WORCESTER – A city commission meeting scheduled for Thursday to likely discuss Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s controversial plans to buy two city hotels to convert them into student housing has been postponed until Aug. 29.
Meanwhile, talks are taking place between the city and representatives of the WPI about a possible meeting and several city councilors have joined in the criticism of the WPI’s behavior.
According to an agenda on the city of Worcester’s website, the Historical Commission’s Thursday meeting has been canceled and all agenda items have been postponed to a special meeting on Aug. 29 in the Esther Howland Chamber, the city council’s main chamber in City Hall.
WPI’s intention to buy the two hotels – the Hampton Inn & Suites at 65 Prescott Street and the Courtyard Marriott at 72 Grove Street – has been strongly condemned by some of the city’s leading business and political leaders.
A letter signed by members of Worcester’s Economic Development Coordinating Council to WPI President Grace Wang sharply criticized WPI’s plans. The letter said the move could significantly impact the city’s tax revenue and was inconsistent with the intended goals of the multi-million dollar Gateway Park project.
The hotels are part of the 55-acre project, which used approximately $170 million in public and private funds to clean up contaminated lands and rehabilitate old industrial buildings to create a mixed-use facility. The project includes WPI’s 125,000-square-foot Center for Life Sciences and Bioengineering.
The Economic Development Coordinating Council, an informal coalition of city agencies and some of the city’s largest business associations, claims Worcester could lose $780,000 annually in property taxes and over $850,000 in hotel and motel tax revenue. In addition, over 100 jobs and 25 percent of local hotel room capacity would be lost.
City officials also said WPI had not been transparent with them about its plan to purchase the hotels.
Jon Weaver, a member of the Economic Development Coordinating Council and president and CEO of Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives, previously told the Telegram & Gazette that the move would limit the space available for local biotechnology expansion.
WPI declined to comment.
The Historical Commission was asked during Thursday’s meeting to comment on WPI’s plans for 65 Prescott St., the site of the Hampton Inn.
Mayor Joseph M. Petty told the Telegram & Gazette on Monday that City Manager Eric D. Batista will meet with WPI this week. However, Thomas Matthews, a city spokesman, responded to a question from the Telegram & Gazette on Thursday only to say that the parties were in contact.
Also on Thursday, a majority of city council members signed a letter further criticizing WPI and calling for a halt to the takeover. The letter was written by Candy Mero-Carlson, 2nd District councilwoman and chair of the Standing Committee on Economic Development.
“WPI was originally a committed and open partner with the Worcester City Council, the business community and the city’s residents. However, over the past two years, WPI has demonstrated an alarming lack of transparency with the city and the business community. As Worcester City Councilors, we call on WPI to stop this proposed takeover,” the letter said.
The letter was signed by Mero-Carlson, At-large Councilman Morris Bergman, At-large Councilman Khrystian King, At-large Councilwoman Donna Colorio, At-large Councilwoman Kathleen Toomey, 1st District Councilwoman Jennifer Pacillo, 3rd District Councilman George Russell and 4th District Councilman Luis Ojeda.
“WPI’s proposed acquisition of the Hampton Inn and Courtyard Marriott hotels would adversely affect annual property tax rates and result in the loss of over 100 jobs at a time when unemployment is rising in Central Massachusetts,” the letter states. “These are hard-working people who will lose their wages due to the WPI expansion, which runs counter to the original intent, vision and mission of the Gateway Park project.”
The councillors also shared the Economic Development Coordinating Council’s concerns that Worcester’s tourism business could be harmed by the loss of hotel capacity. The letter also said WPI had violated the spirit of its civic partnership with city and business leaders. “As Worcester City Councillors, we are deeply dissatisfied with the process by which WPI secretly negotiated the impending purchase of these hotels. This potential acquisition damages the spirit of partnership the City has built with WPI,” the letter said.
Etel Haxhiaj, a city councilwoman for the 5th district, said Monday in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that new student housing should not come at the expense of the city’s taxpayers.
“I believe that the more housing universities and colleges create, the less they take away from our residents. But not at the expense of taxpayers and neighborhoods. (Payments in lieu of taxes) should then be renegotiated to offset the removal of properties from our tax rolls.”
Haxhiaj said the same situation occurred with Clark University’s purchase of the former Diamond Chevrolet property and previously requested a report on how many properties colleges and universities had decoupled from city tax revenues over the past five years.
