Whitman Economic Development Committee adopts mission, hears downtown revitalization plan

WHITMAN — December 11, 2025 — Whitman's new Economic Development Committee formally adopted its mission statement and received a detailed downtown revitalization briefing at its December 11 meeting. Nick Giacuinto, Senior Economic Development Planner at the Old Colony Planning Council, presented findings from a $33,000 state COVID-recovery earmark study covering a 108-acre, 265-parcel target area along Washington Street and South Avenue, describing a 94 percent commercial occupancy rate and a population that grew from 3,785 to 5,337 between 2013 and 2023. Giacuinto cited a roughly $617,000 estimated remediation cost for the former Regal Shoe factory site — largely coverable through EPA Brownfields and state site-readiness grants — as a near-term development opportunity, and flagged a roughly $50 million multimodal TIPS transportation project awaiting state funding as potentially transformative for the corridor. The committee voted unanimously to adopt a mission focused on enhancing the business community, attracting new business, and increasing the town's income, job base, overall economic health, and property tax revenues, with the full downtown strategy due June 30, 2026.