The Lowell City Council has tapped WinnCompanies as master developer of the Hamilton Canal District, a 15-acre development area along the confluence of four canals in that city.

The project had originally been tasked to Trinity Financial in 2007, but it never got off the ground (though the district's hipness has been acknowledged). Under the new agreement, WinnCompanies will build out a two-phase, $800M mixed-use development on the site over 10 years, the Boston Business Journal reports. The company has already redeveloped former mills in Lowell into residential properties, including Counting House Lofts and Loft Two Seven.

WinnCompanies is best known as a major multifamily specialist: currently it manages more than 97,000 apartments in more than 500 properties in 23 states and DC. It has redeveloped 28 historic properties into more than 3,100 units of mixed-income housing in mixed-use communities. [BBJ]