Pharmacy and health sciences college in city renovating Lincoln Square parking garage
WORCESTER — Despite the twisted metal beams and heavy equipment at the edge of Lincoln Square, the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences is renovating — not reducing — the 40-year garage that was once the main parking lot for guests at the Worcester Marriott.
The hotel became a school dormitory a dozen years ago.
Seth P. Wall, chief administrative officer at MCPHS, said the collection of construction equipment is not a precursor to another building.
“The garage has been around for quite some time. So it needed some repair work to be done,” Wall said. “We’re getting the garage in a place where it’s all fresh and looking good and repaired.”
On June 15, 2010, MCPHS took over what had become the Crowne Plaza hotel and transformed it into a college dormitory.
MCPHS, which also has campuses in Boston and Manchester, New Hampshire, purchased the former 243-room hotel for $16.8 million.
Work on the 180-space, two-story garage is expected to continue into next year, Wall said.
“The upper section is being replaced. The other section is being repaired,” he said.
Favorite haunt
Opened in 1982 as a Worcester Marriott, the hotel was notorious for the place where celebrities who played at the nearby Centrum would stay.
More: Were you there? The 40 biggest events at the Centrum in the last 40 years
The Moody Blues, Ozzy Osbourne, Robert Plant, Prince, Bob Seger and Van Halen (fronted by David Lee Roth) is just a short list of musical artists who stayed at the old Marriott.
In addition, Cahoots in the old Marriott was a popular nightclub in the 1980s, where celebrities would often unwind after a concert at the Centrum. In the case of Prince, some performed an unannounced show to the lucky crowd.
The hotel’s previous owner, Lodgian Inc. of Atlanta, stopped making mortgage payments on the property.
Lodgian, owing $16 million to lenders, gave up control of the hotel and a federal judge placed it under the control of a receiver.
When the receiver announced in April 2010 that the hotel had become outdated and would be sold, it raised concerns about a large, vacant building sitting in downtown Worcester. But the college quickly announced it would purchase the property.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Mass. Pharmacy writes prescription for parking garage facelift in Worcester's Lincoln Square
