Developer proposes five-story lab building in next phase of WPI’s Gateway Park

Photo | Google Maps Site of proposed Gateway III building at 32 Prescott St.

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By Timothy Doyle

Holyoke developer O’Connell Development Group has proposed Gateway Park III, a five-story, 125,000-square-foot laboratory and office building at 32 Prescott St. in Worcester, part of Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s Gateway Park development.

The building, expected to be completed in 2025, will be partly leased by WPI.

"The developer will also target tech industry clients so the whole area is focused on research that has not only a local impact, but can make a mark on the world," according to WPI in a statement to WBJ.

Gateway Park began as a partnership between the nonprofit Worcester Business Development Corp. and WPI to redevelop the brownfield site and underutilized industrial area.

In 2007, Gateway I opened the 125,000-square-foot Life Sciences and Bioengineering Center at 60 Prescott St.

O’Connell Development completed Gateway II at 50 Prescott St., a 100,000-square-foot laboratory and office building for WPI in 2012.

The buildings house several WPI research and academic programs, as well as administrative offices and commercial enterprises, according to the WPI website.

A fourth building is planned directly to the east of Gateway Park III, according to plans submitted to the city, though that development has not been proposed yet. According to WPI, that building will be approximately 100,000 square feet and developed by O'Connell.

Gateway Park LLC, the entity which owns Gateway Park, also owns 10 Salisbury St., a lot across from 32 Prescott indicated to be part of the Gateway Park project in a 2016 Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce document.

The Worcester Planning Board will discuss the proposal publicly at its Nov. 2 meeting.