by Michael Gallagher

Over 15 years ago, The Lowell Plan commissioned a Downtown Evolution Plan by nationally known urban planner Jeff Speck.

After spending months in the city, Mr. Speck submitted his Plan and one of his key recommendations was that Lowell needed a downtown hotel.  “The absence of a hotel in a downtown as appealing as Lowell’s,” he wrote, “is one of the city’s most striking incongruities.  Rarely has a downtown with such character, entertainment venues, and tourist amenities lacked a hotel of significant size, and it seems truly bizarre that a business visitor with meetings downtown would have to rent a room out by the highway…”

Just last year, Mosaic Lowell, after partnering with many local organizations and individuals, submitted its Arts, Cultural, and Creative Economy Plan, and one of its key recommendations was that Lowell needed a downtown hotel.

While, as Mr. Speck observed, Lowell has numerous downtown amenities which other similarly-sized cities do not have – a National Park, a fully-professional theater, and many preserved historic buildings – it still has no downtown hotel.  Notably, Worcester to the south has 10 downtown hotels with over 1300 rooms and Manchester to the north, with virtually the same population as Lowell, has five downtown hotels and about 750 rooms.

Today, there is a demonstrably greater need for a downtown hotel in Lowell.  UML now has nearly 20,000 students, many of whom are from out of the area, and their parents when visiting will need hotel rooms.  Starting this year, two professional sports teams will play in Lowell – Women’s Hockey and Arena Football – and their players, coaches, referees, and out-of-town fans will need hotel rooms.  Lowell attracts visitors to its various festivals, including the largest free Folk Festival in the country, and they all will need hotel rooms.  And MCC is reportedly seeking a local venue to host culinary arts and hospitality programs.

Wouldn’t it be great, then, if Lowell had a downtown space to build a new hotel?  Imagine a visitor accessing the city via the just-completed Thorndike Street overpass, driving by the new Courthouse and the impressive residential and office spaces in the Hamilton Canal District, and turning onto Market Street into Lowell’s historic downtown only to visualize a beautiful five- and six-story, 80-room, boutique hotel.

Artist’s rendition of Dutton St./Market St. entry into downtown with proposed Lowell Legacy Hotel (Photo by Architect James Jozokos)

Well, the good news is that on the corner of Shattuck and Market Streets, across from the National Park Service Visitors’ Center, there is already such a space – indeed, Mr. Speck called it the “ideal location” for a downtown hotel.

Even more, that space is “teed up” for a hotel.  Its owner, the Panagiotopoulos family, envisioning it as an homage to Lowell’s immigrant history, has retained an architect to draw up plans and those plans have passed muster with both Lowell’s Planning Board and the Lowell Historic Board; Federal and State Tax Credits, including New Job Creation Tax Credits, have been secured; the City of Lowell has signaled it would approve a 10-year TIF; it is located in an Opportunity Zone and it is PACE (green energy) funding-eligible; and contractors, who have indicated that a hotel could be constructed there in 15-18 months, have been identified.

A new downtown hotel would be a boon for the city.  In addition to providing sorely needed lodging rooms and dining options, it would create an attractive gateway to the downtown, offer jobs for area residents, annually add $600,000 to $800,000 in room and meals taxes to city and state coffers, and undoubtedly have an enormous positive economic impact on our community (Mr. Speck concluded that Lowell could support both a mid-sized hotel and a boutique downtown hotel).

Artists rendition of proposed hotel room design, paying homage to Lowell’s history

As we in Lowell well know, projects like this require active community support.  It is to be hoped that the city’s administration and Council, The Lowell Plan, The Greater Lowell Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Lowell Visitors and Convention Bureau, UML and MCC, the Lowell Downtown Neighborhood Association, and state agencies such as MassDevelopment would be supportive.

We in Lowell also know that nothing big gets done if we don’t roll up our sleeves and go about the hard work of getting it done.  We can wait another decade, and another study which tells us that the downtown needs a hotel, or we can get it done now.  It is time.

(Editor’s note: the Founder of InsideLowell is part of the family and ownership group seeking to develop the proposed hotel)