Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | July 24, 2017 | Worcester Business Journal 11 In 2017, the mall is gone, and the CitySquare project is nearing completion. In 2005, the mall was nearing its final days. the neighborhood will become Worcester's – and the region's – greatest asset," the paper said. A shovel for the groundbreaking ceremony was delivered by helicopter and lowered from 20 stories up. A few years later, Leominster High School even held its prom at the mall. At the time, cities saw their down- towns in decline economically and socially, whose best solution was to demolish and replace them, said Daniel Abramson, a professor of architecture at Boston University. "Back then it was about cities being in crisis, and a grand gesture was required," Abramson said. "They were as certain 50 or 60 years ago that what they were doing was correct, just as they are now." Worcester has used eminent domain sparingly since. Lesson learned In the early 2000s, the city took about 40 underutilized commercial parcels for Saint Vincent Hospital's campus on Summer Street, and 72 parcels for the Route 146 widening. Not only has eminent domain become controversial, it has gotten cost- ly for the city as Worcester's use of the legal manuever for the new Worcester County Courthouse on Main Street led to a long legal battle. One property on the site, known as the Gilman Block, was demolished after the city paid $6.7 million for it. It had been assessed at only $1.3 million. Half a century after clearing out a broad swath of downtown, Worcester is still trying to undo the damage. The Galleria mall didn't have an especially lengthy stretch of success. It wasn't long before the Auburn Mall, Greendale Mall and Solomon Pond Mall became com- petitors. By 1991, the Galleria's Jordan Marsh closed, and Filene's followed two years later. The mall briefly closed before it was relaunched as the Worcester Common Fashion Outlets, but that didn't last long either. By 2003, it was half vacant and plans were underway to tear the mall down and replace it with a more typical urban mix of housing, offices, restau- rants and retail – a development mix similar to what was demolished to make way for the mall in the 1960s. The mall, like the neighborhood it replaced, had fallen out of favor and was seen as a drag on the city. "It's been a failure as a shopping center and an urban renewal project," then- Mayor Timothy Murray told the Telegram & Gazette at the time. Developing a new approach Urban planning could hardly be more different today than it was half a century ago. "It's much more targeted and much more cautious," Seidman said. The new downtown Worcester still is not the mixed-use area city planners want it to be. The 118-acre revitaliza- tion zone has only a handful of mixed- use properties, and they total only about three acres. Only about four acres are residential, with the remainder a fairly even mix of commercial and industrial use. Nor are properties in the area in the shape the city would like. A survey of the exterior of roughly 90 parcels in the dis- trict found only four to be in excellent condition and only 32, or about one- third, are considered good or acceptable. That leaves a lot of room for improve- ment, and the revitalization plan high- lights sites planners believe should be demolished or purchased and renovated. Now, as then, the city has a designated zone in which it has the legal ability to take properties by eminent domain if need be, but very few properties are envisioned for that. Among them are the Midtown Mall on Front Street and Denholm building on Main Street. The only buildings envisioned for demolition are those that have no practi- cal use, such as the old Olympia Theater on Pleasant Street, said Michael Traynor, the city's chief development officer. Unlike 50 years ago, the latest revital- ization plan is less about a particular project than a philosophy, Traynor said. It's partly making up for the past, he said, "and part having a different vision." Avoid large-scale property takings Half a century ago, Worcester began clearing acres of land filled with businesses and resi- dences to make way for what would become the Worcester Center Galleria. Today, the city is taking a much different track for economic development, redeveloping only select downtown sites, but still relying on eminent domain as the ultimate property acquisition negotiating tool. F L A S H P O L L What is the best way for a city to revitalize a neighborhood? Offer tax breaks or other incentives for property owners to improve existing buildings 34% Use eminent domain when needed, selectively targeting only certain properties 34% COMMENTS: "Ultimately, owners who do not improve their properties will suffer economically. They are obviously holding out hope that someone will give them very good money to buy the property since surrounding parcels have been improved." "Use eminent domain only when one or two parcels hold back a larger program and area, like a stubborn landowner or absentee owners. We can't just take broad areas 'for the greater good' without a legitimate plan, even with noble causes." Use eminent domain and demolish broad stretches of space to start over with new construction Let the free market dictate the best uses for particular properties 24% 8% P H O T O / G R A N T W E L K E R P H O T O / W O R C E S T E R H I S T O R I C A L M U S E U M W

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