Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | April 1, 2024 | 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 Eric Casey, ecasey@wbjournal.com (real estate, manufacturing) Mica Kanner-Mascolo, mkannermascolo@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, Christine Peterson 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 General Manager Kris Prosser, kprosser@wbjournal.com Senior Accounts Manager Christine Juetten, cjuetten@wbjournal.com Accounts Manager Timothy Doyle tdoyle@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 business. I take everything people say with a grain of salt, but when I read Casey's quote from Chase, I believed her. She's right; the Canal District is trending up and probably going to get significantly better. Of course, Casey gathered the thoughts of many, many other Canal District players, resulting in his very excellent story gracing this edition. WBJ has done a lot of research to understand the impacts of the Worcester Red Sox and the construction of Polar Park on the city and the Canal District. In this case, I trust what these important players are telling us. – Brad Kane, editor A s a way to stress the im- portance of fact-checking and understanding people's biases, journalism schools still teach students the old adage: If your mother tells you she loves you, get a second source. is is an extreme example, but it has real-world applications. In business journalism, a running joke is to be wary of what real estate agents tell you about the housing market. e majority will always tell you today is a great time to buy a house, regardless of the actual economic conditions. ey aren't being dishonest, per se, but they do have a very obvious financial stake in creating the perception of a healthy housing market. So, they are eternally optimistic about a big housing rush being right around the corner, even if it isn't. For WBJ's cover story in this edition, the second part of the Canal District Transformation series, we had to place a lot of trust in what people were telling us, particularly Amy Chase from the small business Crompton Collective. In the first part published in WBJ's March 18 edition, Staff Writer Eric Casey did the heavy data work to examine how property values in Worcester's trendy neighborhood had changed since the Polar Park baseball stadium opened. For his second story, "Cre- ating the next chapter" on page 6, Casey interviewed players from all over the Canal District, to understand how the infusion of money was changing the neighborhood. e Canal District had seen a number of high-profile business closures in the last three years, but businesses open and close all the time through the city and Central Massachusetts, so he needed to understand if the infusion of money was truly negative- ly impacting its existing businesses. is led him to Chase, who said the current version of the Canal District is undeniably the most vibrant, welcoming, and successful in the last 20 years. Obvious- ly, Chase has a financial stake in creating the perception of a healthy neighborhood economy, but she doesn't have a history of being misleading or overly optimistic. Over the last 10 years, Chase has been frequently quoted and profiled in WBJ, and she has always been straightforward and honest, even to the point where it might impact her Trusting what people say Making I.T. work for small and medium-sized businesses in Central Massachusetts. T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S 4 Central Mass. In Brief 10 Focus on Manufacturing 18 List: Largest manufacturers 19 Know How 20 Movers & Shakers 21 Opinion 22 Shop Talk: AdaptX 19 Build community relationships Know How advice columnist Ulysses Youngblood lays out ways businesses can create goodwill with their surrounding community, to improve their economic prosperity. 21 Congress must act to ensure digital equity Viewpoint opinion columnist James T. Brett urges Congress to pass more funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program, which makes internet access cheaper. CORRECTION: An editorial cartoon published in the March 4 edition incorrectly said the Table Talk Lofts housing development was having project delays. The correct information is the third unnamed phase of the Table Talk Lofts project is the one asking for an extension due to economic headwinds. W

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