Worcester Business Journal

12 Worcester Business Journal | January 27, 2025 | wbjournal.com N O R T H C E N T R A L M A S S . Passing the torch With two new key leaders, Fitchburg's decades- long downtown revitalization enters its next phase BY ERIC CASEY WBJ Managing Editor F itchburg began its first in- tentional effort to revitalize its core back in 2001, with the release of the Downtown Urban Revitalization and De- velopment Plan. Set to guide the area's redevelopment for the next 20 years, the plan has since been updated nine times, most recently in January 2022. e latest updates outline several goals, including turning downtown into an 18-hour mixed-use district, improv- ing the downtown business environ- ment, and improving pedestrian and cycling infrastructure. Since the latest update, two positions key to the process have seen new faces, as Sam Squailia was elected mayor of Fitchburg in November 2023 and Donna Hodge was named president of Fitch- burg State University in June. e now 24-year-long effort has shown that undoing decades worth of urban decline can't happen overnight. Far from it. But with two new leaders in key positions to shape the process, City officials and business owners are looking to the next chapter. "With the Fitchburg State Univer- sity theater project, artist-preference housing, the multitude of diversity of restaurants and entrepreneurs that we have downtown, I think downtown is coming together nicely," said Squailia. "We're seeing that snowball effect." Top priorities for new president A revitalized downtown has the potential to strengthen the symbiotic After defeating a four-term incumbent in 2023, Fitchburg Mayor Sam Squailia is hoping to guide the city's downtown revitalization into its next phase. PHOTOS | MATT WRIGHT relationship between downtown and Fitchburg State, and embracing FSU's downtown presence is one of the objectives outlined in the most recent amendment to the revitalization plan. Once bustling, the decline of industry and suburban sprawl resulted in Fitch- burg's downtown suffering the same fate of countless manufacturing-focused communities in New England, according to the 2001 FRA revitalization plan. During the worst periods of urban decay, then-Fitch- burg State College had seen the downtown area as a liability and expand- ed its campus in the opposite direction, but the decades since have seen the school establish a presence in the city's urban core. "President Hodge is going to be fantastic for Fitchburg," Squailia said. "She uses a lot of words like communi- ty and collaboration and connection. at's really what we need with both Fitchburg State University and the City of Fitchburg, because we rise together. I think she gets that, and she is just very engaging, full of energy, and not afraid to make changes." A reminder of Fitchburg State's down- town presence sits directly across the street from city hall with the Fitchburg eater Block, a 25,713-square-foot building containing retail storefronts, the university's game design studio, and a long-empty 1,500-seat theater. "Since our purchase of the abandoned building in 2016, the university has in- vested millions of dollars into the theater block, including the studio that serves advanced game design students com- pleting their capstone courses," Hodge wrote in an email to WBJ. "Having the studio downtown lets students work more independently, and on schedules that work for their needs, and also inte- grates them into the city." Fitchburg State is spending nearly $10 million to shore up the building's roof and envelope this winter. Now pivoting away from the idea of bringing back the theater use, the school is working to figure out how to best use the space. FSU President Donna Hodge

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