The Star Store, a former university arts campus in downtown New Bedford that closed abruptly in 2023, has been sold to a nonprofit that develops housing and workspace for artists.
The Arts & Business Council Of Greater Boston purchased the Star Store for $1 on Thursday, according to a deed filed with the Bristol County Registry of Deeds, Southern District.
The group describes itself online as a nonprofit developer and owner of “creative campuses” throughout Massachusetts that provide housing, workspaces and galleries for artists. The Arts & Business Council has been involved in converting or preserving large historic properties for artists in Lowell and Worcester.
New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell is scheduled to announce the redevelopment plans for the Star Store at a press conference on Monday morning.
The Star Store, a striking Beaux Arts building with large windows framed by moldings fit for a wedding cake, was once a grand department store before it closed during the 1980s and fell into disrepair. A local developer, Paul Downey, used public funds in the 1990s to convert it into a campus for UMass Dartmouth’s College of Visual and Performing Arts. The university moved in under a long-term lease-to-own agreement.
Between 2001 and 2023, the Star Store housed four floors of studios and classrooms, as well as galleries on the ground floor whose exhibition openings often headlined broader arts celebrations throughout downtown New Bedford. The property’s redevelopment contributed to a revival of restaurants, bars, and artist spaces in a once-derelict downtown.
But conflicts escalated over who should own the property long-term. The state senator whose legislation created the campus, Mark Montigny, later pulled the funding for it in the summer of 2023, leading to its abrupt closure.
Downey has remained silent about plans for the Star Store’s future ever since. He emerged with permanent ownership of the building despite more than $60 million in public investment in the property.
Last year, in what some local realtors considered an effort to pressure Downey into action, the City of New Bedford terminated a longstanding property tax break for the Star Store. The property’s annual bill spiked from $45,000 to $543,000. The bills went unpaid in 2024 and early 2025.
Downey’s sale of the building on Thursday for $1 is the first sign of activity at the Star Store since the building closed to the public nearly two years ago.
Alongside the deed documenting the sale, Downey filed paperwork with the registry of deeds showing he’d settled his tax debt of over $800,000 through a series of “payments/credits” and “abatements/exemptions.”
Representatives for the Arts & Business Council Of Greater Boston could not be reached immediately for comment on Saturday.
The mayor’s press release teasing the upcoming announcement about the Star Store’s redevelopment went out on Friday evening. The mayor is scheduled to appear alongside local and state officials at 11 a.m. at the Star Store.
A spokesperson for Downey declined to comment and said the Star Store’s former owner would be out of town for the press conference.