Worcester entrepreneur buys Southbridge Street lots for $1.2M

Photo | Google Maps 1 Southbridge St., Auburn

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By Timothy Doyle

Vinh Ly, owner of 3B Auto Inc. on Canterbury Street in Worcester, has purchased three lots in Worcester and Auburn for just under $1.2 million.

The seller was David Carlson and Bridges Realty Trust, who purchased the properties at 1048 Southbridge St., in Worcester, 1 Southbridge St. in Auburn, and 5 Jerome Ave. in Auburn for $515,000 in 2014, according to the Worcester District Registry of Deeds.

The site is home to Timbucktu RV Center. A former flower shop on the property will house LaCroix Heating and Cooling, a growing Worcester HVAC business.

Ly has explored the potential for more structures on the site with Worcester’s Graves Engineering and plans to build a 8,000- to 10,000-square-foot building for his business and potentially another retail structure.

This is Ly’s first development, but he doesn’t intend for it to be his last. The businessman is looking into one day entering the multi-family residential and storage markets.

Originally from Vietnam, Ly graduated from Doherty Memorial High School in Worcester and Worcester State University.

“Worcester has done so much for me,” said Ly in a Tuesday phone call with WBJ, “I want to give back and truly help people.”

Ly made headlines in 2021 when he donated his labor and expertise, working with the Greater Worcester Community Foundation and the United Way of Central Massachusetts in Worcester, to transform a van into a mobile clinic to offer COVID vaccines and testing.

He supports Veterans Inc. in Worcester and is consulting on other projects benefiting the community, which he wasn’t yet willing to disclose.