancroft Hall,” he said.

Ellis said having the downtown living option, in addition to its rural campus in Leicester and its more urban-residential Worcester campus, is a plus for some students. “We can provide a student a range of living options,” he said. “I think that gives us some added value.”

Ellis said exposing students to the cultural life of downtown Worcester is also likely to encourage more of them to settle in the area after graduation. “It's the second largest city in New England,” he said. “It continues to be on the rise.”

Linda Looft, Worcester Polytechnic Institute's assistant vice president of government and community relations, also cites connections with downtown culture and business as keys to retaining young professionals after graduation. WPI has grown its own downtown presence, particularly through the expansion of its partnership with technology firms at Gateway Park and the addition of a 258-bed student residence a block away on Faraday Street.

Life beyond graduation

Looft said WPI students develop strong connections in the city through internships and school projects that involve local companies, and also just by working in the area to pay the bills. She said she'll often strike up a conversation with a server at a Worcester restaurant and discover he or she is student.

“They talk about how they enjoy meeting people,” she said. “It's not only a job for them but it's a great way for them to get to know the city.”

Meanwhile, Looft said, colleges also draw crowds to the city for events, like the thousands of middle school students and families who attend WPI's robotics competition. “Those people will go looking for lunch and dinner afterward,” she said. “They'll be going downtown to look for that.”

(NOTE: The original version of this story misidentified the location of Becker College's rural campus.)

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