August 05, 2008

95 Grand Street

Note the attached article from the Worcester Business Journal, click here. The same realization should have been made on May Street. Bottom line is that private developers realize that some of these projects simply make no sense and only an organization that can receive grant monies from the Commonwealth for low/affordable housing can make the numbers work. Notice who owns 93 Grand Street, what do you think will be put in there?

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was just to look at both buildings...is 93 Grand going to become more ,ow income housing??the folks at Worcester Royal must be estatic to hear this.

Bill Randell said...

Paul:

I would assume that 93 would be more low income housing. The CDC's get alot of grants (HOME) funds from the State and Federal Govt to do their projects. The grants are typically tied into a certain percentage of the house, if not all, being low (affordable) housing.

Bill

John said...

"Teasdale said the CDC has scrapped its plan to develop 93 Grand as affordable housing and is now planning to make the building mixed use."


Bill

This is from the article almost near the end

Bill Randell said...

Mixed use? Good luck getting a conventional loan to do a mixed use project on Grand Street. Look not furthere then the University Park Lofts of the other abandoned proposed development across the street.

Unless of course the mixed use includes a low/affordable element.

Anonymous said...

I was thinkin the same thing Wild Will after checking out both sites which are side by side...I also sat outside University Lofts the other day drinking coffee and reading the papah..yah feel like the folks around you think that you are either a john, an undercover copor their next victim

John said...

What's the problem with being a john?

Anonymous said...

Hey wait a minute here................I thought this was going to be South Worc Industrial Park......as in manufacturing and not retail

That Granite Bank developer wants to put shoppes & stores in that area...........dittos for Main SOuth CDC.......wowee....................someone has brass cahonnes to gamble that kind of Money on Grand St................Teasdale must be glad it aint his $$$$$.

Downtown has probs with empty storefronts and there are plenty of peopel dwontown everyday with disposable income too.......City Sq is on hold....and speculators want to put stores on Grand St. where disposable income is limited/non existent.....and road systems by their own admissions are weak to to non existent....might work out someday................but prob. not in my lifetime.

Time to thin out these CDC's.

Did anyone catch Fletcher last week in his column....who basically said it's OK to use governemnt millions to build a canal district for his viewing pleasure...........but he cannot understand why the gov't has to charge $4,000 to copy police documents..............well it's b/c they have to fund that $900,000 canal district study somehow.................then there's the millions to build it too.......money has to come from somewhere.............copying fees are a start

4rilla said...

I've been meaning to write about this since I read the article in the WBJ... It's on my to do list.

As a University Park Lofts owner I think it would be great if 95 Grand was demo'd and the land went mixed use, 75% retail/business and 25% residential.

I am putting on my rose colored glasses and looking 5 years out but I hope that the area could be a viable spot for a mix with a restaurant and a pouring establishment and a couple of reputable retail spots.. But that is all highly unlikely, but as a neighbor what I would like to see...

And Paulie, next time you are parked out front give me a holler and I can give you a real tour!

Bill Randell said...

4Rilla:

The building should definately be knocked down. It simply is too far gone.

The only one who could possibly develop this site is a CDC type opeation. I know this seems contradictory but a they are able to get State and Federal grant monies. The catch is they have to provide a certain percentage of low/affordability component.

Look no further then May Street. That whole building is low income, has no parking and the cost per unit is something like 400,000 per. Building should have been razed.

Just not sure exactly what can be put back here.

Bill

Anonymous said...

Raze it and grass it over..........enclose it with an 8 ft Cyclone fence.

This is the current most financially feasible option for the city.

vs. what...........another park.........more pAJAMA pEOPLE HOUSING...........


Mixed use retail/housing/etc..........I doubt it......at least not at this time

Meanwhile let us not forget the old Wyman Gordon site sits fallow.........and how long has WG aleegedly been trying to move that properrty.............blame the city council...........or now maybe Wyman wants to came back to part of it?................my point is this parcel is much more viable than anything on Grand St..........and is it larger too???......and it has been in limbo for how long???....WG razed that place maybr 5 years ago???...............and prior to that the factory building had been empty for how long???

Maybe not a perfect analogy between WG and Grand St..........but you get my point

Anonymous said...

4Rilla..you dream to much like me..that being said.I can walk to Baba Sushi now with the ole lady and this is a real treat to be quite honest with you and I do have Living Earth...I walk out my house..to the right I literally have two human asses sticking out of it..they are really squuezing in two families in one unit and to my left this incredible whole food business-compared to many in the urban core of Woosah I am very lucky that I can walk to Baba Sushi & Living Earth within 2 minutes:>)

If I close my eyes 4Rilla..I could envision a brewery/saloon in 93 Grand...wouldn't that be nice:>)

Wild Will..these buildings could be re-worked if we had folks with some money moving in to them:>) Not everyone is looking for a $99 special:>) For the umpteenth time..change the demographics of who wants to live here..get a few of the politiotions to live here and it works possibly..maybe forget the politions..

I still can't fathom how our City Council and most of the city leadahs think they can fix the urban core of this city if none of em' wanna live in it...they sure are putting a load on those of us that do and are trying to make it here (yes it is not only the hungry, tired, poor trying to make it here folks:>) Anyone heard from Kate lately since she asked "please contact me so I can discuss with you what I am doing wrong"

Wouldn't it be great to have a City Councilor who regularly blogged and gave us the citizens some real input on their urban core renewal thoughts:>) That is right up there with 4Rilla's dreams:>)

I started really looking at my property tax bills lately.it is geting expensive to live and own in Worcester

Anonymous said...

When I was at the CDC's meeting a couple months ago, they stated that nothing would occur with 95 Grand Street for another 3-5 years, they would sit on it until the market was better. And 93 Grand is the damn Massad's, I wish someone would run them out of town...
They also stated that the building would need to be demolished...
So what is said in these meetings never seems to be what the general public is told as I have already learned