Leominster, MA | General Developments

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I thought it would be a good time to start a thread on the developments in Leominster, Massachusetts.

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Rollstone Bank & Trust breaks ground at old “Friendly’s” location

By Leominster Champion
Sept. 31, 2012

In January of this year, Rollstone Bank & Trust (RBT) purchased the land at 24 Monument Square in Leominster, the former Friendly’s restaurant. With site work completed, the Bank held a ceremonial groundbreaking to kick off the construction of its new building.

The Bank awarded the contract to R.P. Masiello, who handled the renovations of its Main Office. They are also working with Patrick McCarty of Leominster’s McCarty Engineering and the architecture firm Patrick J. Slattery Architects of Lunenburg to plan the space. Local contractors will be used for other phases of the project as well. The new location will have a full-service branch and house the Bank’s Wealth Management Division, which focuses on trusts, investments, financial planning, and insurance. The finished space is expected to be about 18,500 square feet.

“Since first extending our footprint into Leominster, nearly 20 years ago, our customer base in that city has grown tremendously,” said Martin F. Connors, Jr., President & CEO of RBT. “The new location will help us better serve our existing customers and also allow us to better accommodate our wealth management clients. That division is outgrowing its current office space, and the additional square footage will be more conducive to helping our customers with their financial planning.”

http://www.leominsterchamp.com/news/...d_Friendl.html

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Developers Discover Leominster

By Worcester Business Journal
Feb. 4, 2013


Rollstone Bank & Trust officials look over plans for their new three-story branch in downtown Leominster, slated to be completed in late spring.

Leominster has been experiencing a bit of a resurgence with new buyers for big properties and developments. It's something the city's mayor, Dean Mazzarella, said is the product of a strategic plan.

"We realized there were certain things we just weren't going to be," he said. "We focused on our downtown and some of our old mill buildings downtown."

He said 20 years ago, manufacturers would consider the city for potential locations, but be turned off by the lack of "shovel ready" sites. The city has since become home to three industrial parks and is working to set itself apart from other communities in the commonwealth.

"Our overall arching goal is to be different," Mazzarella said. "We simply know that if we're going to separate ourselves from everyone else … then we have to be different."

http://www.wbjournal.com/article/201...ver-leominster

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Housing Developers Give New Life To Old Industrial Buildings

By Worcester Business Journal
Jan. 28, 2013

Bolton developer Edmond Plante is hoping to turn the former Jewett Piano Case factory in Leominster into 46 apartment units.

Private housing developers are stepping up to take on once- thriving, but now-abandoned industrial buildings that have created blight in the Central Massachusetts communities where they used to attract workers to a century ago.

The buildings, typically three or four stories tall, aren't useful for much beyond warehouse storage in today's changed manufacturing world. But by turning them into housing units, the developers are helping boost the tax bases and morale of those towns left behind in the shift out of a manufacturing-based economy.

http://www.wbjournal.com/article/201...TION/301179984
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After dark days, City Place a bright beacon in Leominster


By Cliff CLark
Sentinel & Enterprise
Updated: Nov. 17, 2014

A view of City Place at 98 Adams Street in Leominster on November 10, 2014. SENTINEL & ENTERPRISE/JOHN LOVE

LEOMINSTER -- Once abandoned, severely dilapidated and the last refuge for many of the city's homeless, the former manufacturing plants on Adams Street have undergone an astonishing transformation to the upscale professional office building named City Place.

"It was extremely blighted ... there was just not a lot of good down there," said Lisa Marrone, the economic-development coordinator for the city's Office of Planning and Development, about the buildings that were once the home to Commonwealth Plastics and Thom McAn shoes.

Located at 98/108 Adams St., Marrone said buildings were crime-ridden, used by squatters and severely vandalized.

"It was a major drawback to downtown," she said.

But local residential and commercial developer Jim Whitney saw something else -- an opportunity to revitalize a building and a neighborhood that had seen better days.

Whitney had experience injecting new life into blighted buildings and struggling neighborhoods, notably with the Whitney Square revitalization project several years ago. So he knew the challenges he faced when he decided to use that knowledge to create City Place.

http://http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/news/ci_26953011/after-dark-days-city-place-bright-beacon-leominster

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Leominster downntown revitalization summit set for Wednesday

By Peter Jasinksi
Sentinel & Enterprise
Updated: Mar. 8, 2016

LEOMINSTER -- Members of an Urban Land Institute-sponsored panel conducting a revitalization review of downtown will be discussing their findings and meeting with representatives of local businesses on Wednesday, at 6 p.m., at the public library.

"What we're looking to do is realign the downtown area with all of the positive things that are happening and try to connect our assets together," Economic Development Coordinator Lisa Marrone said.

According to Marrone, changes in the city's center since 1985, the last time a review of this kind was conducted in Leominster, prompted the city to take stock of its current downtown.

On Wednesday, a panel of architects, designers and planners will tour Leominster, and explore possible ways to address issues that have been raised by the city.

"What we've been asked to do is assist with design and connectivity within their downtown," said Ileana Tauscher, an associate with the Urban Land Institute's New England chapter. "From what I've heard, it sounds like there's not much streetscaping that gives you a sense of place in the downtown. When you walk from the residential area into the downtown area, there's no feeling that you've arrived."

http://http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/news/ci_29609728/leominster-downntown-revitalization-summit-set-wednesday