Five years after Becker College shut its doors in 2021, the developer who acquired 27 parcels of its Worcester campus says the investment has paid off. Hampton Properties paid $10 million for 27 parcels — 24 buildings and three parking lots — while the city bought a separate, smaller portion of the campus, including the Weller Academic Center and Health Sciences Education Center. Hampton Properties has made a profit on the properties.
Haims told the Worcester Business Journal that former institutional buildings along William, Sever, Cedar and Roxbury streets are homes again, many of them single-family. According to the Worcester Business Journal's reporting, the October 2021 acquisition returned more than $15 million in assessed value to Worcester's tax rolls.
From Dorm Rooms Back to Dining Rooms
The conversion work meant stripping institutional features out of buildings that had been converted into offices and dorms, and restoring the residential character they once had. Haims said he removed office improvements from former single-family houses and brought back residential features. Earlier coverage from masslive.com described buildings that once housed the college president's office, the finance office, and other administrative functions being renovated back into single-family homes.
Hampton Properties had sold 15 of those renovated properties as single-family homes by the time of masslive's 2023 report, up from three homes — former professors' offices — sold by March 2022, according to the Telegram & Gazette. Haims said he sold the restored properties to buyers who intended to live in them, not to investors, and he added deed restrictions requiring some of the homes to remain single-family. Those restrictions, per the Worcester Business Journal, limited future division of the properties into lodging houses or crowded rentals.
Haims said he sought owner-occupants rather than investors looking to fill the houses with student tenants. He required a former Becker president's office to remain a single-family residence specifically.
Dorms, a Bank, and a Special-Education School
Nine former dormitories now make up South Village, which Worcester Polytechnic Institute operates. According to WPI, the university first leased three of Becker's residential buildings on William and Sever streets in fall 2021 to house 80 upperclass students, then expanded its lease through Hampton Properties to add space for 136 more students across six houses. The South Village halls offer single, double and triple rooms in nine historic homes, each with shared lounge and community space, per WPI.
The former Boutin Student Center was bought by Bay State Bank. The Center for Applied Behavioral Instruction operates a school at 80 William St.
A Neighbor's Verdict, and a Developer Watching the Market
Patricia Glennon, who has lived in Elm Park since 1985, told the Worcester Business Journal that Haims did a tremendous thing for the neighborhood and the city, as much as for himself. Haims, now semi-retired, said he remains involved with South Village, Goddard House and Homestead Hall in Worcester. Hampton Properties bought Goddard House and Homestead Hall in a $5 million sale-and-leaseback deal in 2024, and Haims said he made substantial capital improvements to the senior-living facilities, which continue to be leased by an operator.
Haims also offered a wary read on Worcester's current housing market. He said three-decker prices are approaching or reaching levels he once considered implausible, attributing the climb partly to investors pushed west from Greater Boston. He warned that buyers stretching to acquire buildings without funds for major improvements may end up raising rents without modernizing the apartments inside them. Haims said he is watching an increase in foreclosure activity and worries that distressed, poorly maintained properties could destabilize neighborhoods; nationally, ATTOM's August 2026 foreclosure report found filings up 13% year over year, though that figure reflects broad national trends rather than conditions specific to Elm Park. Haims said he is a little concerned there is somewhat of a bubble, even as he said he intends to remain committed to the Elm Park community.
