LOWELL — City officials made their best pitch Friday to two top Baker administration officials for how $5 million in state funding can kick-start the languishing Hamilton Canal District.
Seated in the Mayor’s Reception Room at City Hall, Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito and Jay Ash, secretary of housing and economic development, listened to an hourlong presentation by members of the city Planning and Development Department, asked questions, and took notes. Later, they toured the district with City Manager Kevin Murphy, city officials, and Lowell’s four-member Statehouse delegation.
While no commitments of money were made, Polito and Ash were positive in their comments about the massive project whose inception dates to 2004.
After leaving Lowell and heading back to Boston, Ash tweeted out, “Terrific Lowell visit. Gr8 Hamilton Canal plan. Leadership unified and visionary. Wow! What a great opportunity!”
The 15-acre Hamilton Canal District site is relying in part on what could be a $5 million MassWorks development grant to bring vehicular access and utilities to a portion of the project between Dutton Street and Pawtucket Canal that is being eyed for a potential new headquarters for a Lowell Five bank, along with commercial and residential space.
Lt. Gov. Polito and Secretary Ash both gave positive reviews for the district’s vision, saying the local leadership and support was in place to make the plan for the site a realistic goal.
“You all have created a compelling argument,” said Ash. “I think you’re ahead of where a lot of communities are.”
The visit from state officials came only days after the Hamilton Canal District’s master developer, James Keefe of Trinity Financial, pulled out of the project.
Trinity Financial’s decision to end its involvement in the Hamilton Canal District after eight years of little progress marked a major turning point in what was envisioned as an $800-million development. Trinity’s decision never came up at Friday’s meeting, and city officials aren’t deterred by the decision.
The city has said it will solicit bids soon from other developers to take control of the project.
In fact, Murphy began looking beyond Trinity last year. Murphy declined to extend Trinity’s master-developer contract when he became city manager in April 2014, and has said he had been in discussions with other developers while Trinity remained on the project.
At City Hall, in the Mayor’s Reception Room, the work of the city’s Planning Department was clearly in evidence. Diagrams of the next construction phases of pedestrian bridges, utilities, streets, sidewalks, landscaping, and other infrastructure upgrades stood mounted on easels along side renderings of what the finished project would look like. Taken together, the vision of the Hamilton Canal District was revealed as a modern wonder of Lowell’s urban core, a highly attractive mixed-used center allowing for work, living, shopping and leisure.
“This is like the last frontier in Lowell for development,” Murphy told the gathered officials, gesturing toward the array of boards titled “Hamilton Canal District North.”
A vital grant
Lowell officials are pushing hard for a MassWorks grant from the state’s Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development. A decision on the application could take place this summer, said Craig Thomas, the city’s chief design planner, who presented details of the city’s plan to the state officials.
The city’s application seeks money to extend Broadway Street into the district, with associated pedestrian access. The grant would also cover traffic signal improvements, a temporary parking lot, new utility lines and several new streets. The infrastructure is essential to set the stage for commercial developers to build on ready-to-go parcels.
Thomas pointed out that all designated building sites in the district’s northern section have been permitted. A major centerpiece is two large parcels reserved for “corporate campus” type buildings that would contain businesses, smaller retail shops and restaurants, he said.
Response to the request on Friday was positive.
“You have proven success,” Polito said. “That’s really important.”
Ash, who was city manager in Chelsea before becoming the state’s economic development head, commended Lowell officials on strong local leadership and a realistic vision.
Development in the district has been slow, but one aspect is expected to get started within the next few weeks.
UMass Lowell is expected to open new incubator space in the former Freudenberg building, now called 110 Canal, next month. UMass recently had its logo installed on the four-story building and will occupy the top two floors as an expansion of its Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center, known as M2D2.
The Hamilton Canal District will also benefit from a planned extension of Jackson Street through the site to connect to the intersection of Dutton, Fletcher and Thorndike streets. That work was expected to begin this spring, though the new intersection won’t be complete until as late as 2018 as part of a larger overhaul of the Lord Overpass.
In addition to the potential move of Lowell Five into the district, the city is also working with a developer who is considering building a planned 980-space parking garage next to the adjacent Market Mills development, Murphy said. The garage has been called critical for attracting tenants.
Lowell has also applied for a federal grant of $700,000 to improve a small bridge over the Hamilton Canal next to the 110 Canal building.
The city has also committed in its 2016 capital budget $300,000 — to be combined with $400,000 in federal Environmental Protection Agency grants — to clean up soil contamination for two parcels along the Pawtucket Canal where two residential buildings are planned.
Follow Grant Welker on Twitter and Tout @SunGrantWelker.
