Worcester Business Journal

8 Worcester Business Journal | April 2, 2018 | wbjournal.com Three new tenants this year will turn the Printers Building into the go-to destination for startups and the arts The Hub of Innovation BY GRANT WELKER Worcester Business Journal News Editor F or most of its nearly century of history, Worcester's Printers Building has been just as its name implies: the home to printing operations. But the last printer, Miles Press, moved out of its fifth-floor space at the start of this year, and a mix of creative and technological uses begun in the last few years is now building toward a critical mass. Already housing the Worcester CleanTech Incubator and the maker- space Technocopia, among others, the Printers Building is now home to the incubator's new partner, Action! Worcester, which previously ran the Worcester Idea Lab on Franklin Street. "This building's ecosystem is really exciting for us," said Joshua Croke, exec- utive director of Action! Worcester. Within a year, the building will host two new arts-related groups: IgWorcesterMA, a photography group, and ArtsWorcester, a nonprofit support- ing local artists and holding exhibitions in its own gallery. "Excitement isn't even the word," said Juliet Feibel, executive director of ArtsWorcester. "We're ecstatic." ArtsWorcester was pitched on a spot in the building by Davis Publications President and Publisher Julian Wade – whose business owns the building through a related entity – and jumped at the chance to join the tenant list, Feibel said. From printing to makers The Portland Street building a block south of the Worcester Common is anchored by Davis Publications, a com- pany more than a century old whose logo adorns a top corner of the build- ing. For decades, the seven-story, 83,000-square-foot building was shared by The Davis Press Inc., Commonwealth Press and J.S. Wesby & Sons, the three printers who construct- ed the building in the 1920s. The building retains its industrial feel, but use of the building has changed in more recent years. Technocopia, a nonprofit space for startups, moved into an 8,000-square- foot space in 2015 and has roughly 70 members who use its metal or wood shops, 3D printers and other machinery and technology. It has a waiting list for workspace bays, and Co-Founder and instructor Lauren Monroe said Technocopia anticipates new working relation- ships with the building growing list of tenants. The building hosts a range of other arts-related uses, including WICN 90.5 FM, a jazz radio station, and Crocodile River Music, an organization working with local community groups and per- formances spaces to spread African music locally, holding workshops on its seventh-floor space. An arts renovation A renovation is meant to help draw more uses to the facility. Davis also has its own art gallery in the building. "The whole building is really going to be a brand-new space," said Curtis Reid, a board member and fifth-generation member of the Davis family to work for A Technocopia member at the maker space's sixth-floor facility, one of several innovative and arts uses at the Printers Building. Julian Wade, president, Davis Publications Juliet Feibel, executive director, ArtsWorcester P H O T O / G R A N T W E L K E R

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