Worcester Business Journal

6 Worcester Business Journal | May 18, 2026 | wbjournal.com REAL ESTATE INSIDER HOPKINTON Affordable increase Hopkinton voters approved a change to the Town's affordable housing fee-in-lieu formula at the May 2 Annual Town Meeting, passing the article by a 90-13 margin. e amendment to the regulations replaces a fee structure that sets the fee at the affordable purchase price of a required unit – roughly $225,000 to $250,000 – with new rules seeing fees pegged to the gap between the unit's market price and its affordable price. On a unit selling for $1 million, that translates to a fee of roughly $750,000, said John Gelcich, the Town's director of land use, planning, and permitting. e intent is to disincentivize the payment option and build affordable housing instead, he said. Payments would go into the Town's Affordable Housing Trust Fund. Municipalities including Worcester and Natick in Central Massachusetts have fee-in- lieu structures as well. Medical lease Triune Chiropractic of Hopkinton signed a new lease for 4,280 square feet of office space at 35 Parkwood Drive from NAI | Parsons Commer- cial Group - Boston in Natick. Matt Cuneo, Victor Galvani, and James Cannon of NAI | Parsons served as the leasing representatives for this transaction. LEOMINSTER Retail lease An undisclosed tenant leased 8,365 square feet of retail space at 999 Central St. from Paul's Rental Center of Leominster. Nate Nickerson of Fieldstone Commercial Properties in Littleton served as the leasing rep- resentative for this transaction. MARLBOROUGH Office-to-mixed-use North Carolina-based Redgate Real Estate Advisors is requesting a zon- ing overlay from the Marlborough City Council for three parcels near office buildings it owns at 26-62 For- est Street. e new residential overlay district covers about 31 acres of land and allows for multifamily develop- ment and a number of retail uses, with Redgate hoping to turn the sites into a mixed-use complex. During the council's April 27 meeting, the company explained the office prop- erties had been underperforming, presenting conceptual ideas for the properties involving the construction of 400 apartment units. e concept would keep one office building but add ground-floor retail to it. Other possible amenities include pickleball courts and a dog park. e council will consider the overlay at a future, to-be-determined meeting. e site is directly across the street from a former office parcel being converted into 180 residential units by South- borough-based Ferris Development and Georgia-based PulteGroup. SOUTHBOROUGH Alcohol for Costco Southborough Town Meeting mem- bers approved a home rule petition to the state on April 11 to allow for the municipality to be granted another all-alcohol off-premises license. e license is intended for the new Costco Wholesale Corp. location being constructed at 21 Coslin Drive, the site of a former EMC building. e store will be the Washington-based wholesaler's lone location in Cen- tral Massachusetts when it opens, although the company has been exploring a location at the site of e Mall at Whitney Field in Leominster. e Southborough store is targeting a 2027 opening, with demolition at the site already underway. e Costco will feature a gas station, with Town officials expressing belief during the meeting the development will help spur more new businesses in the immediate area. Southborough's home rule petition will be sent to the state legislature for approval. SUTTON Office sale MAR J LLC, a Sutton-based en- tity managed by James Fitzpatrick, purchased a property at 184 Worces- ter-Providence Turnpike featuring a 1,500-square-foot office building for $425,000 from e Health Consul- tants Group of Connecticut. Joe REAL ESTATE INSIDER | B R I E F S BY ERIC CASEY WBJ Managing Editor M assport is planning to build a 245-space overflow parking lot at Worcester Regional Airport. e quasi-independent state author- ity overseeing the airport has filed a notice of intent with the Worcester Conservation Commission to con- struct the parking lot directly north of its existing Lot B on Airport Drive. e move by Massport supports ef- forts to double the airport's passenger count by 2035. Massport's plans come as it faces a Federal Aviation Administration deadline of the end of the year to remove temporary overflow park- ing installed on part of the airport's tarmac, according to a letter to the commission from Worcester-based engineering and construction services firm BETA Group, which is working with Massport on the project. e deadline was part of an earlier agreement with the FAA to allow for temporary use of tarmac space next to the southwestern end of the terminal building. e temporary addition added about 150 spaces in 2024. e construction of the parking lot falls within Massport's essential function, BETA Group wrote in its letter. Massa- chusetts law provides that an authority of the commonwealth is not subject to local bylaws, ordinances or regulations so long as it is performing an essential governmen- tal function. e WCC serves as the permitting authority under the state's Wetlands Protection Act, with Massport seeking an order of conditions for the project relating to that law. Massport is looking to construct a 1,200-square-foot wetland replication area to compensate for 1,183 square feet of bordering vegetated wetlands impacted by the construction. Counting the temporary spaces, ORH has about 840 spaces, accord- Worcester airport to expand parking ahead of effort to double passenger count The terminal at Worcester Regional Airport ing to satellite imaging. Removing the temporary spots and adding the 245-space lot will bring the airport to around 935 spaces. Parking at ORH costs $7 per day. Parking for less than 24 hours is free. Worcester Regional Airport served 230,000 passengers in 2024, marking the highest volume of passengers in 34 years, according to Massport's 2025 strategic report. at number dropped to 216,000 in 2025. e report noted hurdles to further growth, including a relatively large number of competing airports in New England and the airport's inability to support large, wide- body aircra like the Boeing 767 and Boeing 777. Worcester Regional Airport offers direct flights to Philadelphia via American Airlines; New York City's LaGuardia Airport via Delta Air Lines; year-round service to Fort Lauderdale and Orlando via JetBlue; and winter-spring seasonal service to Fort Myers via JetBlue. W PHOTO | GRANT WELKER

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