Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | October 30, 2023 | Worcester Business Journal 3 Worcester Business Journal (ISSN#1063-6595) is published bi- weekly, 24x per year, including 4 special issues in May, September, October, and December by New England Business Media. 172 Shrewsbury St., Worcester, MA 01604. Periodicals postage paid at Worcester, MA. Copyright 2023. All rights reserved. Postmaster: Please send address changes to: Worcester Business Journal, PO Box 330, Congers, NY 10920-9894. Subscriptions: Annual subscriptions are available for $84.00. For more information, please email circulation@wbjournal.com or contact our circulation department at 845-267-3008. Advertising: For advertising information, please call Mark Murray at 508-755-8004 ext. 227. Fax: 508-755-8860. Worcester Business Journal accepts no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or materials and in general does not return them to the sender. Worcester Business Journal 172 Shrewsbury Street, Worcester, MA 01604 508-755-8004 tel. • 508-755-8860 fax www.wbjournal.com Worcester Business Journal WBJ A division of: Editor, Brad Kane, bkane@wbjournal.com Staff Writers Timothy Doyle tdoyle@wbjournal.com (Real estate, higher education) Isabel Tehan, itehan@wbjournal.com (Health care, diversity & inclusion) Contributors Giselle Rivera-Flores, Laura Finaldi, Monica Benevides, Alan Earls, Susan Shalhoub, Livia Gershon Photgraphers Matt Wright, Edd Cote Research Director, Stephanie Meagher, smeagher@nebusinessmedia.com Research Assistant, Heide Martin, hmartin@nebusinessmedia.com Production Director, Kira Beaudoin, kbeaudoin@wbjournal.com Art Director, Mitchell Hayes, mhayes@wbjournal.com Senior Accounts Manager Christine Juetten, cjuetten@wbjournal.com Marketing & Events Manager Kris Prosser, kprosser@wbjournal.com Human Resources Manager, Tracy Rodwill, trodwill@nebusinessmedia.com Director of Finance, Sara Ward, sward@nebusinessmedia.com Accounting Assistant, Rae Rogers, rrogers@nebusinessmedia.com Account Receivable Specialist, Patty Harris, pharris@nebusinessmedia.com Director of Audience Development and Operations, Leah Allen, allen@nebusinessmedia.com Business Office Assistant, Nicole Dunn, ndunn@nebusinessmedia.com Publisher, CEO, Peter Stanton pstanton@nebusinessmedia.com Associate Publisher, Mark Murray mmurray@wbjournal.com President, Tom Curtin tcurtin@hartfordbusinessjournal.com FACT BOOK: DOING BUSINESS IN CENTRAL MASS. Doing things differently to do things better ............................. 4 Two local companies on how compassionate business helps steer the ship. Data: Central Mass. community populations and tax rates .................6 e region's population has shrunk slightly since the 2020 Census, and Worcester still has the highest commercial tax rate. Leading the pack .................................10 Key players in the Central Mass. life science ecosystem are taking on a new initiative to help launch Worcester to the forefront of bioindustrial manufacturing. Data & list: Fastest-growing jobs and GDP by industry ..................... 13 e hospitality industry still has the steepest job growth while manufacturing and real estate lead Central Massachusetts in economic output. Just the Facts: Younger & richer.... 16 e rise in Worcester's population and household income levels are creating opportunities and challenges for those seeking to keep the momentum going. Just the Facts: City of Worcester ... 20 Data from the Worcester Regional Research Bureau's Worcester Almanac shows how the demographics and operations of Central Massachusetts' largest community operates. List: Largest employers .................... 27 Just the Facts: Fitting in ................... 28 Clark University is balancing a need for new facilities while trying to avoid sprawl. List: Top incubators .......................... 31 Business services in Mass. ............... 32 A list of organizations in the state set up to help businesses of all sizes grow. W orcester Business Journal first launched the annual publication "Fact Book: Doing Business in Central Mass." in 2017, originally designed as a way to let professionals from outside the region understand what it would be like to have their operations here. While that concept worked for the first couple of years, we decided to switch the focus back to our traditional audience – business decision makers already in the region – in order to provide market intelligence to help them run their orga- nizations better. More than just a regular print edition of WBJ, Fact Book takes a higher elevation look at some of the more static aspects of the Central Massachu- setts community. So, in this edition, we've replaced the news-of-the-day approach typical of our regular print issues with many, many more charts and graphics on the region, all anchored by four stories taking a longer-term look at the local economy. New with this 2023 Fact Book is a partnership with the Worcester Regional Research Bureau, where the nonprofit provided us with advanced information from its Worcester Almanac, which is chock full of interesting data on the city. We used this information to create the Worcester: Just the Facts section, which begins on page 16. In taking this much longer-term ap- proach to Fact Book, our hope is that you hang onto it longer than you would for a traditional print edition and use its data to help your operations year-round. – Brad Kane, editor Our annual Fact Book W CORRECTION: In the Oct. 16 story entitled "Russo overcame an old boys network to build her furniture business" the name of the manufacturing company Teknion was misspelled. Additionally, the story incorrectly said Claudio Russo received her graduate degree from Clark University, when it was her undergraduate degree. Lastly, the story incorrectly said Creative Office Pavilion was based in Worcester's Denholm Building. The Oct. 16 Shop Talk feature entitled "Expanding maternity care" incorrectly referred to Rachel Blessington as a certified practicing midwife. The correct term is certified professional midwife. WBJ's annual publication breaking down the numbers behind the region's economy

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