The Whaling City Municipal Golf Course has been a significant open space and recreational resource for the City of New Bedford, so when the City and MassDevelopment decided to redevelop it into an Advanced Manufacturing Campus (AMC), making sure that it continued to serve the community was critical.
Nitsch collaborated with MassDevelopment and the City of New Bedford to perform preliminary and due diligence services for the redevelopment. We developed a series of development scenarios for approximately 100 acres of development, various roadway network options, and a number of large building pad sites with parking layouts for new industrial and/or commercial users.
The existing site contained significant elevation changes, which presented challenges for locating road alignments and the building pad sites. To limit construction costs related to earth moving and retaining wall construction, we developed scenarios focused on minimizing earthwork quantities.
The City was committed to preserving portions of the golf course to the maximum extent practicable. Nitsch, in collaboration with the project’s golf course architect, developed layouts to maximize the preservation of the existing golf course as well as provide space to reroute the golf course when necessary.
After the completion of the Due Diligence phase, the team advanced a strategy for parcels, infrastructure improvements, and campus planning and design, funded with a Site Readiness Grant. Nitsch led the master planning project, which included site land use planning, subdivision, and phasing updates. Working closely with City staff, we coordinated future infrastructure needs and upgrades with the existing golf course clubhouse upgrade needs. We studied current conditions and developed infrastructure recommendations for both roadway and utilities. Nitsch also helped refine the RFP for developers to make it responsive to the demands and constraints of the commercial real estate market.
Nitsch created support materials for a successful MassWorks grant application, which facilitated the creation of 30% design plans for the subdivision, roadway, infrastructure, landscaping, and nature-based stormwater infrastructure, as well as enhancements to the golf course clubhouse. The deliverables included renderings, visualizations, and detailed site cross sections that depicted earthwork, retaining walls, and site improvements. These materials not only highlighted the project’s potential, but also provided stakeholders with the technical insights essential for propelling New Bedford’s vision of a future Advanced Manufacturing Campus forward.
