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MassDevelopment In The News
Measuring Assets
December 3, 2002: Worcester Telegram & Gazette, by Lisa Eckelbecker
WORCESTER - Central Massachusetts possesses attributes that make it a good place for life sciences manufacturing, but the area must also contend with worker shortages, government budget crises and polluted land that could cripple the region's economic development efforts, political and business officials said yesterday.
"We can screw this up," said David P. Forsberg, president of the Worcester Business Development Corp. "This is a very difficult needle that we're trying to thread here."
Mr. Forsberg and other area officials spoke at WPI during the region's sixth annual manufacturing summit, an event organized by the Worcester-based Manufacturing Advancement Center to highlight manufacturing developments.
The life sciences industry -- which is loosely defined to include biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and medical research -- has gained a higher profile in recent months as economic development officials and think tanks have searched for a sector of the state's struggling economy that offers promising prospects.
Yet the life sciences industry is laboring under the same forces that afflict the broader economy: a stagnant population; a work force drained as trained workers move away and less-trained immigrants arrive to take their places; a slowdown in college enrollments and some of the priciest housing in the country.
In urban centers such as Worcester, industry has also left the land polluted and in need of expensive cleanups before new building can take place.
Worcester is home to several colleges that turn out graduates and retrain existing workers, but a crisis is approaching in the manufacturing work force, said U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern. Forecasts indicate one-third of all skilled manufacturing workers in Massachusetts and Rhode Island will leave the work force by 2020, he said.
Strapped state and federal budgets have little room to fund worker training programs, Mr. McGovern said. President Bush intends to cut funding for manufacturing extension partnership programs in the next federal budget, he said.
If government cuts back on training, Mr. McGovern said, "we're not going to be able to compete for these manufacturing jobs."
The state's slow population growth, combined with the economic slowdown, also poses a problem. Workers who lose their jobs can easily leave the state, relocating elsewhere for jobs, cheaper housing and other perks, speakers said.
"When our economy loses ground, we lose skilled workers," said Brian R. Gilmore, executive vice president of public affairs for the Associated Industries of Massachusetts. "It's very, very hard to recruit those workers back."
A lack of clean land ready for development represents one of Worcester's biggest hurdles to development, Mr. Forsberg said. To counter that, the Worcester Business Development Corp. has acquired nearly 16 acres of properties off Prescott Street, including a new purchase of the New England Plating Co. building on Garden Street, and is redeveloping the area as Gateway Park.
The agency's next project may be to renovate buildings at 60 and 68 Prescott St. An architect has been retained to produce plans to renovate one or both buildings to produce 80,000 square feet of leasable space, Mr. Forsberg said.
The Worcester Business Development Corp. and WPI, which has its Bioengineering Institute in one building, probably will decide in January whether to go forward with the project.
Michael P. Hogan, president of the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency, said state government needs to streamline and coordinate its own efforts to boost business, particularly since Massachusetts is competing against states, such as North Carolina, that are aggressively recruiting companies.
"We invested $4.2 billion last year. Twenty-seven separate agencies did that," Mr. Hogan said. "My counterpart in North Carolina? Two agencies do that."
Not all is bleak for Central Massachusetts. Several speakers pointed out housing remains less costly in this region than housing in the Boston area and government officials here take a helpful approach to business.
Alejandro A. Aruffo, president of Abbott Bioresearch Center, said the city's officials supported Abbott's recent proposal to build a fifth biomanufacturing suite at its quarters off Belmont Street.
The company, part of Illinois-based Abbott Laboratories, has received property tax relief from the city in the past and will begin construction of its new manufacturing suite before the end of the month. The multimillion-dollar project is being undertaken so Abbott can expand production of its experimental rheumatoid arthritis drug D2E7.
Mr. Aruffo said the city's posture toward Abbott Bioresearch Center made it easy to convince corporate officials in Illinois to approve new manufacturing construction in Worcester.
"It was a tremendous help to us to have a very, very friendly environment to do this expansion," Mr. Aruffo said.
© Copyright 2002 Worcester Telegram & Gazette.
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