Worcester Business Journal

A $50M stadium 28 If Worcester wants to lure a minor league team, it needs $50 million to build a stadium. WBJ >> To Subscribe Central Massachusetts' Source for Business News November 9, 2015 Volume 26 Number 24 www.wbjournal.com $2.00 WBJ honors nine companies who have set themselves apart in employee health, rewards and education. 12 Q&A with Andy and Emily Proos, the father-daughter team building a technology company. Shop Talk 8 Raising Rents Front Street developer seeks to improve Worcester's value by creating 18-hour downtown destination E ven though they may benefit financially, Central Massachusetts hospitals have joined together with their brethren from around the Bay State to oppose efforts to limit the pricing dis- parity between healthcare providers. At the center of the hot-button issue for hospitals is one bill in the Massachusetts legislature and two 2016 ballot initiatives calling for a cap and a floor for how much high-cost and low- cost hospitals can collect in revenue. The movement is intended to reign in cost while keeping big hospitals from getting bigger at the expense of the little ones. The board of the Massachusetts Hospital Association, which represents hospitals across Massachusetts, has opposed a capped payment system. On that board is Ed Kelly, president of Milford Regional Medical Center, a com- munity hospital that proponents say would be helped by the change. Kelly said the theory of a capped sys- tem sounds like it would benefit some Hospitals oppose price disparity fixes Investors paid for the property, will grow rents for not only these office towers but could kick off a ripple through the city's office market leading to higher rents and greater value, Norton said. "We expect to be the premier of other properties downtown and expect the rents will reflect that," Norton said. "We expect some appreciation like anything else, but where it's going to end up in the next three or five years is anybody's guess." With rents topping out in the mid to high $20's per square foot, Worcester sits at a lower end of the Massachusetts mar- ket populated with Boston properties that reach the high-$60's-per-square- foot range and Framingham reaching to roughly $30 per square foot. With the acquisition by Norton's com- pany of the towers at 100 and 120 Front St. and other developments such as a high-end hotel near downtown, Worcester could be at the beginning of a rise in the market, said Robert McGuire, BY SAM BONACCI Worcester Business Journal Staff Writer BY EMILY MICUCCI Worcester Business Journal Staff Writer W hen Chip Norton set out to purchase two office towers in downtown Worcester, he knew modernizing the buildings and the adjoining property that includes a portion of a former mall would be key to the equation. This $36-million renovation, more than the $32.5 million his company Franklin Realty Advisors and partner Great Point P H O T O / M A T T V O L P I N I Patrick Muldoon, CEO of UMass Memorial Medical Center P H O T O / M A T T V O L P I N I >> Continued on Page 7 >> Continued on Page 9 Worcester Business Journal's 2015TOP WORKPLACES 2012TOP WORKPLACES Worcester Business Journal's 2012 Worcester Business Journal's Focus: Top Workplaces Chip Norton, president of Franklin Realty Advisors, said his office tower renovation could lead to an increase in commercial rents and property values in Worcester.

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