October 10, 2008

South Worcester Industrial Park (SWIP) Update



Over the past ten years, I have been to about 30 meetings on this. This is no exageration, to date not one single job has been created and pretty much nobody knows where the South Worcester Industrial Park (SWIP) is.


In November, 2007, the City of Worcester was able to RFP a large parcel of land (11 acres) referred to as 49 Canterbury Street. It is a large fenced in lot bounded by Canterbury, Gardner and Southgate Street. It was big step and will eventually be the first/anchor tenant of the SWIP.

There were two bidders:
  1. Absolute Machine: an abutter bid 50,000 for expansion of existing business

  2. Pharmasphere: start-up company bid $1 with promises to invest approximately $15 million to invest in a 50,000 square foot facility

Pharamasphere was awarded the bid "because it proposed to move forward quickly and create jobs for workers with a range of skills and educational", click here for the Telegram story announcing the award this past January, 2008. Myself I thought supporting existing local businesses an awarding the parcel to the abutter bidding $50,000 made more sense then a start-up bidding $1, but I digress.

Next step was to complete what is referred to as a Terms of Conveyance (TOC). Although the TOC to transfer the property was only suppose to take 30 days, per the RFP, the Terms of Conveyance was signed 9 months later on September 4, 2008. I have had a chance to read the TOC and do not like the terms at all.

The actual transfer of the property for $1 will now take place no later then ten days after a building permit is obtained. O'kay I can accept this, but what I can not accept is the deadline to get the building permit. The deadline is September 1st, 2009.

Let me get this right. Pharasphere won the bid for $1 in January, 2008, because they were suppose to "move forward quickly" and now they have until September 1st, 2009 to obtain a building permit before they have even have to take title to the property within ten days for $1. It gets better, or should I say worse.

Even if they do not have the building permit on September 1st, 2009, the TOC can not be terminated until September 1st, 2010 as long as Pharmasphere "has pending applications to obtain such permit and is diligently pursuing such permit." How does one interpret or enforce a "diligent" standard. This winning bid of $1 in essence can tie up this 11 acre parcel, that nobody is paying taxes on, until September 1st, 2010.

One of the reasons given for the long time period is that Pharmasphere is having a tough time raising venture capital for this start-up, which is understandable especially in light of recent market developments. At the same time one must wonder how this project was ever considered to be one that would in fact "move forward quickly" without firm commitments already in place. The better question, however, is why enter into a TOC that can tie up this parcel for two years when it is a "tough time" to raise monies for start-ups and there are no loan commitments in place?

Maybe we should not have signed the TOC and rebid the parcel.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dittos for the Mason St Worc Common Ground/Mason St LLC project.

They won the bid in June of 2005..............land was to be transferred and constr start no later then 90 days later = Sept, 2005....they did eventually take possession of the land & cleaned the land up about 2 years later.

It now 3 yrs later and no constr has started yet.....plus after they purchsed the land it was transferred to WGC's name only ( as Bill has pointed on here before) so that being non profit owned land....they could get free money from Washington to clean the pollution probs on the site...and then tranfer it back to WCG/Mason St LLC ownership...given todays markets.... hell will feeze over before they ever build the proposed Pajama Perople Low Income housing Project there. The original bid stated that ownership could only be transferred to low income homebuyer.....maybe only low income, 1st time home buyers.

BTW rumors float around that Jim Govern has a friend or relative in volved somehow in this project......not sure exactly how that person(s) is involved........maybe Nick K can investigate it??

City Sq has a similar delay history too....although the facts are different......b/c City Sq was not initially city owned land that was auctioned off by the Office Of Neighborhood Services...............also BTW what Services does this city office provide to my 'hood?

Anonymous said...

.....and how could I forget............Worc Airport now has been a bride in search of suitor with a Green Card.........for how many years.........problem is the bride (and her political friends) have only 1 suitor in mind.......so the suitor basically doenst have to buy the cow to get the milk (as the saying goes)............just pay the annual $2M "rent".....is actually cheaper that way and bride to be can never get ahold of any of the suitors assetts should they ever get married & then she wants a divorce...........this suitor is a fox!!!!!!!

Bill Randell said...

Jahn:

Next time I am in trouble with the City, I am going to that I am "diligently" working ot fix the problem.

Seriously, at this point I hope Pharmasphere gets their funding and the project gets done, but it makes no sense to me to have an open window like this for two year.s

Bill

Anonymous said...

If I was a public office holder, one thing I'd be sure of, even it meant workign a 2nd job at Honey Farms.........and that is that my taxes are paid on time and are not in arrears.

We do have a public official who it seems is a small amt behind behind on their city taxes.........it just sends a real bad message........and sets a bad example..............kinda like the stoner parent telling their teen not to smoke grass...........

Maybe there is a plausible explanation for this.....and the good person would like to explain it to us........I tend to doubt that lack of money is the issue.......so surely there's a rational reason why???

It just frosts my Gluteous Maximuus.......esp. as Nov 1st is fast approaching...as it is tax rate setting time..........AND......as Bill mentioned earleir....tax rate setting time seems to bring all the skeletons out of the closet annually .............right around Halloween..........

Bill, I count many realtively newly constructed properties..........mostly (all?) duplexes sitting unsold over in Main South CDC's Brightly Beacon area...........some unsold but rented now for a number of years..........others vacant...and still others open foundation(s)............awaiting a house..........would you still be building if you had such a huge backlog of unsold unsold inventory ???? I dont understand this??

Anonymous said...

Will Sunday T&G give us an update tomorrow on Police Paygate ???.................or will I read more editorializing on the year 1492........or Post world War II Hungary.

Time for T&G reporters to unearth some good dirt........take em off their collectives leashes and let em do their jobs....one final gasp before T&G goes the way of the Want Advertiser........as I just read on Wormtown's Blog........years ago i once sold an old '57 Buick via the Want Advertiser.God the thing even had Power seats back then.........it had been dubbed ..The Pimp Mobile.......kinda sad to hear of this demise.........but when techology triumphs we all benefit in the long run.........unless you're a Worc taxpayer and still have to pay for a contigent of 400+ men sitting around waiting my waste can to catch on fire..........or for some old Lady at Webster Sq Towers to fall off the curb and stub her pinky

Anonymous said...

Sorry.....also I want all to enjoy the fine weekend that's on tap.............Bill that means no work tomorrow at all!!!!!.....time to kick back for 18 hrs..........I'll volunteer Harry to fill in for ya..........