The current Master Plan for the HCD takes the approach of expanding Lowell to, basically, push the downtown closer to the new site for the Lowell Trial Court. The HCD Master Plan explains that the HCD will be able to act as a new ‘gate’ to the downtown. This plan hopes to push the council to believe that the HCD should not act as a new ‘gate’ to the downtown, but instead should simply be a new addition to Lowell’s (several existing) neighborhoods. This allows the focus of this project, including the development of the Lowell Trial Court, to be on the ‘re-birth’ of Lowell (which includes the development of the HCD) instead of just the HCD. This creates an excellent opportunity to have an area of Lowell that ties-together its rich history as a hub of culture, creativity, and innovation. It also allows for the opportunity to direct attention to all sections of Lowell and not just the HCD. Once the Lowell Trial Court, the Lord Overpass, and the HCD are settled, their synergy can slowly help to reintroduce Lowell to the outside world. The influx of visitors and interest in Lowell generated by the HCD will then allow Lowell to rejuvenate its senior neighborhoods and, thus, the city as a whole.

 

     This plan will show that once the HCD is complete, it will act as a rejuvenating force for Lowell, its residents, and its visitors. The HCD, now one of eight districts of Lowell, will be brimming with Lowell’s historical identity as a cultural Mecca, a communal center of creativity and innovation. People young and old from every conceived background will undoubtedly be attracted to the mix of retail storefronts and wide array of eateries. New, modernized residential communities and commercial spaces will provide the ‘city-feel’ that is essential in re-creating the image of Lowell as a city of opportunity. Incentives will be arranged and offered for commercial space, in particular, to attract a younger audience of entrepreneurial-types looking to grow or begin start-up companies. This would also be in an effort to appeal to UMASS Lowell graduates who are beginning their adult lives and looking to establish a base somewhere financially affordable, economically progressive, and culturally informed. Parking has also been considered, and utilizes that parking scheme already agreed to in the HCD Master Plan from 2008.

 

Targeted Audience

 

     The City of Lowell has the scale of resources needed to appeal to all forms of human life from young to old. There is an active downtown area, as well as many cultural, historic and geographic attractions that appeal to all types of person. For some time, Lowell’s cultural, historic and geographic attractions, alongside its downtown, have been supported solely by Lowell’s residents and a steady trickle of visitors and tourists. The Hamilton Canal District project, including the installation of the Lowell Trial Court, offers an opportunity to increase Lowell’s visitation and tourism industry from a trickle to a stream, as well as creates the opportunity to attract new residents to Lowell. The development of a unique, pedestrian-prioritized site in the HCD is the switch that will throw power back to Lowell, balance the grid, and jumpstart the revitalization of the city’s community, downtown and neighborhoods.

 

     The HCD will encounter all types of people, tourists and consumers alike, due to the ethnic diversity of Lowell’s population and the enormous amount of traffic generated by the installation of the Lowell Trial Court. This means the HCD should offer amenities that appeal to all ages, all socio-economic backgrounds, and all ethnicities. Appropriate residential, commercial, retail and food locations will be developed and implemented accordingly in the HCD to generate the highest degree of sustained interest for the site.

 

Lowell’s Identity

 

     Lowell is the birthplace of the United States’ Industrial Revolution, and is thus, in many ways, responsible for the mechanical, intricate, and imaginative mindset that fuels modern day Americans. This mindset, one that constantly questions boundaries and seeks out positions of leadership that can instill change for the better, is unique. Lowell deserves to capitalize on this identity. While Boston may have birthed a nation, Lowell helped to birth the spirit of innovation that allowed this nation to prosper.

 

Lowell’s Image

 

     To bring forth the image of Lowell as the entrepreneurial epicenter of America, making it the first and foremost thought whenever the city’s name is mentioned, the Hamilton Canal District’s induction as the newest sector of Lowell’s economy must play an intricate role.

 

     Lowell would not be the birthplace of the industrial revolution, and the United States may not now be the industrialized nation it is, without the entrepreneurial zeal and innovative ideas that Francis Cabot Lowell is said to have instilled in the people who came to found and develop the mills and launch a community model still used to propagate modern society, culture and values. Lowell was, in other words, an entrepreneurial experiment of the 19th-century-kind that succeeded and helped to produce the modern entrepreneurial gene that makes the future look promising.

 

Lowell’s Reputation

 

     From the idea of a business venture to the creation of a nation, Lowell deserves to be recognized as the first cog placed in the mechanism that now whirs and ticks to assist in running the world daily. This is Lowell’s saleable product. This is the gleaming gem that tourists come to admire and photograph. Lowell is where people were first able to picture the true promise of America. It is where the idea of major industry became popular, and where the belief that Art is the Handmaiden of Human Good began its infectious spread and led to modern day life. It is also where people from starkly different backgrounds, both ethnic and cultural, have come together to reside and share in communal and cultural values for generations—acting as an illustrated example of the exact nature the United States’ melting pot of culture. Implemented according to this plan, the HCD would allow for the blending of these characteristics of Lowell’s identity into a modern day image that produces a healthy, self-sustaining reputation that leads to economic growth for many generations to come. This plan creates a path for the Hamilton Canal District to become, “Where Lowell’s Culture and Creativity Ignites Innovation.”

 

Selling Proposition

 

     The HCD is not the selling proposition in this case, but rather what makes it possible to gain enough marketing momentum for this proposition to be saleable in a city-wide rebranding effort. Lowell needs to be its own unique selling proposition in order to rebrand itself as a hub of innovation, art, culture, and history. Let the world know that this is a city that holds the trophy for sustaining a communal-model-of-living long enough for a prosperous nation to grow around it. In other words, the HCD will not be marketed as a new ‘gate’ to downtown, but simply a new addition to the City of Lowell that ties together and emphasizes a rich identity (of creativity, culture, and innovation=entrepreneurship) that has been in development for more than 178 years.

 

Positioning Strategy

 

     To do this, this plan proposes the HCD present itself as a new ‘district’ of Lowell. This allows for the additional benefit of the ability to rebrand each individual neighborhood of Lowell into its own established ‘district’ complete with a welcoming ‘district gate’ (i.e. a grand version of the Welcome to Centraville sign at the split between Aiken and Ennell St.). This effort can reprise Lowell’s historical identity of being a welcoming city with many unique offerings that hopes to generate new and exciting possibility that benefits future people. Just as Francis Cabot Lowell, and those who founded Lowell, envisioned of the mills.

 

Lowell’s Nine Neighborhoods:

The Acre, Back Central, Belividere, Downtown, Centraville, Hamilton Canal District, The Highlands, Pawtucketville, South Lowell

 

(Note: The Hamilton Canal District would have two Welcome ‘gates,’ for example, one at the Broadway and Dutton St. intersection and one at the Revere and Jackson St. intersection adjacent from the new courthouse.)

 

 

     This plan proposes the district include multiple communal residences with attached incentives to attract an array of residents (see below). Multiple commercial space offerings are also proposed (see below).  To better infuse the entrepreneurial nature of Lowell into this district, a large list of incentives is available to attract younger, energetic, innovative business-types looking to start-up endeavors or find office-space for a new-born or growing start-up. Commercial space could also be used, for example, as a residence for UMASS Lowell’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship This would make for a worthy addition to the HCD community, adding to the idea that the HCD is a community of creativity, culture and innovation. It also adds ties to UMASS and Downtown Lowell. Commercial space should also be readily available for the numerous services that will become necessary once the Lowell Trial Court establishes its new grounds. All features of the HCD, including residential, commercial, retail and eatery locations, would have access to communal parking via a 980-spot parking facility. A dedicated garage increases the ability to keep the HCD a pedestrian-prioritized space with as limited thoroughfare as possible. Finally, the site and its contents will promote the many scenic views of the winding canals of Lowell.

 

     Local and regional retail establishments and eateries will be mixed and interspersed throughout the district to generate a lively, pedestrian-prioritized community. Main retail and eatery locations will be located on the ground floors of any commercial building space, as well as in separate retail-only building structures. (See Below)**

 

     This plan also strongly recommends that all of the HCD be made ‘trolley-friendly’ as part of the extension plan for the Dutton St. trolley line. This system will be extremely helpful in directing pedestrian traffic, and will make it possible to connect all of downtown Lowell with the HCD, as well as the added benefit of connecting Lowell to the commuter rail and, by extension, Boston. The extension of the trolley-line should be a priority as it will one day be a commuter resource that has the ability to usher in potential residents, business opportunity, and tourism.

 

Other Planned, Marketable Features of the HCD

• A community atmosphere where stores stay open similar hours on weekdays and weekends.

 

• A generously placed, sustainably run, source of illumination in pedestrian areas.

 

• Brick walkways incorporated into open area parks.

 

• Retail Storefronts and Eateries with canal views

 

• A space for the residents of Lowell’s districts to have weekly discussions regarding their’s

            and others’ districts, its happenings, and any concerns that deserve to be heard.

 

• A new, subtle skyline that rejuvenates the South-West quarter of the downtown area of

            Lowell and adds a more appealing entrance to Lowell’s Greek Acre via Dutton St.

 

Marketing

 

Online

            LowellMA.gov

            Social Media

            Google Ads

            SEO

Online promotion in the above formats will need to retain a consistent set of messages in order to show, not just tell, that Lowell has opened its doors and the future is more than welcome. Individual districts of Lowell would also have the opportunity for promotion as unique, diverse, thriving communities that have access to all the cities amenities.

           

 

Print

HCD Guide

            Walking Map of Lowell

            Trolley Map (Local Commuter Map)

            MBTA Guides

            Lowell-isms Guide

 

Print publications have not lost their impact. Made correctly, print publications still hold immense value and can be of great benefit to mid-sized city like Lowell. The introduction of the HCD automatically means an introduction of a changing landscape in Lowell. Print publications should be updated and remade to resemble Lowell’s renewed, fresh identity.

 

Radio

            ‘Welcome to Lowell’ Advertising

            HCD Advertising

            Art Community Advertising

           

Television

            ‘Welcome to Lowell’ Television Ad

            HCD Television Ad