Turning long-vacant building into luxury apartments in Worcester

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“Eight freshly renovated one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartments will open to new tenants next month in what was once a long-vacant building steps from City Hall and Worcester Common — the latest in a series of transformations spurring the downtown renaissance.

 The red brick façade of 517 Main St. sits sandwiched between the Great Wall Chinese restaurant and the tall corner building at the intersection of Franklin and Main streets. Its interior has undergone major changes under Grid Management, which is leasing the new units.

Property Manager Scott Johnson called the building “just a shell” when the management group acquired the property. It rises five stories tall with a commercial space at street level. Now, it is a “luxury apartment building” with rents priced at $1,750 per month.

“We framed it, built it out and everything is brand new,” said Johnson, who oversees the management group’s Worcester portfolio consisting of eight buildings with 549 units in total.

The ground level previously housed a MetroPCS store, that was moved to a commercial space in the neighboring building Johnson said. The upper levels sat vacant and unused for “quite some time” according to Johnson, though he could not give an exact amount of time. Some of the upper floors also had boarded windows in archived Google Street View images.”

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