High-end comes to Worcester's downtown
Tim Murray, president and CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, said the AC Hotel is a sign the city has a market for luxury items and services.
Renderings of the proposed $33-million AC Hotel by Marriott, showcasing an exterior and interior to focus on luxury and more communal spaces.
In one fell swoop, a 168-room hotel has done something that years of development efforts have been striving for: align Worcester's downtown with the words luxury, premiere and high-end.
It's the kind of announcement that city officials and those invested in the resurgence of Worcester are holding up as a sign of the new downtown.
Yes, there have been major developments in the downtown, including the razing of the defunct Worcester Common Outlets, a reinvestment in the former Telegram & Gazette building, bringing thousands of Quinsigamond Community College students and employees downtown, and the creation of the Voke Lofts in the downtown-adjacent Lincoln Plaza.
These developments have set the foundation for a rebuilding of downtown, but with the selection of the AC Hotel by Marriott to be placed nearly next to the city commons, one developer has taken a step towards elevating the area up to a high-end destination, according to city insiders and officials.
The 120,000-square-foot hotel will be the city's only full-service downtown hotel, but it adds more than meeting space and the (admittedly large and somewhat game-changing in its own right) 250-seat restaurant. It is a shot of European-style class from a brand that has been creating boutique, luxury hotels since 1998. Worcester will be the only location outside of Boston to receive one of these hotels, and it will be able to pull business clients and those seeking a unique experience from 25 miles around, said Leo H. Xarras, chairman of Colwen Hotels (a group under XSS Hotels of Hooksett, N. H. that is developing the property).
It's doing all this with a complete rethink of what a hotel is supposed to be. Gone are the days of big-box hotels on the side of major thoroughfares, said Christine Thomas, development partner for XSS Hotels.
“Lodging can be quite transformative because it is a building-block to downtowns,” she said. “In bigger cities, having first-class, new hotel downtown makes a big difference to the core of the city.”
People want class, amenities and a downtown location, Thomas said. Inside, the rooms no longer center around a massive TV. The heated indoor pool is salt water because it's better for the environment. An emphasis will be placed on the communal spaces, with Worcester County-sourced art creating comfortable and usable spaces designed to draw people out of their rooms.
Along with all this talk of luxury and premiere comes higher price. The rooms will have a $30 to $50 premium over the current $150 to $199 high-end Worcester market, according to XSS.
This is a market Worcester has already proven it can support, said Tim Murrary, president and CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce.
“I remember when the Sole Proprietor opened and people questioned whether they could support it and some of the high end restaurants on Shrewsbury Street. People have supported them,” Murray said. “There is a market in Central Massachusetts, and the Worcester area that is looking for high-end experiences in terms of leisure and food.”
This is just the kind of lynchpin development the city needs to pull in additional high-end development and retail, said Tim McGourthy, executive director of the Worcester Regional Research Bureau. The next step will be feeding in the complementary developments.
“As others come in and start taking advantage of the value the hotel brings in, then you have an opportunity to see a really dynamic change in the downtown,” McGourthy said. “In the end, it's about finding the investors willing to take the risk and capitalize on a growing market… That hotel is a destination, and people will come and they will be looking for alternatives as well.”
Capitalizing on the market
The next step will bring in retail to build upon the expected influx of people to both this hotel as well as the extended stay hotel and other residential locations being built near the downtown, said Michael Traynor, chief development officer for Worcester.
“We need to step up our game and particularly with the clientele we will have downtown. We need the type of amenities that cater to the type of people coming into these developments,” Traynor said.
The city will attempt to create an overall downtown strategy for the first time to capitalize on this new density and market, Traynor said.
There needs to be a coordinated effort to get a mix of retail into the area, so all property owners don't court the same companies, Traynor said. While retail in downtown is the next step, attention still must be paid to other parts of the city and ongoing development.
Much of the effort comes down to tying together the assets already existing in the city, City Manager Edward Augustus said. The new hotel, along with all of downtown is within walking distance of numerous parts of the city, such as Shrewsbury Street, that already have complimentary uses.
It will be up to the city to ensure the infrastructure is in place to connect all those areas in a pleasant and efficient way, including the $7.5-million Main Street project and opening Front Street leading to Union Station, Traynor said.
Benefitting the whole city
While the hotel and the development set to sprout up around it might seem to benefit a very particular subset of the city and region, the positives will spread throughout various levels of the economy and the city, Traynor said. For starters, the hotel will bring in 60 full-time jobs to downtown Worcester.
“It's going to have this ripple effect and lead to areas of other success in the city, but you've got to have a good, active core downtown,” he said. “Worcester has a good stock of affordable housing, so I don't think this is taking anything away.”
Adding to the potential from the hotel is the recently announced nonstop train to and from Boston, Traynor said.
“It's going to pull more people and investment into the city,” he said. “The nonstop trains and added express trains help grow the market share here.”
All of this could help Worcester bring in more businesses, McGourthy said. Having a thriving downtown offers something different from many other communities outside of Boston.
“Having a vibrant city is a key part of the business bottom line,” McGourthy said. “What Worcester needs to look at is creating the full experience.”
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