LOWELL, MA—The City of Lowell has issued a Request for Qualifications seeking developers and investors interested in pursuing an $800-million mixed-use transit-oriented development on a 15-acre downtown site in the Hamilton Canal District.
The issuance of the RFQ comes after master developer Trinity Financial pulled out of the project in late May. The city of Lowell signed the master developer agreement with Boston-based Trinity Financial at the end of 2007, according to Craig Thomas, chief design planner for the City of Lowell.
Since that time there have been several major milestones that have been accomplished by Lowell and Trinity Financial, including the completion of a comprehensive visioning process, which resulted in the release of the Hamilton Canal District Master Plan. The process also resulted in a proposal to improve a key intersection at one of the city's bridges at Fletcher, Dutton, Thorndike and Jackson streets that is now under development. The city also changed its zoning and subdivision rules and secured additional environmental permits in the Hamilton Canal District that culminated in the approval of pre-permitted build-out guidelines.
In addition, Lowell and Trinity Financial completed all the infrastructure work necessary to develop nine of the available 17 parcels. The cost of the infrastructure work was more than $5 million. Prior to Trinity's exit from the project, it completed the redevelopment of the Appleton Mills property into 130-units of artist preference workforce housing and the redevelopment of a 50,000-square-foot building that is the home of the University of Massachusetts Lowell's Innovation Hub for early-stage entrepreneurs. In addition, the University of Massachusetts has also started to relocate a portion of its medical device research and development facilities to the 110 Canal building. Also in the works in the district is the state's pending $175-million courthouse.
The master plan calls for the construction of a total of up to 2 million square feet of mixed-use development. The master plan allows for up to 425,000 square feet of commercial/office space, 55,000 square feet of retail and up to 725 units of market rate and affordable housing.
Thomas says that the City Council has stressed that it will be receptive to new ideas. “We want to make clear that if you have an idea that is consistent with the overall vision of the district, we are happy to receive that and review it on an individual basis as part of this solicitation,” he says.
“The solicitation has a focus on building a new neighborhood, building a new urban extension of our downtown and as such having the kind of uses that create a place where people want to live and people want to work,” Thomas tells Globest.com. He adds that commercial/office, storefront retail and residential is critical to the mix of uses the city hopes to attract to the district.
In announcing the issuance of the RFQ, Lowell officials stressed the city is looking to get the development project off the drawing boards and in construction. “The significance of getting the Hamilton Canal District back on track cannot be underestimated. This development represents a great opportunity to create jobs, added revenue and new developments to a blighted area,” says Lowell Mayor Rodney Elliott. “An aggressive construction timeline is incorporated into the RFQ, with the goal of getting shovels in the ground sooner rather than later; no more time for talking, it's time for action.”
Applications for qualifications packages for the project will be received until October 13 at noon EST. The city is seeking a master developer or a small group of developers for the project site. The city will narrow the field down to three to five finalists by the end of October. Those candidates will be invited to submit more comprehensive proposals (Request for Proposals) due in December. The city plans to select and announce the final candidate by the end of this year.
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John Jordan
John Jordan is a veteran journalist with 36 years of print and digital media experience.
