Worcester Business Journal

10 Worcester Business Journal | April 3, 2017 | wbjournal.com The Apex project The most ambitious of these new efforts came about almost by happen- stance: the 475,000-square-foot Apex Center of New England being built on 43 acres on the western edge of Marlborough, what has been something of a dead zone in the Route 20 corridor. The $160-million Apex Center will have two hotels – a Fairfield Inn & Suites and a Hyatt Place – the later of which is already topped off at the west end of the site. A number of restaurants have signed on, including a Friendly's, Evviva Cucina, Qdoba, Starbucks and the latest location of the 110 Grill chain. Construction started last month on 114,000 square feet of office space. In all, 95 percent is leased, and the first tenants are set to open this fall. "The center will serve the residents of the MetroWest community and beyond, as well as the millions of annual visitors to nearby sporting facilities," said Robert Walker, principal of Westford developer RA Ventures, the developer of the project. "The Apex Entertainment Center aims to be the go-to destination for families, teens and adults." Apex was something of a fluke, Marlborough Mayor Arthur Vigeant said. He initially reached out to Walker pitching an idea for a white-cloth res- taurant for executives to take clients. What resulted was far more than a new restaurant. "He came back to me a few weeks later with this project," Vigeant said. Residences, driven by hotel taxes The high number of hotel rooms has allowed Marlborough to broaden its economy. A hotel tax surcharge put in place in 2011 brought in money – including $2.4 million just last year – funneled to the Marlborough Economic Development Corp. The corporation, in turn, has helped draw new downtown developments after a 2014 rezoning to encourage denser, mixed-use projects. "A lot of people thought it would be 10 years until you saw a project in the ground," said Meredith Harris, MEDC executive director. "But here we are a few years later." Rounding out Marlborough New projects turning MetroWest city into more than just a corporate headquarters destination F or shoppers and diners, Marlborough was long caught in the shadow between Worcester and Shrewsbury to the west and Framingham and Natick to the east. Now, Marlborough is coming into its own in a serious way, by moving in a new direction from what put it on the map. Spurred by millions in hotel tax collections and efforts by city officials to create a more well-rounded city, Marlborough is mov- ing on from being a haven for major employers – GE Healthcare Life Sciences, TJX Cos. and Boston Scientific, to name just three – through new retail, residential and visitor developments. BY GRANT WELKER Worcester Business Journal Digital Editor The Hyatt Place hotel, under construction at the Apex Center of New England, is among the leading projects looking to diversify Marlborough's developments and provide new taxes for further economic revitalization. It, along with a Fairfield Inn & Suites at the Apex Center, will be the city's 10th and 11th hotels. P H O T O S / E D D C O T E

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