Watertown’s economic prospects remain promising, despite a downturn in life sciences and uncertainty in future funds from Washington, City Manager George Proakis said during his City Update at an event hosted by the Watertown Business Coalition on Tuesday.
During the event at the Hampton Inn & Suites, he also spoke about the possible reuse of the former Police Station property, how the new Cultural District could help the local economy, and the redevelopment of Watertown Square.
Life Science Sector
While the lab boom of the early 2020s has waned, Proakis said that the industry still remains solid.
“We have 4 million square feet of lab space now, and while vacancies are currently high, indicators are the industry is still growing, with job growth outpacing layoffs, and I think that last thing that is the key is the industry built very aggressively in the lab field of the last couple of years,” Proakis said.
Watertown is the community with the fourth highest life science investment in Massachusetts, after Cambridge, Boston and Somerville, with $650 million in investment in 2023. The City is also home to MassEcon, which helps relocate companies from other parts of the country, as well as other parts of the globe.
Since 2020 more than 250 patents have been issued to Watertown companies, he added.
A report by Colliers said that the recovery of the Boston life science real estate market may take years, according to a March 12 story by Boston Real Estate Times.
At least one property that had a lab building approved, the former Sterritt Lumber site on Waltham Street, will not become new life science space. The 2-acre property was sold by owners to the City of Watertown. The planning for how to use the site have not begun yet.
Federal Funds
One question Proakis has fielded often lately is how changes in Washington, D.C., will impact Watertown. He noted that Watertown does not have as much direct federal funding as other communities.
“From a direct government funding standpoint, we are in a position where we are less dependent upon what goes on in Washington, than a lot of communities around us,” Proakis said. “We are not a Community Development Block Grant program community. The last two communities where I worked (Somerville and Lowell) had staff that were directly funded by federal programs and we are not receiving large federal grants to do day-to-day work in our community.”
One grant City officials have an eye on is an $800,000 transportation grant which Watertown had applied for and were optimistic that could be awarded to the City. The future of that grant is not clear, he said.
Where Watertown may feel the impact is in the local and regional economy, as well as through state funding.
“From a bigger picture, when you build a regional economic strategy around education and life science, keeping an eye on whether or not research grants to life science and education are going to flow at the level as they have been before, does have an economic impact on us as a region,” Proakis said. “It’s something to keep an eye on.”
As for state dollars coming to Watertown, Proakis said:
“One of the things we are keeping an eye on is some of the state funding programs and how that affects us and is implemented to us,” he said. “We do rely for a portion of our budget on state aid. The numbers that came from the Governor’s office work fine for us but if there are bumps in the state budget, sometimes those trickle down and become bumps in local budgets. And we just have to keep an eye on how and where those are, and ride the ups and downs of economic priorities.”
Former Police Station
Plans for the old Police Station remain undecided, but Proakis hinted at one possible solution that would involve both the library and affordable housing.
Right now, the building on Whooley Way is storing some of the City’s archives before they are digitized. Proakis noted it has been identified as a potential redevelopment site.
“There’s one or two or three different ways of looking at it â that we could still consider,” he said. “One is it could be a housing site â it could be an affordable housing site. The library’s doing some strategic planning now. So it could be mixed in with the library expansion.”
He added that Boston has made a few libraries which incorporated affordable housing.
Watertown Cultural District
Proakis said he has seen how the arts can spur economic growth, and said he sees the potential in the new Cultural District in Watertown Square.
“Building an economic development strategy that has arts and culture at its core is always a strong strategy for bringing people into the community. It helps our restaurants. It helps our small businesses,” he said. “In my 20-year planning career I was in Somerville and Lowell, which are two places that really thrived on making the arts a big part of their economic development strategy. And I’m hoping that with the cultural district designation, we’ll be able to spend a lot of time focusing on that here, too.”
While the official boundaries are in Watertown Square, he said that it really includes cultural institutions around town.
Watertown Square
When asked about green open space in Watertown, Proakis said there may be a key opportunity if the area behind CVS gets redeveloped as part of the redevelopment of Watertown Square.
“There’s a small but incredibly important pocket park in that design behind the CVS block,” he said. “If we do that redevelopment work there, when we structure the parking, that green space, that little park â it’s not that big, but it is the key piece to pedestrian activity and connecting everybody in two other buildings nearby, and strengthening the retail of Spring Street, Mt. Auburn Street, and creating a place where people want to be.”
Proakis also said the effort to increase ridership on the City’s shuttle bus could include a link to the Parker Annex Building, which houses several City Departments and will be the new home of the Watertown Food Pantry.
During his talk, Proakis covered many other areas. Listen to a tape of the presentation, recorded by Little Local Conversation’s Matt Hanna, by clicking here.
What a great set of future projects.
We are so fortunate to have such a talented leader.
Yes, we are lucky to have him. It’s great to have someone who has his pulse on Watertown’s particular needs and also its place in the larger cityscape of MA. Really appreciate his ability and willingness to communicate!