(01/23/12) Watertown has been excited about the possibility of a new future for the city's landmark Woolworth building for several years. The historic downtown building is on the site of the dry goods store where F.W. Woolworth began his retail career.
In 1921, after launching his five-and-dime empire, Woolworth demolished the old store and built his imposing new headquarters. But as the five and dime empire went, so went the building. It's been vacant for years.
A new owner purchased the building several years ago, now city officials worry the redevelopment plans may be in jeopardy. Joanna Richards has the story.
I'm standing at the corner of
Washington and Arsenal streets in Watertown's Public Square. On the
corner here is the Woolworth building. It was once part of a bustling
downtown economy here. Now, downtown has to compete with the
commercial center in the strip malls lining Arsenal Street, and the
Woolworth building is boarded-up and vacant.
Kenneth Mix is planning and community
development coordinator for the city of Watertown. He says the
Woolworth building could be part of the heart of downtown again, "Well it's a
significantly sized building in the downtown. It's located in an
important location at the end of Public Square. And it's got quite a
bit of history behind it, being associated with F.W. Woolworth and
his whole five-and-dime empire. So there's a lot of history with the
building, too."
Developer Michael Treanor owns the
building. He originally planned to turn it into a hotel. In the fall
of 2009, the city of Watertown was awarded a $2.5 million state grant
to help fund the project.
Later, the grant was reduced to under
$2 million when the developer couldn't secure financing for a hotel.
The project was changed to apartments.
But now, city officials are worried
that the grant could be lost, since there has been little activity on
the project, more than two years after the grant was awarded.
Treanor did not return calls for
comment, but Mix, the city planner, says he last heard from Treanor
in November, "He had proposals from an
architect that he was looking at, to start doing some design work.
He'd also indicated previous to that that he had his financing that
he needed in place, because he wasn't able to get it for the hotel
project, but he was able to find someone who would fund apartments.
And that funding was based on a HUD program that guaranteed the loan.
I don't know how far that's proceeded at this point."
Mix says apartments at the site would
be a great boon to downtown Watertown, "Well, more residential
is always important to downtown, because people who live in the
downtown areas spend money in the downtown areas and help support the
businesses that are there, so anytime you can bring in more
residents, it helps. I mean what drives downtowns now in terms of the
commerce are workers, people who work in the downtown, and residents,
and it's been shown in study after study that residents actually
spend more money in the downtown area than employees do."
Next door to the Woolworth building,
Robert Dalton works in his bar's newly added kitchen, slicing up
fresh cheese for fondue. Dalton is owner of the Paddock Club, a
popular night spot in the Paddock Arcade building. He says he was
really hoping for the hotel project to come through:"If it's a building
maybe for the lower income or the handicapped, I doubt if, you know,
I doubt if it will help my business at all. I was really hoping for
the hotel to come in and that was my big excitement, but I don't know
if – I don't think that's gonna happen."
City officials,
meanwhile, just hope that something will happen with the Woolworth
building before the state decides to rescind its grant funding. They
don't know when their time might run out.
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