In the early 1980’s, the city of Lowell partnered with its business community to retain the nationally-recognized American City Corporation to help develop a “Downtown Master Plan.”  Lowell native Paul Tsongas, then a U.S. Senator, was instrumental in that effort.  One of the integral parts of that Master Plan was a downtown hotel.

The city, and its business community, recognized that a downtown hotel venue was critical to the economic resurgence of the area (notably, this project is listed near the very top of The Lowell Plan’s “Past Projects” section of its website).  To make it happen, the city acquired various downtown properties near the “Lower Locks” (including the venerable Strand Movie Theater site) and built an access road, all for the future use of a hotel – what is today known as UML’s Inn and Conference Center (ICC).

With a hotel, visitors to Lowell could now lodge overnight in Lowell and Lowell-based events could now be held in Lowell. While like a lot of hotels, the ownership of the original hotel changed over time, it had continued to be a place – practically speaking, the only downtown place – for visitors (from Lowell Folk Festival musicians to UML parents to area wedding guests) to spend the night and a venue for numerous local fundraisers and similar gatherings. Until this past week.

Recent reports now indicate that our only downtown hotel may be transformed by the Commonwealth into a Migrant Center.  In our view, given the vital significance of the ICC to the city, and especially to the downtown, that proposed transformation begs the question:  Isn’t there a better place for the proposed Center?

We are not in any way questioning the need for housing for the recent waves of immigrants from Haiti and elsewhere.  Indeed, we are very proud of Lowell’s history as a “city of immigrants.”  Lowellians have worked hard to help make the city a sanctuary where newcomers, refugees and others, can begin making a new life.  Indeed, in or on the periphery of the downtown are many organizations dedicated, at least in part, to that effort – the Lowell Community Health Center, which provides quality health care for nearly half of Lowell’s residents; the new Lowell High School, the most ambitious public high school project in the history of the Commonwealth; and multiple facilities of CTI and UTEC, two of our many downtown non-profits which do such amazing work.  The truth is that few, if any, other communities can rival Lowell’s history as a place where those in need are treated with respect and dignity.

So, given Lowell’s, and the ICC’s, history, the question – isn’t there a better place for the Migrant Center than our only downtown hotel? – would seem fair and commonsensical.  After all, aren’t the best urban downtowns thoughtful mixes of business, education, recreation, and, yes, non-profit enterprises?  Won’t taking our one downtown hotel, especially as downtown businesses continue to seek to find ways to deal with panhandling and homelessness issues, directly undercut and stifle current efforts to transform the downtown into a “Business Improvement District” (some are even predicting that this move will mean the end of the downtown as we know it).  Won’t placing scores of migrant families into the hotel impose excessive pressure on the downtown safety nets?  If the ICC is transformed into a state-run Migrant Center, will it become a white elephant once the emergency has, hopefully, run its course?  And, couldn’t we as a community, which has so commendably responded to similar challenges in the past, collectively identify “X” number of housing units in our city without co-opting our one downtown hotel?

With the end of the pandemic, as workers return to the downtown, and residents and visitors return to our restaurant and recreational venues, and non-profit gatherings again fill our calendars, and the city/LPD responsibly address the panhandling and downtown homelessness challenges, we see genuine hope for the renaissance of our historic downtown.  With great respect, then, we ask that Governor Healey and UML Chancellor Chen reconsider the proposal to convert the ICC to a Migrant Center and work, with downtown stakeholders and others, to find alternate locales for those in need.

Michael Gallagher, Esq., Gaslight Building (downtown Lowell)
Brian Martin, former Lowell City Manager
Eileen Donoghue, former Lowell City Manager
Nancy Donahue, Lowell-area philanthropist
Jack Moynihan, Chair, Lowell Downtown Neighborhood Association