Higgins Armory Building Faces Market Challenges

PHOTO/Matt Pilon; worcester business journal photo illustration

PHOTO/Matt Pilon A developer interested in the Higgins Armory Museum could take advantage of tax credits.

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Highly visible to passing motorists on its hillside perch, does the gleaming steel-and-glass Higgins Armory Museum — which has housed one of the world's largest collections of medieval armor and weaponry for the past 82 years — also hold the potential for other uses?

Come year's end, when the museum shuts down because of its inability to close a longstanding budget gap, the collection (and what remains of the Higgins' $2.9-million endowment) will move to the Worcester Art Museum.

The board of directors and staff at Higgins say they're now starting the process they hope will result in a new inhabitant for the Classic Revival-style structure built by Worcester businessman John Woodman Higgins.

"Obviously, we want the best outcome for the building," said Suzanne Maas, interim executive director at Higgins.

But what that outcome will be remains unclear. A spokesman for the museum's public relations firm, RDW Group, said the board of directors has yet to hire a real estate broker to represent the nonprofit.

Meanwhile, Tim McGourthy, the city's chief development officer, said his office has not heard from Higgins regarding its potential plans. Craig Blais, president and CEO of the Worcester Business Development Corp. — which has had a hand in redeveloping a number of properties in and around Worcester — said his organization has also not been contacted about assisting with the property's future.

If the property is sold, proceeds of the sale would go toward maintaining the collection and the Higgins legacy at the art museum, he said.

Higgins owns two parcels on Barber Avenue. One contains the 40,000-square-foot building and the other 4.5-acre parcel has been used as the museum's parking lot.

Together, they're assessed at $13.9 million, according to the city assessor's office. A sale at full assessed value would provide a significant boost to the art museum's $92-million endowment.

But Thomas Kelleher, principal of Worcester-based commercial real estate firm Keller & Sadowsky, thinks it's unlikely the property sells for anywhere near that amount.

Kelleher sees the building as a four-story, industrial-style building, which he thinks makes it functionally obsolete, because manufacturers these days want to be on the ground floor.

Many potential reuses, such as office space or apartments, would require substantial and potentially costly renovation, he said. And that's assuming the market has demand for either.

"I don't know how you'd value it," Kelleher said. "Fifteen to 20 dollars a (square) foot may be what it's worth to someone who really wants it. But it would take one or two years to convert it to start taking any income out of it."

Stripping down the building to the frame could be an option, he said, but the property's listing on the National Register of Historic Places would complicate that process, though it could also allow for historic preservation tax credits.

"I'm bullish on Worcester," he said. "It's just a case of this particular piece."

Kevin O'Sullivan, executive director of Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives, which is headquartered in Gateway Park and leases a biotech incubator lab adjacent to the museum, doesn't think it would lend itself to a life sciences purpose because it would require advanced temperature controls.

"Retrofitting an old building into biotech is too costly," O'Sullivan said. "They've been a great neighbor. We're sorry to see them go."

What about education? Would Quinsigamond Community College be interested in a Higgins satellite campus?

QCC President Gail Carberry said the school has its hands full with the scheduled opening of its health care and workforce development center downtown in early 2014.

"I love Higgins Armory," Carberry said. "We're always open to opportunities. But our pockets are turned pretty much inside out with the (downtown) project."

James Donnelly Jr., chairman of the Higgins board and a partner at Mirick O'Connell, said "everything is on the table" in the board's discussion about the future of the property, including potential tax credits.

He said the board is aware that certain re-use options may not be practical.

"We're very sensitive to that issue and we have talented people, mostly at the trustee level right now, working on the best solution to that problem," Donnelly said.

Correction: The original version of this story incorrectly reported the square footage of the Higgins Armory building.

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