WORCESTER, Mass. — Worcester’s Polar Park is seeing a lot of development come to life before its second season. But the pandemic has impacted some of the overall plans as developers modify their projects.
Nicole DiCello is the owner of Bedlam Book Cafe and she has been here since day one. “At times it feels like oh maybe it is starting to come along and maybe there is more people down here and more activity but it is still too soon to tell because the pandemic has put a damper on everything,” said DiCello.
Worcester’s Chief Development Officer Peter Dunn says since 2018 when the project was announced we didn’t anticipate a global pandemic so there have been changes. But even though a smaller hotel is going in there have been additional projects added to the mix including more market rate housing. The city believes some of the original ideas will return -- like a larger hotel. “Originally the plan was for 262 rooms and that is being reduced to 125 rooms but that is taking up less land so there is still additional land there,” said Dunn.
The city says the bottom line is before Polar Park even went up this was all empty lots and that is clearly changing. “We expect a lot of additional construction in 2022 so we expect to see that transformation continue this year,” said Dunn.
Locals like Camille Beauzile seem to be sold there is plenty of growth coming from the ballpark. “It’s never enough we can always grow. I think it is in the right direction,” said Beauzile
Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.
Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW