Developer plans 44 apartments, restaurant at historic Downtown Worcester building, seeks $200K tax break
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One Exchange Place in Downtown Worcester
A New Bedford-based firm is seeking to turn a historic Downtown Worcester property into a mixed-use development featuring 44 residential units and a restaurant and is seeking a tax-increment-exemption agreement for the project.
CMK Development Partners is seeking to renovate 1 Exchange Place, a 48,000-square-foot complex of three brick buildings at 57 Exchange Street, into a mixed-use building, featuring 26 studios, 14 one-bedroom units, three two-bedroom units, and one three-bedroom unit, along with a space for a commercial restaurant.
The building will feature nine affordable units, four of them studios restricted to residents making 60% of the average median income and three studios and one two-bedroom unit restrict to 80% of the average median income, according to a letter from Worcester Chief Development Officer Peter Dunn to City Manager Eric Batista included in the meeting packet for the Tuesday meeting of the City Council.
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CMK Development was founded in 2019 and has completed other renovation projects in the state, including the restoration of the former Holy Family High School in New Bedford into apartments, according to Dunn’s letter.
The project is expected to cost $16 million, funded through a combination of equity, debt financing, and historic tax credits.
“The project will productively repurpose an office building that has been mostly underutilized for decades, create additional housing units and vitality in the Downtown, restore and preserve an historic building, retain the first-floor commercial space and generate an opportunity for a new restaurant across from the DCU Center, and generate significant new tax revenue to the municipality,” wrote Dunn.
The tax agreement has an average annual exemption percentage of 17% on the property’s estimated post-development value of $7.4 million, resulting in an estimated savings of $196,500 over its 15-year term for the developer.
Constructed in 1918, the building was once the home of the Waldo Street Police Station, which included the Worcester District Court, according to the Massachusetts Historical Commission. In the late 1980s, the building housed the office of Business Worcester, the precursor to Worcester Business Journal.
The property is owned by Exchange Waldo LLC, an entity based in Hingham. It was given a tax assessment value of $3.05 million for 2025, according to City of Worcester property records.
Apartments for the building have been planned since before August 2023, when heavy rains resulted in the flooding of the building’s transformer room, displacing its commercial tenants.
Eric Casey is the managing editor at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the manufacturing and real estate industries.
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