Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | September 27, 2021 | Worcester Business Journal 9 Waters Corp. Milford 1,506 7,300 Jabil Clinton 1,270 260,000 Boston Scientific Corp. Marlborough 1,000 36,000 Bristol Myers Squibb Co. Devens 1,000 30,000 AbbVie Inc. Worcester 951 47,000 Cytiva Marlborough 785 7,000 KARL STORZ Endovision Inc. Charlton 700 8,500 Hologic Inc. Marlborough 600 6,091 Quest Diagnostics Inc. Marlborough 600 50,000 Central Mass. Worldwide Company Community employees employees Largest Central Mass. biomedical firms Source: Each company via survey from WBJ Research Department Good things come to those who work hard. At People's United Bank, we believe there's only one way to get something done right: By giving 100%. That's the level of dedication we bring to our clients' businesses, whether helping customers with financing for a complex expansion or automating the accounts payable process. We work hard to make sure our solutions work. So get in touch when you're ready for more than just another bank. Dedication gets it done. © 2021 PEOPLE'S UNITED BANK, N.A. | MEMBER FDIC | EQUAL HOUSING LENDER peoples.com/business Jim Curran Massachusetts 508-890-5183 Hard Work Jim Curran Ad (4.3x11.25).indd 1 Hard Work Jim Curran Ad (4.3x11.25).indd 1 7/1/21 1:56 PM 7/1/21 1:56 PM Is Worcester ready? Boston and Cambridge are giants on the world stage of life sciences, but, while sometimes in their shadow, Worcester offers greater affordability and provides services to smaller compa- nies and startups. "Watching the growth of these mini-clusters like Worcester … it's really important to the health of the life sciences cluster in Massachusetts as a whole. We can't have prices like we have in Cambridge and Boston all over Massachusetts," said Bradford. In a less saturated market, Worcester has more developable real estate than its easterly neighbors, but making that space industry-ready may pose more of a challenge for the region, he said. Worcester's workforce was its strongest asset in attracting life science companies, as MassBio is predicting over 40,000 new jobs in the sector across the state, said Jon Weaver, president and CEO of MBI, the Worcester incubator. "Workforce is one of the areas where Central Mass. does really well," he said. MBI has partnered with Central Mass. academic institutions to create a pipeline to the life sciences and take advantage of the region's labor potential. Anchored by UMass Chan Medical School, the city has more than 3,000 medical students, said Sullivan, from the Worcester chamber. Competing or complementing? "e biggest thing that we're seeing as the industry is expanding so rapidly is decisions largely being made based on speed, then workforce, then cost," said Weaver. As demand for space rises, companies are anxious to find immediately available lab space, Weaver said. But, life science real estate isn't the easiest to develop. "It is complicated space to deliv- er," said Weaver, explaining lab space requires special air handling and heavy equipment. "at's part of the challenge of delivering it, but it's also part of why it's so desirable, because it is so difficult to provide." With 1.1 million square feet of research-and-development lab space in the pipeline, Worcester is invest- ing heavily to address this need, said Sullivan. But where the city really excels is biomanufacturing. Making up almost a quarter of the state's biomanufactur- ing jobs, Worcester County saw a 7.9% increase in employment in that sector, according to MassBio's report. "Our focus is: what are the sectors of that industry that complement the success of Cambridge that don't compete with it, so things like biomanufactur- ing that greatly complement the R&D [research and development] efforts in Boston and Cambridge," Weaver said. Bristol Myers Squibb is constructing a 244,000-square-foot expansion of its Devens facility. W

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