Tax Incentive Pitched To Develop Vacant Worcester Big D Supermarket

WORCESTER, MA — A Worcester city councilor is pitching a new proposal to redevelop one of the biggest blights in the city.

At Tuesday's Worcester City Council meeting, District 5 Councilor Etel Haxhiaj will ask the city manager to apply to create an Urban Center Housing Tax Increment Financing zone around the former Big D supermarket — vacant for more than 20 years — along Mill Street.

With that zone in place, a developer could build a mixed-use building and receive a tax exemption on the improvement in return. The Urban Center TIF would work similarly to TIFs granted to developments in the downtown Worcester area that have been used for new hotel, office and residential developments.

The TIF proposal comes two months after the 195 Mill St. property hit the market for $6.25 million. The 10.3-acre site is big enough for 200 units of housing, according to the listing by Kelleher & Sadowsky.

Price Chopper purchased the Worcester-based Big D chain in the mid-1990s, and the Mill Street location later closed. Several attempts have been made over the years to redevelop the site — in 2021, former councilor Gary Rosen asked the city law department to find out what could be done with the property — including talks about turning the site into housing.

Haxhiaj said the former Big D and Mill Street in general are ripe for redevelopment due to recent investments like the renovated Coes Pond Beach and Stearns Tavern.

"It can open up this particular area to bigger things, like the redesigning of Mill Street, attracting new investments, making the area more walkable," Haxhiaj said Monday on the Talk of the Commonwealth radio show. "It's time this property is paid attention to in a way that I haven't seen."