Category: Kelley Square Relocation

Worcester bets on new ballpark to spur development (Boston Business Journal)

By   –  Projects Reporter, 

Tuesday will be the first game for the Worcester Red Sox in their new home city. For Worcester, whether the team’s move is a win will take far longer to play out.

The brand new city-owned ballpark, Polar Park, was built not so much only with the idea of drawing the top affiliate of the Boston Red Sox to town as it was an ambitious play: That Worcester’s Canal District neighborhood and the rest of the city would benefit from new interest from developers wanting to build apartments, restaurants and other space next to the stadium.

Worcester has gone all-in on the stadium.

The Worcester City Council voted in 2017 to direct City Manager Edward Augustus to do all in his power to bring to Worcester the then-Pawtucket Red Sox, who were looking for a new stadium to replace the dated McCoy Stadium. Efforts from the PawSox to build a new facility in Pawtucket or next-door Providence received cool receptions from a state that was still reeling from a failed investment in former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling’s video game company.

In August 2018, the PawSox and Worcester city officials, along with Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, unveiled their plans: a $101 million ballpark to be built on a sloped parking lot that stood over a contaminated former industrial site. The team would begin play in April 2021.

The project has not gone entirely smoothly since.

The team’s debut was pushed back a month because of the coronavirus pandemic. From the initial cost, nearly $60 million in additional costs have been incurred, largely due to where officials chose to build. The site required removing contaminated soil and a culvert, and acquiring adjacent parcels, knocking down buildings and relocating businesses was far costlier than first thought.

be smaller while construction was already ongoing. Capacity was reduced, and a brick façade was exchanged for blue corrugated steel.

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August 2020

Table Talk Pies, Chacharone Properties and the City of Worcester Celebrate Groundbreaking of Table Talk Pies’ New State-of-the-Art Bakery at 68 Gardner Street in Main South Worcester

Table Talk Pies and Chacharone Properties Plan to Build a State-of-the-Art Bakery in Main South (Perishable News)

Worcester, MA – Table Talk Pies, Inc. plans to build a new state-of-the-art, energy efficient 120,000 + square foot bakery to produce dessert pies within the former Crompton & Knowles Complex in Worcester’s Main South neighborhood.  Partnering with Chacharone Properties, the 95-year old Worcester company will move its Kelley Square bakery on Washington Street to an underdeveloped plot of land in a revitalized area of the City.

“My father and his partner—two Greek immigrants—moved to Worcester and started Table Talk here because it was a city where they could build a life for their families and a business,” said Mary T. Cocaine, Table Talk Pies, majority shareholder. “I am proud that over 95 years later, Worcester is still a city that the company calls home and the Table Talk family can continue to grow.”

The plan is to build a more streamlined and efficient facility to produce dessert pies that will replace the Kelley Square operations.  Table Talk will lease the building from Chacharone Properties.  The new facility will include food grade production space, warehouse, and office space for Table Talk. As with two previous buildings developed for Table Talk Pies, Chacharone Properties plans to use high efficiency and environmentally-friendly construction materials that complement the designs of other updated buildings in the neighborhood.  The goal is to have the entire project completed and ready to begin operations in June 2021.

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Leaving Kelley Square: Table Talk to focus on producing 8-inch pies at new Main South Worcester factory (Mass Live)

For Harry Kokkinis and Table Talk Pies, the dream of a brand new bakery came with the 95-year-old bakery’s expansion in South Worcester.

Since the 2017 opening of a second factory for the iconic Worcester business, which brought new life to the South Worcester Industrial Park, Kokkinis started to consider a new headquarters.

“We’ve just seen how that’s met all of our expectations and then some there in terms of efficiency, reduction of waste and just the ability to manage our process and I think we were inspired by that new building to take a serious look at Washington Street and what could be done there,” Kokkinis said. “I think we came to the conclusion that we really needed a new building to have something that was efficient and cost-effective.”

 

Worcester Making Strides Towards Redevelopment And Building Polar Park (CBS Boston)

WORCESTER (CBS) — A big bang in Worcester marked a new milestone on the way to Polar Park and the revitalization of an important area of the city. Workers have begun demolishing the last building standing on the property that will become the new home of the Woo Sox, and right next door, a longtime Worcester institution is moving to a new home, clearing the way for more development in Kelley Square.

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Table Talk leaving Kelley Square for $22-million Main South facility (Worcester Business Journal)

By Thomas Grillo

Table Talk Pies Inc., the third generation dessert manufacturer, plans to leave its Kelley Square location and build a $22-million facility at the former Crompton & Knowles campus in Worcester’s Main South neighborhood, the company said Thursday.

In collaboration with Chacharone Properties, the Worcester real estate management company, the 95-year-old pie company  will move its operation to an 8-acre site. Plans call for hiring 50 more employees, bringing its total to 180 at the new facility. Table Talk proposed a 120,000-square-foot plant that would include production space, a warehouse, and offices.

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Table Talk to Build New Facility in Main South, Add 50 Jobs (This Week in Worcester)

by  

WORCESTER – Table Talk Pies announced Thursday it will build a new 120,000 square foot bakery in the former Crompton & Knowles Complex in the Main South neighborhood of Worcester.

The new state-of-the-art and energy efficient facility is expected to open in June 2021. It will replace the company’s current and largest operation operation on Washington Street in Kelley Square which opened in 1942.

Some 130 current full-time production staff will move to working at the new facility with 50 new full-time positions added over the first three years. 60% of Table Talk’s current employees live in Worcester.

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Table Talk Pies to build a new 120,000-SF bakery in Worcester (Boston Real Estate Times)

WORCESTER, MA – Table Talk Pies, Inc. plans to build a new state-of-the-art, energy efficient 120,000 + square foot bakery to produce dessert pies within the former Crompton & Knowles Complex in Worcester’s Main South neighborhood.

Partnering with Chacharone Properties, the 95-year old Worcester company will move its Kelley Square bakery on Washington Street to an underdeveloped plot of land in a revitalized area of the City.

“My father and his partner—two Greek immigrants—moved to Worcester and started Table Talk here because it was a city where they could build a life for their families and a business,” said Mary T. Cocaine, Table Talk Pies, majority shareholder. “I am proud that over 95 years later, Worcester is still a city that the company calls home and the Table Talk family can continue to grow.”

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Table Talk Pies HQ to leave Kelley Square (Worcester Telegram and Gazette)

By Steven H. Foskett Jr.
Telegram & Gazette Staff
Posted Jan 16, 2020 at 6:46 PM
Updated Jan 17, 2020 at 12:28 PM

WORCESTER – Table Talk Pies plans to move its headquarters from Kelley Square to the South Worcester Industrial Park area, the city and the company announced Thursday.

The iconic bakery and longtime Kelley Square mainstay has been shopping around for a new home, and in partnership with Chaharone Properties has proposed a new 120,000-square foot production headquarters at six contiguous parcels in the industrial park area on the former Crompton & Knowles factory complex near the Boys & Girls Club of Worcester.

“Staying in Worcester was very important to us,” Table Talk President Harry Kokkinis said Thursday afternoon. “Worcester has been an important part of our success.”

As part of the move, the company is filing an application for certified project designation that will allow the project to take advantage of tax increment financing. According to Michael E. Traynor, the city’s chief development officer, the proposed term of the TIF is 20 years at an average exemption of 60%. The proposed project is expected to increase the total assessed value of the Gardner Street property from $1.3 million to $10 million. The estimated savings over the life of the TIF is approximately $4.6 million; at the same time, the city will receive an estimated $4.4 million in tax revenue, Traynor explained in a communication to City Manager Edward M. Augustus Jr.

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Worcester’s Table Talk Pies moving out of Kelley Square, building new bakery in Main South (Mass Live)

Table Talk Pies, an iconic 95-year-old Worcester business, has announced that it will move its Kelley Square bakery to an underdeveloped plot of land, building a brand new, state-of-the-art bakery in the city’s Main South neighborhood.

Table Talk is partnering with Chacharone Properties to build the new 120,000-plus square foot bakery to produce dessert pies within the former Crompton & Knowles Complex, the company wrote in a news release Thursday.

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