Worcester Business Center's Inner Beauty Is Uncovered | Census Bureau counts on space at 67 Millbrook as renovation continues
PHOTO/MATTHEW L. BROWN
Brokers Jim Umphrey, left, and Don Mancini, right, say the entire north end of the Worcester Business Center could soon be leased to a single tenant. The space is undergoing $8 million in renovations.
PHOTO/MATTHEW L. BROWN
Workers resurfacing the south end of the Worcester Business Center.
Even the most enthusiastic Worcester booster would admit the Worcester Business Center is the ugliest building in the city.
At least is used to be.
Space Race
Little more than a year after buying the 67 Millbrook St. behemoth for $10.4 million, and just six months after about $8 million in renovations began, Franklin Realty Advisors Inc. expects the first tenants in the previously empty north end of the building to take occupancy in mid-September. The building that tenant, the U.S. Census Bureau, will be moving into already looks far better than it did six months ago and exterior renovations aren’t even finished yet.
When it’s done, the building will look clean and modern, which is a drastic change from the small, dark windows and drab, metal siding that adorned it for more than 30 years.
The census bureau has signed a 27-month lease for 6,700 square feet on the second floor, according to Donald J. Mancini, a broker with Worcester commercial real estate firm Kelleher & Sadowsky Associates Inc. But Franklin has its sights set on larger targets.
Jim Umphrey, also of Kelleher & Sadowsky, said the firm is in negotiations between Franklin and a “medical” tenant that may lease the entire 72,311-square-foot north end. Space in the renovated building will lease for $18.50-per-square-foot, and the brokers say that while it could attract tenants away from downtown Worcester, there’s enough action in the market for everyone.
A prospective tenant interested in leasing 45,000 square feet in the building beginning Nov. 1 is also in lease negotiations, Umphrey said.
One look at the building six months ago, and a passerby would’ve been forgiven for thinking the place was vacant. It looked tired, old and run down. But almost in spite of itself, the building that once housed the headquarters of Thom McAn shoes has remained mostly occupied. Today, there are 45 tenants taking up approximately two-thirds of the building. Some of those tenants, like Cogmedix and CoWorx, have moved in recently. Others have been there for years.
According to Franklin’s Ronald M. Recchino, the center’s property manager, about 90 percent of the tenants have stayed despite the construction.
Umphrey said the business center offers something downtown offices simply can’t: abundant, free parking. Providing parking for employees can be very expensive for downtown companies, which often take on the cost of parking in their rent.
When renovations are complete, there’ll be freshly-paved parking for 1,064 vehicles at the business center, Mancini said.
“There’s still good demand for space downtown,” Umphrey said, “but a good segment of the market wants space outside of downtown. Things like parking become a sensitive issue.”
Umphrey said there’s enough “depth in the market” to fill the business center without hurting downtown’s prospects for revival.
“When I looked at this, two-thirds of the building was full and it was hideous,” said Umphrey. “The fact that two-thirds of the building is leased and it looks the way it does gave (Franklin) pretty good confidence” that a new look, new lobbies and professional management “could make this the best suburban building in Worcester.”
The business center sits on 12 acres. A 15,000-square-foot building occupied by a lawn care equipment distributor will be painted and a 2-acre site across the street at 66 Millbrook St. may be developed as a build-to-suit property in the near future.
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