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August 21, 2023

Worcester offers properties off Shrewsbury Street for redevelopment

Photo | Timothy Doyle A Worcester Department of Public Works garage and municipal gas station at 29 Albany St.

The City of Worcester is seeking a developer to acquire and redevelop three city-owned lots being used by its Department of Public Works & Parks, according to a request for proposals issued by the City in July.

The properties at 26 and 29 Albany St. are in total 4.3 acres and contain two buildings used for garage space and a municipal gas station. The properties will be sold as is and environmental conditions have not yet been investigated or documented.

Proposals are due on Sept. 29, pushed back from the initial deadline of Aug. 30. They will be reviewed by the City’s Executive Office of Economic Development, which will recommend a development partner based on the criteria in the request.

There are no definitive plans for the relocation of the DPW garage operations, City spokesperson Tom Matthews wrote in a Monday email to WBJ. 

“The RFP will allow the City to learn about potential acquisition price and redevelopment scenarios. The result will inform the approach and feasibility of relocating the operations to a new site,” Matthews said.

News of the RFP was first reported by Patch.com.

The largest portion of the property, at 29 Albany St., extends from Albany Street to Shrewsbury Street and abuts the shopping plaza parking lot at 225 Shrewsbury St., where Lundgren Equity Partners of Auburn is planning a seven-story, 218 unit apartment building.

The Auburn developer was approved in July by the Worcester Planning Board for an additional 87-unit apartment building with ground-level retail space across the street at 224 Shrewsbury St.

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1 Comments

Robertson Construction
August 25, 2023

Great more housing without traffic studies or will it be a non-tax paying nonprofit? Let's wait and see what the vacancy rates are on existing projects before putting the stake in the ground. The City of Worcester needs more tax revenue and if means selling prime real estate so be it, but it should be a tax producing venture. Enough apartment buildings are under construction. What will be absorb in a high interest rate down market? My opinion would be to build out office space that will attract high salary paying tech companies to the area.

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