A boarded-up corner, three modeled futures.
Scenario modeling and RFP support for the arts-anchored redevelopment of 611 Main Street, a city-owned site at the heart of Worcester's Theatre District.
611 Main today, and one illustrative future from the delivered study. The render is a concept, not a design.
The engagement, on film · 28 seconds · sound on
The challenge
611 Main Street is the former Registry of Motor Vehicles: granite-clad, boarded up, and sitting on one of the rare downtown parcels where a single redevelopment decision shapes a corridor's identity for a generation. The study examined which combinations of housing, arts, and ground-floor uses could deliver civic value, serve a visible affordable-housing need, and remain financially plausible. It also asked what it would take to carry that analysis from a graduate study to a redevelopment authority board and into a credible RFP.
The work
- Co-authored the redevelopment strategyAn arts-anchored strategy developed through the Harvard Kennedy School's Greater Boston field lab as part of a four-person team, grounded in stakeholder engagement with city leadership, state officials, developers, arts-sector leaders, and resident advocates.
- Three development pro formasFull models for a 150,000 square foot, nine-story program of 143 to 159 units depending on scenario: a market-rate anchor, a mixed-income scheme, and a majority-affordable scheme with a civic plaza. Each runs from land and construction assumptions through operating cash flows and financing, calibrated to Worcester comparables.
- Continued with the City as a Rappaport FellowTranslated the study into decision infrastructure inside the Executive Office of Economic Development: transmittal memos, a detailed redevelopment authority board presentation, and a community-facing deck.
- Produced the RFP support packageA scoring framework, a market-sounding instrument, a financing readiness brief, proposer forms, and the rest of the paperwork that makes an RFP answerable.
- Demand and the funding ecosystemWalkshed and amenity-gap analysis layered over the city's subsidized housing inventory, plus a scan of the state and philanthropic capital that could plausibly close each scenario's gap.
The three modeled scenarios · shaded area shows income-restricted share of units
Program diagram, drawn from the delivered models. Shares are modeled, not proposed.
Findings, not recommendations.
The discipline throughout: model without a thumb on the scale, put the trade-offs where a board could see them, and leave the choosing to the people accountable for it.
The outcome
The engagement left the City with three modeled futures, board-ready materials, and a support package proposers can answer. What gets built is the City's call.
The scale of the question
Modeled program, per the delivered studies · figures are modeling assumptions, not commitments
gross square feet, nine stories
units modeled, depending on scenario
modeled development cost, three scenarios
Shown here: three modeled futures for the parcel, roughly $60 million across the scenarios, and the board materials that put the trade-offs in the room. The parcel-level pro formas are the City’s working numbers for a decision still in motion, so whether to publish them is the City’s call.
“Daniel brought clarity and care to a complex redevelopment question. His work helped translate scenario analysis into materials the City could use as it considers next steps for the site.”
Paul Morano · Assistant Chief Development Officer, City of Worcester