State Grant Backs Harbor Place Plan to Return Retail to the Heart of Downtown Haverhill

Harbor Place. (WHAV News file photograph.)

Plans are in the works to bring retail back to Downtown Haverhill’s White’s Corner as Harbor Place is planning to build a space for selling goods along the Merrimack River.

Merrimack Street Ventures, owned jointly by the Greater Haverhill Foundation and Boston Archdiocese’s Planning Office for Urban Affairs, was formally awarded $75,000 from the state’s Collaborative Workspace Program for the project Tuesday. The money is part of $1.2 million in Baker-Polito Administration grants to 26 organizations in 18 communities.

“Our administration is proud to provide funding to help collaborative workspaces comply with the mandatory workplace safety standards essential to our COVID-19 reopening plan,” said Gov. Charlie Baker.

Harbor Place, on the Merrimack Street site of the former F.W. Woolworth department store, is using the money to design, build, and equip “Harbor Place Public Market,” a proposed 2,040-square-foot retail space that will feature 13 retail stalls where entrepreneurs may sell their products.

The fifth round of the Collaborative Workspace Program, administered by MassDevelopment, aims to accelerate business formation, job creation, and entrepreneurial activity in communities by supporting infrastructure that fuels locally-based innovation.

Housing and Economic Development Secretary Mike Kennealy said, “These grants will ensure that collaborative workspaces, key contributors to our innovation economy, have the tools and resources they need to safely carry on their work and, in turn, help drive our economic recovery.”

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