One town turns the corner: Revival projects have snowball effect

When Michelle Ciccolo went to work for the town of Hudson a decade ago, grimy buildings lined Main Street and the downtown's most hopping spot was Billy Jack's, a biker bar notorious for its fights, drugs, and weapons.

Today, Billy Jack's is Sophia Ristorante, an upscale Italian eatery. It's one of the many changes that have transformed Hudson's downtown over the past 10 years.

''There was a seedy element that's not here any longer," said Ciccolo, who spearheaded the overhaul. ''Some of the restaurants you could sense belonged to another era. They were smoky, dingy."

On the west side of downtown, the rotary blooms with flowers, not weeds, in the spring.

Walk along Main Street and you'll find gourmet French-inspired food at Chloe's American Bistro, local artwork and one-of-a-kind gifts at Lottie Ta-dah, handmade crafts and jewelry at Serendipity, back-to-basics toys at Toy Boat (''Our motto is no batteries required"), and live jazz and folk music at Harvest Café.

The four-story Esplanade, a condo complex for people ages 55 and over, has replaced the crumbling foundations of mill buildings at the edge of downtown. Its 140 units feature granite counters and Bosch washers and sell for up to $300,000.

Just last week, a pawnbroker, Hudson Trading & Loan, was moving out to make way for a million-dollar renovation of its Main Street building into an old-fashioned storefront with office and retail condos.

But links to Hudson's past remain, like Chubby's Liquors and Aubuchon Hardware. The Salvation Army thrift store sells used clothing and furniture diagonally across from Town Hall.

You can still buy a two-bedroom Colonial for just under $200,000, but higher-end homes have popped up, including five-bedrooms on the market for close to $900,000.

''I would live there if I could get my wife to move," said developer Conrad Watson of Weston, who had never been to Hudson until three years ago, when he bought the former Thomas Taylor Mill on Houghton Street to convert it into offices.

Noting the increased foot traffic, James Quinn, chairman of the Historic District Commission, said the town reminds him of what it was like when he was growing up in the 1960s and '70s.

''I've talked to different people who have come back to town, and they've said Hudson is getting more of that hometown feel again," said Quinn, who manages 16 properties in and around downtown. ''I see a return to this town of civic pride."

The renewal of landmarks, businesses, and homes has been assisted by more than $5 million in town, state, federal, and private spending. The last of the town's major projects, including a canal walk, are expected to kick off later this year, leaving Hudson with the job of maintaining its newfound glory.

''I look at it as a constant ongoing effort that can't be ignored when you're trying to maintain the economic health of your downtown," Ciccolo said. ''I'm not sure you're ever done."

It all began with lampposts.

Ciccolo was walking downtown with her new boss, executive assistant Paul Blazar, talking about the state's plans to upgrade Route 62, known as Main Street in Hudson. It was 1995. Ciccolo was 28 and had just started her job as an administrative assistant, having just received a degree in public administration from the University of Massachusetts at Boston and completed an internship with Chelsea's Office of Economic Development.

''I looked at Paul and said, 'It's too bad we can't add some street trees and nice lights,' and he said, 'Maybe we can,' and we put it on the Town Meeting warrant," Ciccolo recalled.

That knack for spotting -- and seizing -- opportunities was to serve Hudson well in the coming years. So, too, would Ciccolo's organizational skills, honed during a nine-month stint as Senator John Kerry's scheduler in his Boston office during the 1990 election year (''I got to book his helicopter, whoopee," she said, with typical self-deprecation).

The lifelong Lexington resident, who studied to be a therapist as an undergraduate at Villanova, inspires others with her passion and determination. Business leaders credit her with clearing away the bureaucratic hurdles they often encounter elsewhere.

Soon after that downtown stroll, Ciccolo learned about a state grant program that seemed ideally suited to her Main Street ideas. She wrote up a grant request and won the money.

''That was the first big step," said Blazar, who has run the town for 19 years. ''There's nothing that's a bigger drag on a community than having one of these burnt-out downtowns.

''Nobody wants their friends driving through a slum to get to their house."

The effort to rejuvenate downtown took off from there.

Ciccolo began attending meetings of the Assabet Valley Chamber of Commerce's downtown roundtable to stir up interest among merchants. She sought out more grants, writing the proposals as she had tackled her papers in grad school. Depending on the grant specifications, Ciccolo could play up the downtown's status as an officially designated historic district, or could point out the area was blighted and ripe for improvement.

''We just got lucky," said Ciccolo. ''It was just a little bit of luck."

Soon businesses were adopting areas of town to beautify, leading to a landscaped alley that guides shoppers to South Street. The $2.4 million overhaul of Town Hall came next. The biker bar, Billy Jack's, closed in the late 1990s after selectmen refused to transfer its liquor license to a new owner, Police Chief Richard Braga said.

''There have been changes in the downtown area over the last decade that gave the community a much more pleasant appearance," said Braga, who has lived in Hudson all his life. ''We don't have a lot of the downtown crimes we once did."

The renewal projects feed off one another, according to Don Garcia, an eight-year resident and owner of Boyd Coatings Research Co.

''It's really a snowball effect. When your neighbor fixes their house it drives you to fix your house," said Garcia, who has chaired the town's Economic Development Commission for three years. ''It really is contagious."

Hudson is in the last stages of a two-year state-sponsored program to renovate the exteriors of five downtown businesses. Aqua-blue fiberglass siding has been peeled off the storefront level of the 19th-century Prescott Building, replaced with gray wood and trimmed with green awnings. Among the most dramatic transformations is that of another century-old structure, the LaRosee Building, originally a shoe factory. Workers repairing its soaring tower discovered intricate diamond and scallop patterns, which they have accented with paint.

''It makes the building look good and the business look good," said Stephen LaRosee, a Hudson resident and fourth-generation owner of H. LaRosee & Sons Inc. metal finishers.

The outskirts of downtown are also part of the renewal, with real estate developers and investors gobbling up old mills and turning them into business centers. The former Broad Street Mills has been transformed into the Hudson Mill Business Center, with a scooter store, dance and photography studios, an indoor batting cage, and an arts and crafts gallery.

Watson, the Weston developer, has almost completed his two-year conversion of the 70,000-square-foot Thomas Taylor Mill, once a bungee cord and hockey shoe-lace factory.

By year's end, the town hopes to complete work on an expanded South Street Park. It bought a vacant 1-acre lot next door and plans to build a skateboard park. Pedestrians can look forward to a new place to stroll as a boardwalk and benches go up along Houghton Street and the Danforth Brook Canal, which originally served leather tanneries.

Pippa Jollie, who moved to Hudson 18 years ago, has been swept up in the downtown's rebirth. A few years ago, she and a partner opened the Harvest Café in a former bagel shop.

For many years, Hudson's downtown ''was the center of life for everyone because there was no mall. The mall came along and it drove a lot of business out," said Jollie one recent Monday afternoon as customers dined on homemade soups, vegetarian entrees, and specialty sandwiches. ''Now what you are starting to see is people moving away from that."

In his 17 years at Hudson Savings Bank, Mark O'Connell, now its president, has watched as Hudson's revival has been fueled by families looking for affordable housing and high-tech companies, such as the Intel Corp., looking for room.

''Hudson was an old blue-collar factory town, but it's been remade," said O'Connell. ''Population trends have changed. . . . This is becoming more of a bedroom community."

The town planner, Jennifer Burke, said 17 projects that will provide 830 units of housing are in various stages of approval and completion: four over-55 complexes; three housing projects that include below-market-rate units; and 10 subdivisions.

While acknowledging the role played by affluent newcomers in the town's renaissance, town officials and business people say that longtime residents aren't being pushed out.

Hudson was shaped in large part by workers -- many of them Portuguese-speaking immigrants -- who filled the mills and shoe factories. A glance at the phone books shows that many of their descendants remain.

''We haven't displaced the longtime resident," said Garcia, the economic commission chairman. ''We're adding people by building neighborhoods. . . . That rising tide raises all boats."

Ciccolo -- now director of community development and assistant town administrator -- hasn't tossed out her grant-writing pen. There are still buildings downtown that need a facelift. She'd like to add a gazebo, old-fashioned lamps, and landscaping to the town's largest parking lot, off South Street. She also wants to see utility wires placed underground along South Street and its side streets.

But for now, Ciccolo takes satisfaction in what has been achieved as she comments on a lunch-hour scene of families pushing baby carriages and well-dressed business people heading to restaurants.

''Some of the parents wouldn't let their kids walk downtown because parts of the downtown didn't feel safe," she said. ''It's really lost most of that."

What's Hudson's magic formula?

''The million-dollar question is, is it rebounding because of the efforts that have been put into it or because of the economy? No one really knows the answer to that," Ciccolo said. ''The rebirth of a community is never attributable to one factor."