🔒Poet Hill Place apartments leasing up after December opening

Residents are now moving into a newly completed apartment community in Worcester’s Poet Hill neighborhood, which added 210 units to the city’s housing stock. Poet Hill Place opened to its first residents in December, said Kenneth Andino, senior property manager at the site.  The market-rate complex’s occupancy rate was at 10.5% as of the end […]

Residents are now moving into a newly completed apartment community in Worcester’s Poet Hill neighborhood, which added 210 units to the city’s housing stock. Poet Hill Place opened to its first residents in December, said Kenneth Andino, senior property manager at the site.  The market-rate complex’s occupancy rate was at 10.5% as of the end of the second quarter, according to real estate data firm CoStar. Base rents range from $1,740 for a studio to $2,705 for the largest available two-bedroom units, according to Apartments.com.  The building is attracting many prospective residents who are new to the city, Andino said. The building came online around the same time as a number of other new market-rate and luxury apartments, but he said the outlook for the property is still good.

“It’s the same shift that I'm sure you're seeing everywhere else with Worcester,” Andino said. “The majority of what we’re seeing is an influx of people based on what the city is already doing to attract new residents.” Amenities at the site include a courtyard, fitness center, cyber cafe, and a community room. Poet Hill Place is owned by Watertown-based SMC Management Corp., which purchased the undeveloped site at 13 Hemans St. for $900,000 in September 2022, according to City of Worcester property records. Construction began in January 2024, according to CoStar.  Residents have been enjoying the building’s relatively quiet location, with the building adjacent to Fairmount Park and located on a quiet side street, Andino said. The building sits near the top of Poet Hill, giving it a view of the northern part of Worcester.   The building’s five-acre, sloped parcel added some challenges to the building’s construction, with developer Callahan Construction Managers of Bridgewater and Harvard-based Maugel DeStefano Architects electing for a C-shaped design and a 40-foot foundation wall.  That design allowed the building to accommodate the parcel’s elevation, with a courtyard sitting above a parking deck accessible from Hemans Street, according to a June announcement from Callahan regarding the building’s completion. The building was completed a month before schedule, Callahan said.

“The Poet Hill Residences transformed an underutilized site into a residential space that will help attract new residents to Worcester and provide a high-end experience to everyone who lives there,” Bob Simonds, director – capital projects, SMC Management Corp., said in Callahan’s announcement. The site received a 2026 assessment of $30.38 million, according to municipal property records, with the building and site improvements accounting for $26.7 million.  Worcester needs to double its recent annual construction rate to meet the City’s Housing Production Plan’s target of 12,300 units by 2033, according to a Worcester Regional Research Bureau report from May. Eric Casey is the managing editor at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the real estate and banking & finance industries.