By Jennifer Myers, jmyers@lowellsun.com
LOWELL -- The first phase of the $800 million Hamilton Canal District revitalization project will break ground next month, Hank Keating, of developer Trinity Financial, told the City Council last night.
The former Appleton Mill buildings are slated to be transformed into 130 artist live/work spaces in the next 18 months. Keating said Trinity expects to close on $40 million in private investor funding next Wednesday.
"We are effectively rebuilding the entire building, with the exception of the facades along the canals," Keating said. "It is very laborious."
Keating added that he works with municipal planning departments throughout the Northeast and the Lowell Department of Planning and Development is "very well respected. They are amazingly professional."
Mayor Edward "Bud" Caulfield said he is pleased to see the project move forward despite the financial downturn.
"Other communities like Lowell are suffering and we are building a new neighborhood," he said. "Everything is moving forward."
The entire Hamilton Canal project, expected to take 10 years, is expected to result in the rebirth of the desolate 15-acre site nestled between the city's Acre neighborhood and downtown into a neighborhood of 350,000 square feet of commercial/office space, up to 50,000 square feet of retail space, a mix of up to 700-800 market-rate and affordable-housing units, 400 new permanent jobs and $4 million in annual tax revenue to the city.
This story appeared in the Lowell Sun on Wednesday, September 23, 2009