The Junction Shops - Future Home of Worcester's Video Game Design & Development Incubator?

Leaving Union Station, our first stop on the proposed Union Station - ORH bus rapid transit system is Junction District (so named because the area lies at the junction of several railroads and several well known Worcester neighborhoods such as Main South, Green Island, Downtown, and Canal). There are two distinct neighborhoods in the Junction District, to the west of the tracks is the Southbridge St. corridor and to the east is the 10+ acres of presently largely undeveloped brownfields that formerly made up the Wyman Gordan manufacturing complex. Today I want to head west, and specifically focus on the area within the brown outline on the above map.

With the recent ranking of Becker and WPI's video game design programs in the top 8 nationwide, there has been much talk lately about developing Worcester as Massachusetts's video game design & development capital. I strongly support this idea and would suggest we explore making the Junction Shops Historic District (the area outlined in brown above) ground zero for this effort and furthermore, target the historic Junction Shops (shaded brown above) as the home of a public/private partnership driven effort to construct a video game focused, live/work incubator. There is more than 500,000 SF of significantly underutilized historic mill building in this area that could be redeveloped as Massachusetts's video game design & development capital. A few reasons why we should look to the Junction Shops for a video game focused, live/work incubator:

1. Preserving History - The Junction Shops is Worcester's original incubator space. The Junction Shops date to 1851 when Colonel James Esterbrook built the original "stone chips covered in stucco" structure as "rental space and power for small firms." The Junction Shops were home to numerous small industrial firms over the years, and incubated businesses such as the Cereal Machine Company (shredded wheat anyone?) and Knowles Loom Works (which would grow and merge with his competitor George Crompton to become Crompton & Knowles Loom Works on Grand St.) Worcester long term competitive advantage will be in marketing what makes Worcester different for other cities, and adaptively reusing 150 year old plus industrial incubator space to meets today's knowledge economy incubator needs is one way to carve out it's own niche.
2. Great location - The Junction Shops is located just southwest of downtown Worcester (1/2 mile to City Hall), about 1/2 mile from the Kelley Square exit off of I-290 and with a stop on the Union Station - ORH bus rapid transit system at it's doorstep, it's just one stop and a 5 minute ride to Union Station or a no transfer, three stop, 15 minute ride to ORH.
3. Hip Space for a Hip Industry - Converted former mill space with exposed brick walls and tall ceilings would make ideal space for today's growing video game design industry. While any existing office space could make due as video game design incubator space, I believe that adaptively reusing historic mill space would present the ideal image for companies in the video game design industry (and the Commonwealth too) and would provide these businesses with a competitive advantage over companies located in "the glass box in the suburban office park" which in turn would help them attract and retain the best talent in the industry.
4. Opportunities for Spin Off - The Junction Shops themselves are approximately 200,000 SF of space. This leaves 300,000 SF plus of historic mills in a variety of sizes that could be developed by private developers as the transformation took hold. Furthermore, the lots between the Junction Shops and the Southbridge St. corridor are largely undeveloped which provide for long term opportunities for growth and eventual connection with downtown.
5. Existing Financing Programs in Place to Help Finance the Junction Shop's Rehabilitation - Some of the Junction Shop buildings are more than 150 years old and show their wear. It would come as no surprise to me if it would cost $150 PSF to rehabilitate the 200,000 SF of space into modern incubator space - this is $30MM! The good news however, is Ted Carman of Concord Square Planning and Development of Boston really likes this building and he thinks he can help put together a financing mechanism he is now using in Greenfield that would provide about $0.45 of every $1.00 needed for the work (yes, that's $13.5MM!)! Ted would do this by using a leveraged New Markets Tax Credit financing structure with state and federal historic tax credits. It's very complicated, and the lawyer's fees are high, but for a $30MM deal it is well worth it! Bottom line is with this financing the deal could probably attract the debt and equity financing needed so that affordable rents averaging in the mid teens could probably be realistic.