Downtown Vitality In Focus | MCPHS prepares for new $10-million optometry school
As long as the world contains people with sub-par vision, we’ll need optometrists.
Decision makers at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences know that. And they also know that less than half the states in the rapidly aging United States have accredited optometry programs.
To see the college’s latest expansion in Worcester, passersby need only squint up at the crane next to the former Crowne Plaza hotel at Lincoln Square, where a six-story, 54,000-square foot optometry school is quickly taking shape.
Charles F. Monahan Jr., school president, said in a written statement that he hopes the $10-million project will inject “new life and vitality” into downtown.
“As we continue to grow into more health professions, the 10 Lincoln Sq. expansion is another step in our goal to double enrollment in Worcester.”
Construction will be complete by early next year with the first class of students arriving in August, said Michael Ratty, a spokesman for the school.
MCPHS purchased the hotel property, which struggled to pay its mortgage under higher vacancies and downward pressure on prices, last year for $16.8 million. The building now houses the school’s Living and Learning Center, which can accommodate 180 pharmacy students.
The Boston-based school came to Worcester in 2000 and has been expanding quickly since 2009, buying (in addition to the hotel) buildings on Foster Street, including a nine-story building now called the Thomas Henry Borysek Living and Learning Center.
Mark Bilotta, CEO of the Colleges of Worcester Consortium, said all of the area’s colleges are vital for the regional economy, employing more than 16,000 people with a combined payroll of $641 million in 2010.
“I won’t be surprised in three to five years to see at least one or two more [consortium] members have a significant presence downtown,” he said.
“I think MCPHS’ arrival downtown was really a change for Worcester,” said Timothy McGourthy, the city’s chief development officer. “While we were a college town before, we never had that downtown central presence.”
He said the school acquired former commercial buildings and the hotel at times when it seemed there was no other market for them.
“Clearly the market demand at that point in time was for those institutional uses,” he said.
An expanded downtown presence for the pharmacy school means more people on the streets who can frequent businesses, restaurants and bars, he added.
It also means a need for more housing. The optometry school will not contain any apartments. Other Worcester campus buildings can house about one-third of its more than 1,000 students while the rest live off campus.
“As MCPHS and others look to expand, I think that demand for new housing could fuel additional growth,” McGourthy said. “I think downtown can definitely absorb more rental units.”
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments