Worcester Business Journal

B R I E FS Leominster Credit Union names first female CEO Leominster Credit Union said in September its president and CEO will retire at the end of November and be replaced by its chief operating officer, its first female to hold the top position. Barbara Mahoney will become the credit union's new leader, succeeding John O'Brien, who has been in the position for seven years. O'Brien has been with Leominster Credit Union for 13 years in all and is retiring aer 41 years in the banking industry. Worcester committee sup- ports Polar Park development deal e Worcester City Council's economic development committee unanimously approved a recommendation the full council support a development agreement for a key site outside Polar Park. e proposed agreement with Boston firm Madison Properties would transfer the stadium property deed from the developer to the city, a step which has been delayed 18 months, as well as commit the developer to building a hotel, office and residential buildings next to the stadium. Madison Properties' development is expected to bring in enough new tax revenue to the city to make up the bulk of the city's costs for building Polar Park, which through January cost roughly $132 million. City officials have said so much new revenue will come in from new development in a special tax district surrounding the ballpark the city will come out ahead by $20 million aer a 30 years. Hopedale developer buys Millbury's Clearview Country Club for $3M Hopedale property developer has bought Millbury's Clearview Country Club, two years aer the town turned down an opportunity to buy the nine- hole golf course. e buyer, Eastland Partners, has a long-planned proposal for 60 single-family homes for the Park Hill Avenue site. Eastland is the builder of Rogerson Crossing in Uxbridge, Crosswinds in Upton, Walden Woods in Milford, and Woodside Condominiums in Medway. Eastland bought the site for $2.85 million from a limited partnership registered to Neil Loomis. e sale covers roughly 143 acres. Greater Worcester unemployment rate improves to 10.3% e unemployment rate in the Worcester area improved to 10.3% in August, down from 14.9% a month earlier, according to new data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. at rate is still vastly worse than a year ago, when the rate stood at 3.2%, and in the last months of 2019 when the rate dropped below 3%. But it's a substantial improvement from earlier in the coronavirus pandemic, when the rate ballooned to 16.1% in June. NY firm pays $5.7M for Northborough building A Buffalo, N.Y., real estate firm has paid nearly $5.7 million for a three-story office building on Bearfoot Road in Northborough. e buyer is Ciminelli Real Estate Corp., which owns office properties in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Florida. Ciminelli says its Massachusetts portfolio is generally focused on Eastern Massachusetts on multi-tenant and flexible suburban office space along the Route 128 and I-495 corridors. e roughly 45,000-square- foot building at 44 Bearfoot Road is one exit from 495 through I-290. Greater Boston Commercial Properties, which is based at the site, handled leasing there in recent years and has the building 93% filled, it said. e seller was a limited liability corporation registered to Linda Currie of Holliston. e 6.5-acre site last sold in 2015 for $4.7 million. It was last assessed by the Town of Northborough at $4.6 million. Worcester home show producer postpones all shows until 2022 Expo Management Group, which puts on the Worcester RV & Camping Show, Worcester Home Show and the Worcester Boat Show, will postpone all future expositions until 2022. e postponements are due to the coronavirus pandemic, and uncertainty around when a vaccine will be ready. "We had to lay off our entire staff since March," said Jeffrey Davis, managing partner of Expo Management Group. "It takes nearly a year to put together our shows ... We simply cannot in good conscience ask our valued exhibitors to pay for space without knowing whether or not the show will actually happen." Prioritize your societal impact over profits F L AS H P O L L As part of its operations, should your business put more emphasis on its societal and environmental impact and less on profitability? A year ago, Washington D.C. nonprofit The Business Roundtable, a group of influential corporate CEOs, made changes to their companies' missions, deempha- sizing shareholder interests in lieu of prioritizing society and the environment. The changes follow a similar movement where companies are considering their impact on their communities, rather than strictly focusing on the bottom line. Over a year later, a new report from The Business Roundtable measuring how that change was implemented is taking companies to task and ranking corporations for their perfor- mance in that realm. Among the compaines on the list, Marlborough medical device manufacturer Boston Scientific ranked in the third quartile and Framingham-based TJX Cos. ranked in the bottom quartile., while Oxford laser manufacturer IPG Pho- tonics fared better, in the second quartile. When polled online, the majority of WBJ readers said companies should be prioritizing their impact on society. T H E T I C K E R $291M The combined profits of Worcester hospital systems UMass Memorial Health Care and Saint Vincent Hospital in 2019. Source: Massachusetts Center for Health Information and Analysis 20,000 Source: AIS Number of facemasks Leominster furniture manufacturer AIS anticipates donating to poll workers around the state ahead of the Nov. 3 election The sale price for a set of apartment buildings adjacent to and owned by UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester $2.65M Source: Worcester County Registry of Deeds Space the insurance company The Hilb Group of New England will occupy at The Lookout @ Southborough office complex, as it consolidates five of its Central Massachusetts offices. 20,000 sq. ft. Source: The Hilb Group No, our commitment strictly lies with our share- holders and bottom line. Yes, because we have the influence to affect societal change. Yes the wellbeing of our community is critical to the long-term health of our company. 47% W 15% No, our philanthropic giving from our profits is the best way to help the community. 28% 10% wbjournal.com | October 12, 2020 | Worcester Business Journal 7

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