Worcester Business Journal

8 Worcester Business Journal | January 7, 2019 | wbjournal.com Leveraging strides in Worcester center BY GRANT WELKER Worcester Business Journal News Editor D owntown Worcester has already found success in redeveloping the former Galleria mall site, bring- ing back Front Street, adding new housing and finding better uses to long-vacant sites like the former Paris Cinema. Now, property owners are looking to do more to market downtown Worcester, clean-up sidewalks, add signs and hire ambassadors to improve the neighborhood that much further. This year, Worcester is set to roll out the eighth business improvement dis- trict in Massachusetts, where property owners pay into a fund to make upgrades to a specific neighborhood. With approval from the City Council in November, Worcester's new business improvement district already has set up a board of directors and is preparing to hire a vendor and an executive director to oversee a 78-acre piece of downtown centered around Worcester Common. Of more than 90 property owners in the district, the idea has received broad and strong support, said Troy Siebels, the president and CEO of the Hanover Theatre and a driving force behind the effort to bring the district to reality. "What those 90-plus property own- ers have in common is a desire to have more services in our neighborhood than we can reasonably expect the city to provide, and a willingness to step up and make that happen," Siebels said. The district expects to bring in roughly $950,000 a year through small tax surcharges on properties in the dis- trict's boundaries. A few nonprofits in the district, who are otherwise exempt from paying property taxes, have already committed to paying, including the Hanover Theatre, YWCA and MCPHS University. Funding neighborhood ambassadors The idea for the district came from the Theatre District, which was cen- tered around the Hanover Theatre. Though it didn't use a tax surcharge to pay for improvements, the district was designated by MassDevelopment as part of the state agency's Transformative Development Initiative, making it eligible for plan- ning aid and investment funding. Siebels said the timing was right to create a business improvement district now, which was not practical 10 or even five years ago. For the business improvement dis- trict, surcharges on properties will amount to three one-thousandths of a percent of a property's assessed value, or $3,000 on a $1 million property. Those funds are expected to pay pri- marily for beautification and safety improvements, as well as marketing, advocacy and public art or sculptures. Ambassadors, workers who will do everything from keeping sidewalks IMPROVING DOWNTOWN A new business improvement district will use $950K annually from property owners to make new upgrades to Worcester's commercial center Troy Siebels, the president and CEO of the Hanover Theatre, has helped get a business improvement district off the ground in downtown Worcester. Main Street Franklin Street Front Street Myrtle Street Francis McGrath Blvd. Foster Street Business Improvement Distict W O R C E S T E R The 78-acre Worcester Business Improvement District is centered around the Worcester Common, with some of the downtown's largest commercial properties. PHOTO: GRANT WELKER

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