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LOWELL — UMass Lowell hasn’t broken ground yet on its $800-million Lowell Innovation Network Corridor project, and the potential billion-dollar Frontrunner City Initiative is still in early stages, but the city’s Hamilton Canal Innovation District is having a moment.
At its Sept. 9 meeting, the City Council unanimously approved access agreements with two major developers – Wexford Development and Winn Companies.
“Wexford is proposing the development of a 75,000-square-foot research and development facility,” City Manager Tom Golden said in a Sept. 4 memo to the council.
The HCID area is adjacent to Lowell’s downtown and within the boundaries of three historic districts: the Lowell National Historical Park and Preservation District, the Downtown Lowell Historic District, and the Locks and Canals Historic District.
It is a critical part of the Jackson/Appleton/Middlesex urban renewal plan and the Thorndike/Dutton Street entry corridor to the city. It has a direct route to the Gallagher Transportation Terminal less than a mile away.
It is also within walking distance to UMass Lowell’s LINC project, an 80% private and 20% publicly funded project that will build out the university’s East Campus footprint. The university hopes to break ground on a three-phased building plan that blends industry, infrastructure and housing. The groundbreaking for Phases 1 and 2 are to take place this year, with a two-year timeframe for completion.
But the vacant HCID parcels have struggled to attract developers with the vision and scope to build out the centrally located and high-profile parcels.
Wexford Science & Technology, which is pulling together the ambitious LINC project, is known for its mixed-use, amenity-rich, innovation-focused communities blending industry/university community models. It responded to a request for proposal on the three-phased housing-retail LINC project that UMass Lowell sent out more three years ago.
“Wexford Development continues to have interest in developing parcel 15 in the Hamilton Canal Innovation District (HCID),” Golden said. “It is our hope this due diligence work will result in the successful negotiation of a Land Disposition Agreement for this parcel.”
A formal land disposition agreement with Wexford is when the purchase price to the land would be agreed upon.
At the same meeting, the council also unanimously approved the execution of an extended temporary access agreement between the city and WinnDevelopment.
Sometime in 2028 or 2029, WinnDevelopment, the construction arm of the WinnCompanies, hopes to have built 124 apartments in a six- to seven-story, mixed-use building along Dutton Street. The area encompasses Parcels 11 and 12 in the HCID and is located across the Pawtucket Canal.
The last development within the HCID was WinnCompanies’ 201 Canal Apartments in 2022.
At the council’s next meeting on Sept. 23, it referred to an Oct. 28 public hearing an ordinance to amend the form-based code on parcels 2, 3A, 4, and 5 in the HCID to allow development by Cabot, Cabot and Forbes, which acquired the properties from the Sal Lupoli Companies.
In an agreement negotiated by the city, Lupoli sold his undeveloped parcels to CC&F, although he will retain ownership of the $26 million, eight-story, 550-space parking garage on Parcel 1, across from Kiernan Judicial Center on Jackson Street.
The form-based code specifies what goes on each parcel and has to be submitted to the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities for administrative approval.
The new developer is proposing to build 270 market rate residential units and 10,000-square-feet of street level retail on the parcels.
“A form-based code change would allow for a larger building footprint across the parcels and an increase in the maximum building height on parcel 5 – from 70 feet to 85 feet,” Golden said. “Combining parcels 2, 3a, and 4 will create an opportunity to build more housing units, directly addressing Lowell’s growing housing needs of all types.”
LINC is poised to bring hundreds of units of housing, hundreds of thousands of square feet of commercial space, and a new dormitory to the Mill City. One development will build out land next to the Tsongas Arena, and a counterpart will take place near the Wannalancit Mills.
Both locations will each add about 300,000-square-foot buildings, about 20 percent of which UMass Lowell will occupy. Companies who want to be close to campus will lease the remaining space.
“To date, the vision for the HCID that was created over twenty-years ago still resonates,” Assistant City Manager and Director of Planning & Development Yovani Baez-Rose said. “While there have been modifications over time, the creation of new housing, the introduction of retail, and office space is still guiding all ongoing discussions…the district has a lot of momentum at the moment.”
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Melanie Gilbert
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