In February 2020, when Allen W. Fletcher opened his Worcester Public Market off of Kelley Square in the Canal District, it marked a high point in his four-year effort to convert a dirt lot into a vibrant mixed-use development with a European-style market at its core.
The WPM supports 35 individual vendors, most of whom are first-time entrepreneurs, primarily people of color and women. Yet, barely a month had passed from the grand opening when the coronavirus pandemic upended the retail and eatery industries. Despite already taking a significant risk in opening the new concept in a still largely low-income neighborhood, Fletcher stepped up to help his vendors out, waiving their rents during the thick of the crisis.
Now he and those tenants are in position to reap the rewards as the early investors in a neighborhood expected to boom in the years ahead, as more developers make their way to the district.
What do you think the future holds for Central Mass.? “Worcester remains the city of perpetual potential, and the future of the Canal District looks bright. Nothing could possibly go wrong.”
A language of West Africa: Fletcher speaks Wolof, which he has occasion to use in the Canal District.
