Could Worcester's Junction Shops Become a Hot Bed for Video Game Design?

The title of this post is derived from a recent article in the Boston Globe, Is Worcester a hot bed for video-game design?, which mentions that Worcester's Becker College and WPI again ranked in the Top 10 of US schools for studying video game design.

I attended the MA Creative Economy Council meeting held at the Hanover Theatre a few weeks back. Among other items discussed, Becker College president Robert Johnson briefly talked about the tremendous growth of the video game design industry in recent years and highlighted MA and Worcester's emerging leadership role in this area. Becker's Tim Loew, Director of Academic Planning & Operations, then briefly discussed efforts to get the MA Video Game Institute (VGI) - a partnership between industry, academia & government to promote and nurture the development of the video game design industry in MA - open for business on Becker's Worcester campus by this fall.

I think starting the MA VGI at Becker is the right move, right now this incubator needs to be incubated. Given Becker's reputation in the field and the leadership and initiative they have demonstrated in this area lately, Becker makes for a good match. Thinking a few years out, however, if the MA VGI is indeed successful and needs significantly more space for expansion, where and how will it expand? There is where I think that Worcester's Junction Shops present a really exciting opportunity for the MA VGI.

The Junction Shops consists of three parcels totaling approximately 4.6 acres of land with a FY 2011 assessed value (which, in MA, is theoretically the same as the market value) of $1.1MM. The largest parcel, at 2.8 acres, contains 200,000 SF + of historic and mostly vacant multi-story industrial space. The other two parcels, one across Beacon St. and the other across Jackson St. from the main parcel are presently undeveloped.

The Junction Shops Property (Brown) in Worcester, MA

This is a good sized property, but one feature it lacks is frontage on a main road. Given all of the troubles lately with the Platinum Premier club here in Worcester, perhaps they may be interested in selling their property? The Platinum Premier parcels lie between the Junction Shops and Southbridge St. and offer more than 350 ft. of frontage along Southbridge St., a major downtown Worcester artery. The three parcels (owned by two different entities which I assume are ultimately controlled by the same individual/entity) total approximately 2.1 acres of land and have a FY 2011 assessed value of $999,000.

The Junction Shops (Brown) and Platinum Premiere (Yellow) Properties in Worcester, MA

I like the idea of making Southbridge St. the primary address and front door to the world for the Junction Shops. I believe that most Worcesterite's don't feel strongly one way or another about Southbridge St., it's just another street in downtown Worcester. In fact, between the Hanover Theatre, Guertin Graphics & Awards, Union Music and Coney Island, which combined draw 1000's of city and suburban visitors a month to the street, I would argue that most people have a somewhat positive image of the street. The benefits associated with this apparent neutral image are twofold: 1) you don't have to undo a negative image, and 2) you can promote and develop a positive image that suits the area's overall development goals.

Combined, the Junction Shops and Platinum Premier parcels offer 6.7 acres of land and 200,000 SF + of historic multi-story industrial space with a FY 2011 assessed value of $2.1MM. Long term, I support the development of a dense urban district developed following smart growth principals, but near term I am well aware of Worcester's love for their car and convenient parking. So, as a first step in the redevelopment process, I would suggest starting out with surface parking on the outer lots.

The Junction Shops Buildings (Brown) and Proposed Surface Parking (Yellow)

The proposed parking lot parcels total approximately 3.9 acres of land. A full size parking space is 10 ft x 20 ft, or 200 SF, plus lets say another 200 SF per space for circulation (the lots are odd shaped which typically results in a very inefficient parking lot), so a total of 400 SF per parking space or 109 parking spaces per acre. At 3.9 acres, we would be able to park approximately 425 cars. Worcester general parking requirements for office are one space per 300 SF of building, so 425 spaces allows us to develop 127,500 SF of the approximately 200,000 SF available for redevelopment as-of-right. Make the spaces a little smaller, which is standard in surface parking lots in urban area, and you could probably pick up another couple of dozen parking spaces.