Looking Up
As far as economic development in Worcester is concerned, there are no quick fixes.
Recent events have caused us to feel optimistic, and to offer such a reminder yet again.
In the short space of a couple months, four significant deals have hit the news. Unum Group has signed a lease for a new office building in the long-stalled CitySquare development downtown, the city has come to an agreement to sell the Worcester Regional Airport to the Massachusetts Port Authority, the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences has purchased the financially troubled Crowne Plaza hotel at Lincoln Square and rail giant CSX has unveiled plans to greatly expand its rail yard on the city’s East Side.
While all progress in these tough economic times should receive recognition, some city councilors were quick indeed to praise one or the other of these developments as the most important economic development effort in the city’s history.
The truth, however, is far less sexy.
So far, the grand plans of a vital downtown anchored by CitySquare have proven to be an illusion. While the Hanover Insurance Group’s stepping in to become the project’s developer and Unum’s commitment to remain in the city in a new long-term lease are vital developments, the net effect does not produce more jobs in the city’s downtown. Unum will simply move its staff a few blocks from nearby Chestnut Street.
The same trend was at work upon City Manager Michael O’Brien’s announcement that a deal had been reached to sell the Worcester Regional Airport to Massport. Concerns about how the facility could ever be profitable were absent in the city council’s rush to anoint the deal as the transaction that could put Worcester on the path to becoming a more desirable place to call home. It’s a deal that makes sense, but the tough political work is yet to be done on building an access road upon which any real growth at the facility depends.
Going Yard
The CSX rail yard expansion on an underutilized piece of property near downtown has been the subject of doubt and much handwringing over the fate of rarely traveled, expendable roadways near the yard. Sure, it’s not what you’d draw up in a master plan if your vision was to surround downtown with new residential development – but it’s an appropriate expansion of an existing facility that should have a positive effect over time.
Worcester has dreamed for some time that its colleges would sprout downtown campuses — and while there has been some movement in that direction it took the arrival of the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences to put an educational anchor downtown. Its purchase of the Crowne Plaza for housing and more classrooms is a natural expansion of its campus footprint, and it breathes new residential life into the city center.
Rather than silver bullets, these projects are building blocks. At times, it seems as if only City Manager O’Brien and his economic development team realize this.
The alternative to student housing at the former Crowne Plaza isn’t market-rate condominiums, it’s an empty Crowne Plaza. Nitpicking over CSX’s plans to expand its Franklin Street rail yard demonstrates a willful blindness to the benefits of a project that will give Worcester new and wide-ranging business identity.
Likewise, enthused residents and city councilors would be wise not to overplay the benefits of other high-profile projects.
In the short term, O’Brien’s proposal to spend a portion of the $17 million proceeds of the Worcester Regional Airport sale on overdue street and sidewalk improvements is as important as the airport’s future under Massport’s ownership. Likewise, the millions in infrastructure improvements triggered by Unum’s CitySquare deal signing will pay significant dividends for downtown in addition to keeping Unum in the city.
If Worcester wants to attract people to live in the city, it must realize that the trend will simply not happen here to the same degree as it has in Chicago or Boston. The demographic that is moving back to urban areas doesn’t want the prepackaged, sanitized existence they left behind in the suburbs. It wants the kind of variety, activity and convenience a real city can offer. Worcester’s road to becoming an urban hub that has those many offerings is long. Worcester’s leaders will need to build on the progress they are making, remain enthusiastic and committed, but not get carried away. That kind of free, open-minded approach to development and cool-headed and pragmatic attitude toward the city’s future is what we’d like to see.
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