🔒Q&A: ‘The best lawyer I can be’

Born and raised in Worcester, Mark Borenstein got his start as an attorney in 2014 at the law firm Seder & Chandler.

By 2018, he joined the Worcester law firm Bowditch & Dewey, becoming a partner in its real estate practice in 2023. The following year, he was part of the large group of Bowditch attorneys who left to start the Worcester office of Boston law firm Prince Lobel. At the start of this year, he was named the co-chair of Prince Lobel’s real estate group. He represents developers as they navigate the process to get their projects approved, financed, and built.

What will be the hot real estate market in Worcester this year?

Housing will continue to be really strong, but it all comes down to financing. For affordable housing projects, there’s only a finite amount of funds from the government to finance those developments. Developers then have to wait to see if they get that money, which is difficult. On the market-rate side, you need to make sure you have the financing in place before anything can really begin. That’s difficult, too. Most of these projects really aren’t viable without tax incentives from the government, like The Menkiti Group project in Downtown Worcester. As much as folks think Worcester is this hot market that everyone wants to come to – there is that to a certain degree – but it is still difficult to make these projects viable financially.

What is causing these financial pressures?

We are in the middle of a perfect storm for development. Folks need to turn a profit on the development, but they are dealing with high tariffs on the construction materials, high taxes, high interest rates on financing, the costs and complexity of the specialized energy codes, and the affordability requirements calling for a certain percentage of your units to be affordable. In many instances, especially with the affordability requirements and the specialized energy codes, the thought process behind them makes sense. We want to have green initiatives. We want to work toward a more sustainable future. We want to have more affordable housing for folks. But we have to recognize all those things have a serious impact on whether a project is financially feasible. As a city, we need to find some happy balance where we can create new housing units but address these priorities.

What new real estate projects are you seeing?

I’m seeing a mixture of new residential construction and some mixed-use development. The City of Worcester is emphasizing mixed-use developments, which is great for neighborhoods where that makes sense, like the Canal District. Mixed-use buildings have a harder time getting financing, compared to a straight residential building, so developers have to navigate that.

What about commercial projects, like office buildings?

The commercial market is much more limited. We have a pretty high commercial tax rate in Worcester, which is part of the issue. Financing for commercial development is limited in general, so anyone who wants to build commercial in Worcester needs some sort of tax incentive to make it economical. I don’t get many inquiries for office buildings. Period. None really. There is more interest in office buildings that developers want to convert into residential.

How has the last year been, since you moved from Bowditch to Prince Lobel?

It has been phenomenal. I still have great friends at Bowditch & Dewey, and you have some great lawyers there. They do good stuff. But I’m very fortunate the group that came over with us from Bowditch to Prince Lobel is a strong group very involved in the Worcester community, like Mike Angelini and George Tetler, who are pillars of the community. I have great mentors here in Worcester, and we have this great bench of amazing lawyers from the Prince Lobel office in Boston. We have this rich Worcester presence, which I have always appreciated in my practice.

What are you excited about in the future?

I’m excited about growing Worcester in a responsible and sustainable way. It’s so exciting to be involved in the development process, and then going to visit those buildings later. Sometimes it is something as small as helping out with American Flatbread Worcester, and then being able to have my daughter’s second birthday party at that bowling alley. It makes the work tangible. I see so much opportunity and so much promise in Worcester, so it’s exciting to be a part of that. Thinking ahead 20 years, there might be an 11-story building in Worcester because of something I was able to help out with. It gives me purpose. A lot of folks when they go to work don’t have that purpose. When I go to work, that all drives me. It makes me want to be the best lawyer I can be. This interview was conducted and edited for length and clarity by WBJ Editor Brad Kane.