Worcester Business Journal

12 Worcester Business Journal | October 31, 2022 | wbjournal.com F A C T B O O K E C O N O M I C D E V E L O P M E N T 2022 Central Mass. property tax rates, by community Rate per $1,000 in assessed value Commercial Residential & industrial Greater Worcester Oakham 12.72 12.72 Leicester 13.99 13.99 Shrewsbury 14.11 14.11 Hardwick 14.7 14.7 Rutland 15.79 15.79 Boylston 15.84 15.84 New Braintree 16.25 16.25 Holden 16.56 16.56 West Boylston 17.68 17.68 Paxton 18.98 18.98 Auburn 16.82 20.54 Worcester 15.21 33.33 Commercial Residential & industrial Natick 13.34 13.34 Franklin 14.05 14.05 Ashland 15.88 15.88 Southborough 16.28 16.28 Northborough 16.49 16.49 Medway 16.93 16.93 Hopkinton 17.03 17.02 Holliston 17.38 17.38 Boxborough 17.42 17.42 Wayland 18.35 18.35 Westborough 18.49 18.49 Millis 18.88 18.88 Sherborn 19.03 19.03 Acton 19.45 19.45 Stow 19.56 19.56 Bolton 19.87 19.87 Bellingham 14.08 20.08 Marlborough 13.12 22.17 Sudbury 18.05 24.57 Berlin 15.63 27.18 Maynard 20.52 27.36 Littleton 17.71 28.05 Milford 15.39 28.44 Framingham 13.74 29 Hudson 15.86 31.6 MetroWest Commercial Residential & industrial Central Mass. South Dudley 11.7 11.7 Spencer 13.16 13.16 West Brookfield 13.23 13.23 Charlton 13.29 13.29 East Brookfield 13.53 13.53 Webster 13.96 13.96 North Brookfield 14.86 14.86 Warren 15.56 15.56 Oxford 16.16 16.16 Brookfield 16.43 16.43 Southbridge 17.9 17.9 Sturbridge 19.15 19.15 Source: Massachusetts Department of Revenue Jarosz, executive managing director at Newmark, which is leasing the property for developer CRG. When it's finished next year, the concrete tilt-up Cubes building will have 40-foot clear height, 51-by-51 foot-column spacing, 171 dock doors, four drive-in doors, early suppression fast-response sprinkler systems, high-efficiency LED lighting, and parking for 220 trailers and 651 cars, according to Newmark. Although e-commerce activity has been escalating for years, COVID-19 took it to another level, Jarosz said. Suddenly, Amazon distribution centers were popping up everywhere, and other retail companies realized in order to compete, they needed to up their warehousing game, even in traditionally smaller regions like the Boston area. Big corporate warehouses in New Jersey and Pennsylvania have traditionally been able to serve the Greater Boston market, Jarosz said. But the pandemic changed that. "Boston is one that historically wasn't really a big enough market to warrant big players. We were always a smaller market, for 50,000 to 100,000 square feet," he said. "With the onset of this higher demand, the development pipeline suddenly swelled, and we started to see buildings coming out of the ground. And it's all sort of poised and ready." The problem is, these facilities take a long time, Jarosz said. Permitting is an arduous process, and usually town governments will want to give their citizens some input, which can be time consuming. Even though demand is high, he said, rising interest rates, reluctance from banks to lend for new construction, and spiking materials costs might have some developers waiting for a more favorable economic cycle. "It's a chess game. In my opinion, there's enough interest right now to help us absorb our current wave of development. Candidly, beyond that, we'll wait and see what happens with interest rates going forward," Jarosz Central Mass. communities with the most population loss 2020 decennial 2021 census Community census estimate % change Maynard 10,736 10,574 -1.51% Ashland 18,838 18,560 -1.48% Townsend 9,118 8,983 -1.48% Stow 7,164 7,059 -1.47% Marlborough 41,700 41,110 -1.41% Natick 36,941 36,426 -1.39% Wayland 13,915 13,724 -1.37% Boxborough 5,500 5,425 -1.36% Hudson 20,0531 9,790 -1.31% Framingham 72,162 71,265 -1.24% Source: U.S. Census Bureau The 840,000-square-foot Medline distribution center in Uxbridge Continued from page 11 PHOTO | COURTESY OF MEDLINE

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