• The nonprofit Arts & Business Council of Greater Boston now owns New Bedford’s Star Store building.
• The building, once a department store then a UMass campus, has been closed since 2023.
• A nonprofit is developing it as artists’ lofts, art space with retail on the first floor.

NEW BEDFORD — Plans have been announced to develop the Star Store building downtown as a center for the arts and artists with a first-floor retail component.

The nonprofit Arts & Business Council of Greater Boston is the building’s new owner, and will raise funds for the work to reopen the building, which has been closed since the UMass Dartmouth College of Visual and Performing Arts moved out in 2023 after 22 years.

The building was donated to the Arts & Business Council of Greater Boston by owner Paul Downey after he settled an outstanding tax debt with the city, Mayor Jon Mitchell said.

The building has a long history downtown, including decades as a grand department store.

From the archives: UMass Dartmouth pulls the plug on arts program at New Bedford’s Star Store

“It was the place to go shopping downtown for decades,” Mitchell said. It closed in the late 1980s.

After the College of Visual and Performing Arts moved out in 2023, the city began looking at how the four-story, 150,000-square-foot building at 715 Purchase St. could be put back into use, he said.

Mitchell said initial attempts to keep the UMass arts program in the building didn’t go very far.

Consultant recommended arts center

The city hired consultant Jones Lang LaSalle to look at its reuse and a preferred way to go was to develop artists’ studios and lofts and performance arts programming, with retail facing out on Union Street, Mitchell said.

It’s configuration as a department store made redevelopment as housing, offices or as a hotel cost prohibitive, he said.

Mitchell added, “It’s not the condition of the building. The building is in good condition, though it needs some work.”

The New Bedford Economic Development Council then began talking with the Arts & Business Council of Greater Boston, he said.

Nonprofit retrofits buildings for artistic endeavors

The nonprofit provides support for arts and artists, including business support, and it also retrofits buildings supporting artistic endeavors.

“They are perfect fit for this,” he said, pointing to one of its projects, the Western Avenue Studios and Lofts in Lowell. That 200,000-square-foot former mill building now includes artist work and living spaces, galleries, a brewery, coffee shop and offices, according to a city press release.

Mitchell said the city settled the tax case with Downey after taking him to court to facilitate the donation. Downey owed the city $525,000 from unpaid 2023 taxes, and close to $1 million from previous years, according to a 2024 press release.

IG report: UMass wasn’t serious about staying at New Bedford’s Star Store long-term

Star Store deal all came together on May 29

Mitchell said it all came together, including the agreement with the Arts & Business Council of Greater Boston, on May 29. He said there was still some perfunctory paperwork to be filed in the tax case but that the settlement had been approved by the state Department of Revenue and city assessors.

Part of the plan for the new arts center is to generate foot traffic downtown, and for the center to be active day and night.

The next step will be to determine what’s needed to get the building ready. Mitchell said it’s primarily roof, HVAC, mechanical work and code updates. An advisory group will also be formed to gather input on what local artists, businesses and residents want to see in the new center.

The building is in good shape, but work needed

Matt McArthur, Arts & Business Council’s cultural space consultant, said the building is in good shape, which is rarely the case when a structure is donated.

But, he said, work will be needed. He didn’t have an exact total estimate yet but said $4 million will be needed at the outset.

McArthur said he hoped they could complete the work within 18 months but that will depend on fundraising progress. The work and public input components will be going on simultaneously. They will also be seeking input on the interior design once the exterior work is finished.

They’re already providing information and taking input at starstorenb.org.

He said, “We’re going to turn this building into a nationally recognized example of how a municipality, a nonprofit organization and a community can come together and support the creative people that makes this city great.

Void left when College of Visual and Performing Arts exited

Katherine Lowe, owner of Shimmer at 187 Union St., which sells beauty products, said she has worked downtown for close to 20 years and opened Shimmer six years ago.

She said, “Vibrant active spaces downtown are more important now than ever. They give people a reason to come downtown and engage with our community in a meaningful way.”

The closing of the College of Visual and Performing Arts “created a void right in the heart of downtown,” Lowe said.

“A prominent building sitting empty does not go unnoticed. It sends a signal and it’s not a good one,” she said.

‘Giving people fantastic reasons to come downtown”

The new art center is “exciting news,” she said, particularly coupled with the Zeiterion’s getting close to reopening after its $37 million renovation and modernization project.

Both will “give people fantastic reasons to come downtown,” as well as make the walk up from the ferry, from the Whaling Museum and the new train station.