Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | April 1, 2019 | Worcester Business Journal 9 Whether your business is looking to expand, develop cash flow, or buy new equipment, IC can help you move forward. Call me at 978-353-1331 or email me at businessbanking@iccreditunion.com. Bruce Mathieu Senior Vice President Business Development Officer LARGE OR SMALL BUSINESS SERVICES We've got you covered! Intelligent BUSINESS Solutions Start here! Info: ICCreditUnion.org or businessbanking@iccreditunion.com Federally Insured by NCUA Like, Friend or Follow Us Vicksburg Square, in the center of Devens, is a cluster of buildings built before World War II. MassDevelopment, the state agency operating Devens, is proposing up to 300 housing units and retail use at the site. Hale Hall: 112,825 square feet, built in 1940 to house 500 soldiers. Last used in mid-1990s. Revere Hall: 111,141 square feet, built in 1929 to house 250 soldiers. Last used for offices in 2005. Knox Hall: 71,781 square feet, built in 1929 as a hospital. Last used in mid-1990s. Allen Hall: 113,075 square feet, built in 1929 to house 400 soldiers. It was later for counter-espionage operations, which required covering first-floor windows to limit radio com- munications. Last used in mid-1990s. Vicksburg Square Source: MassDevelopment One ally of the proposal to turn all this into housing and mixed use com- mercial is the Nashoba Valley Chamber of Commerce, which is based in Shirley and counts Devens businesses among its members. e chamber was the last tenant of Vicksburg Square, moving out just aer MassDevelopment. "ey were definitely ready for improvement at that time," Melissa Fetterhoff, chamber president & CEO, said of the buildings' condition then, also praising their aesthetic appeal and historical significance. "For that alone, we'd love to see them renovated." e chamber supports Vicksburg Square's renovation into housing, Fetterhoff said, because employees for businesses in the area have a hard time finding a place to live nearby. Vicksburg Square last failed to win residential zoning approval in 2012. Since that time, voters have backed other Devens proposals. e commu- nity won approval to rezone 33 acres to help accommodate a biotech building of up to 500,000 square feet, and to in- crease the community's housing ceiling by 120 units to make way for a new senior living complex. MassDevelopment officials have spent much of the last few months meeting with residents in Devens and its member towns and fine-tuning a zoning pro- posal for Vicksburg Square housing. A simultaneous vote of residents in Ayer, Harvard and Shirley could take place in June, with a majority of support needed in all three towns. e 2012 proposal called for four- fihs of Vicksburg Square's housing units to be restricted to lower-income households. Aer hearing from resi- dents, that rate would be just 20 percent now, Starzec said. Officials are taking care with the latest proposal to make sure they have support in place, knowing Vicksburg Square could soon become unsalvageable. "It would be hard to replace those buildings with something else that has the presence that they do," Starzec said. Success elsewhere Aside from challenges with Vicks- burg Square, Devens has been a success story for overcoming a military closure, which led to the loss of 7,000 jobs. Today, the nearly 7-square-mile com- munity has more than 6 million square feet of occupied space and more than 5,000 workers. Companies have been drawn in large part by a fast permitting process and easy accessibility to Route 2 halfway between I-495 and I-190. Ongoing growth isn't just commer- cial and industrial. Aside from the proposal for Vicksburg Square, the housing development Emerson Green is starting its second phase with 81 units split between rental apartments and for-sale units in single-family homes and duplexes. A groundbreaking is planned this spring for 62 units of affordable senior living in the first phase of a complex off Hospital Road behind Ayer Shirley Regional Middle School to eventually have 120 units. W

• Cover