UMass Lowell sees opportunity to transform campus, city in $800M project – Boston Business Journal – The Business Journals
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Construction is set to begin next year on a roughly $800 million mixed-use project on the UMass Lowell campus that’ll include professional space for technology companies, housing units and dorms.
The project, in which UMass Lowell is giving up underutilized parts of its east campus next to downtown in a 99-year ground lease, is eyed by the university as a catalyst to improve industry partnerships, improve the surrounding neighborhood and help keep new graduates in the city.
UMass Lowell Chancellor Julie Chen said the project is envisioned as taking on greater significance than simply building new density on the edge of Lowell’s downtown.
“It’s an economic development project for Lowell and the greater Lowell region,” Chen said. “That just happens to be catalyzed by a couple buildings on the university’s campus.”
The first series of buildings will host professional uses that complement UMass Lowell’s STEM-heavy focus, especially in technology, as well as nearly 500 housing units that’ll be geared toward young professionals. A second phase will include 461 beds of student housing.
UMass Lowell, which has grown to become the state’s sixth-largest college by enrollment, has added a list of new projects in the past year, including a new campus center, business school building and series of residential buildings. Still, its east campus, which stands between downtown and The Acre, the city’s lowest-income neighborhood, includes what university leaders saw as an opportunity for greater growth by partnering with a developer for an ambitious building project.
UMass Lowell signed an agreement in 2022 with a Pennsylvania developer, GMH Communities, to build out the 1.2 million-square-feet project. GMH is partnering on the development with Baltimore-based Wexford Science & Technology, which has undertaken similar developments at about 20 colleges nationally, including in New England at Brown University, Yale University and the University of Rhode Island.
UMass Lowell is the latest Boston-area college to take advantage of the value of the land it owns when demand is so high for new development.
Others include Simmons University, which is leasing part of its campus for up to 1.7 million square feet of development in the Longwood Medical Area, Lesley University sold a series of small buildings on its campus in Cambridge, and Franklin Cummings Tech has a purchase-and-sale agreement for its South End campus for when its new Roxbury campus is complete.
UMass Lowell also sold a small former campus on the Lowell-Chelmsford line to a developer that announced earlier this month it is beginning work on a 340-unit housing development.
UMass Lowell and its partners are taking on the development while Lowell is looking to take advantage of its proximity to Boston, including a commuter rail connection, while offering far lower costs for office, lab or residential space.
That price advantage hasn’t always been enough to start new construction, though, with major planned developments such as the Hamilton Canal Innovation District particularly slow to take shape, even with its location about a half-mile from the city’s commuter rail stop. Other development, including the costly conversion of mill complexes from industrial to residential use, have often relied heavily on public subsidies.
Chen said the UMass Lowell project, called the Lowell Innovation Network Corridor, can be enough to build momentum that the Hamilton Canal Innovation District hasn’t yet lived up to. Developers can be conservative, Chen said, while the university’s project with GMH and Wexford will show that larger-scale projects in Lowell can work.
“They’re quick to follow, but no one wants to be the first,” Chen said.
There’s already been enough interest from tech companies, Chen said, that the university is working to open up space in its Wannalancit Mills space on east campus to make way for those who want to move into the neighborhood but don’t want to wait a few years for the new construction to be complete. Occupancy will begin later this year.
“They want to be bumping elbows with our students,” Chen said of student body in which more than half are studying science, technology, engineering or math.
The project’s first phase is set for completion in 2027. The later phase with student dorms doesn’t yet have a construction timeframe.
Construction will take place largely between the Tsongas Center, where UMass Lowell hockey plays, and LeLacheur Park, where it plays baseball. Most of the space is now low-slung buildings or surface parking lots, while UMass Lowell has already expanded in the neighborhood over the last decade by building one suites building, buying another to convert to student housing, and building a student recreation complex on a former industrial site.
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Total FTE student enrollment for Fall 2023
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This article was autogenerated from a news feed from CDO TIMES selected high quality news and research sources. There was no editorial review conducted beyond that by CDO TIMES staff. Need help with any of the topics in our articles? Schedule your free CDO TIMES Tech Navigator call today to stay ahead of the curve and gain insider advantages to propel your business!
Construction is set to begin next year on a roughly $800 million mixed-use project on the UMass Lowell campus that’ll include professional space for technology companies, housing units and dorms.
The project, in which UMass Lowell is giving up underutilized parts of its east campus next to downtown in a 99-year ground lease, is eyed by the university as a catalyst to improve industry partnerships, improve the surrounding neighborhood and help keep new graduates in the city.
UMass Lowell Chancellor Julie Chen said the project is envisioned as taking on greater significance than simply building new density on the edge of Lowell’s downtown.
“It’s an economic development project for Lowell and the greater Lowell region,” Chen said. “That just happens to be catalyzed by a couple buildings on the university’s campus.”
The first series of buildings will host professional uses that complement UMass Lowell’s STEM-heavy focus, especially in technology, as well as nearly 500 housing units that’ll be geared toward young professionals. A second phase will include 461 beds of student housing.
UMass Lowell, which has grown to become the state’s sixth-largest college by enrollment, has added a list of new projects in the past year, including a new campus center, business school building and series of residential buildings. Still, its east campus, which stands between downtown and The Acre, the city’s lowest-income neighborhood, includes what university leaders saw as an opportunity for greater growth by partnering with a developer for an ambitious building project.
UMass Lowell signed an agreement in 2022 with a Pennsylvania developer, GMH Communities, to build out the 1.2 million-square-feet project. GMH is partnering on the development with Baltimore-based Wexford Science & Technology, which has undertaken similar developments at about 20 colleges nationally, including in New England at Brown University, Yale University and the University of Rhode Island.
UMass Lowell is the latest Boston-area college to take advantage of the value of the land it owns when demand is so high for new development.
Others include Simmons University, which is leasing part of its campus for up to 1.7 million square feet of development in the Longwood Medical Area, Lesley University sold a series of small buildings on its campus in Cambridge, and Franklin Cummings Tech has a purchase-and-sale agreement for its South End campus for when its new Roxbury campus is complete.
UMass Lowell also sold a small former campus on the Lowell-Chelmsford line to a developer that announced earlier this month it is beginning work on a 340-unit housing development.
UMass Lowell and its partners are taking on the development while Lowell is looking to take advantage of its proximity to Boston, including a commuter rail connection, while offering far lower costs for office, lab or residential space.
That price advantage hasn’t always been enough to start new construction, though, with major planned developments such as the Hamilton Canal Innovation District particularly slow to take shape, even with its location about a half-mile from the city’s commuter rail stop. Other development, including the costly conversion of mill complexes from industrial to residential use, have often relied heavily on public subsidies.
Chen said the UMass Lowell project, called the Lowell Innovation Network Corridor, can be enough to build momentum that the Hamilton Canal Innovation District hasn’t yet lived up to. Developers can be conservative, Chen said, while the university’s project with GMH and Wexford will show that larger-scale projects in Lowell can work.
“They’re quick to follow, but no one wants to be the first,” Chen said.
There’s already been enough interest from tech companies, Chen said, that the university is working to open up space in its Wannalancit Mills space on east campus to make way for those who want to move into the neighborhood but don’t want to wait a few years for the new construction to be complete. Occupancy will begin later this year.
“They want to be bumping elbows with our students,” Chen said of student body in which more than half are studying science, technology, engineering or math.
The project’s first phase is set for completion in 2027. The later phase with student dorms doesn’t yet have a construction timeframe.
Construction will take place largely between the Tsongas Center, where UMass Lowell hockey plays, and LeLacheur Park, where it plays baseball. Most of the space is now low-slung buildings or surface parking lots, while UMass Lowell has already expanded in the neighborhood over the last decade by building one suites building, buying another to convert to student housing, and building a student recreation complex on a former industrial site.
Subscribe to the Morning Edition or Afternoon Edition for the business news you need to know, all free.
Total FTE student enrollment for Fall 2023
© 2023 American City Business Journals. All rights reserved. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (updated January 24, 2023) and Privacy Policy (updated December 19, 2023). The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of American CityBusiness Journals.
This article was autogenerated from a news feed from CDO TIMES selected high quality news and research sources. There was no editorial review conducted beyond that by CDO TIMES staff. Need help with any of the topics in our articles? Schedule your free CDO TIMES Tech Navigator call today to stay ahead of the curve and gain insider advantages to propel your business!
