Pickleball included: Work begins on 123-apartment retirement community at Higgins Estate

WORCESTER — At the end of a cul-de-sac off Salisbury Street on a 17-acre portion of the property known as Bramble Hill, excavators are clawing away at mounds of dirt and large rocks.

Flexing their mechanical arms, they bleep as they move the loads onto a different spot with a loud spill.

The cycle repeats, as it has likely done since late October when the century-old property on the hill, known by many as the Higgins Estate, was flattened to make way for a 55-and-over community with 123 apartment homes.

Tuesday, the work was part of the last of the cleanup. Early next year, work toward the $35 million project is set to begin the next phase.

When completed, the community will be known as The Arbella at Bramble Hill, a project led by United Group of Companies, a New York-based real estate company.

The project will be a continuing care retirement community for active seniors with 60 one-bedroom and 63 two-bedroom apartments in three, three-story buildings.

The project calls for an 8,500-square-foot clubhouse, a golf simulator, a yoga studio, an indoor pool and sauna, pickleball and bocce courts and a multimedia theatre, among other amenities.

Jeddy Johnson, a spokesperson for United Group, said the company’s target completion date is late 2025.

“The senior community is living longer and is more active than ever before, so we wanted to create a space that caters to their current lifestyle," Jeff Smetana, executive vice president ofdevelopment at The United Group of Companies, wrote in a statement.

The Bramble Hill property was built in 1901 with a Georgian Revival mansion on 115 acres of land that included the since-gone manor house, the stables/carriage house, a caretaker’s cottage and a children’s playhouse. Its name is traced to its original occupant — prominent industrialist Milton P. Higgins and his philanthropic wife, Alice C. Higgins.

In 2000, the estate was sold for just over $5 million, the highest price ever paid for a residence in Worcester at the time.

While 90 acres of the property were earlier developed into an over-55 community called Salisbury Hill, the remainder — where the main buildings weathered as they sat in the elements — remained untouched.

The 123-unit senior housing project first popped up in 2019, only a year after a Dunstable-based developer purchased the remaining 17.4 acres for $820,000.

Although approved by the planning board in October 2022, the project faced resistance by city Zoning Board of Appeals members and neighbors in February, focusing on the project’s suitability for the neighborhood and its affordability.

The project was eventually approved, giving way to demolition work.

In July, United Group purchased the property for $4.9 million, according to property records, and in mid-November they secured the funds in a $35 million loan from The Washington Trust Company, a Rhode Island-headquartered bank, according to Johnson.

Those who remember the Higgins Estate before it was torn down, will recall the graffitied walls past the Greek columns greeting those at the entrance.

Johnson added that nature had seeped into the building, rendering it impossible to renovate.

As the property was torn down in October, Johnson added that local preservationists took doorknobs and hardware from the property, although she couldn’t say what the purpose of the collection will be.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Pickleball included: Work begins on retirement community at Higgins Estate