Worcester Business Journal

4 Worcester Business Journal | Book of Lists 2024 | wbjournal.com M uch like the Central Massachusetts economy it reflects, the Worcester Business Journal's Book of Lists changes subtly each year. The Greater Worcester economy has now grown to $45 billion in GDP, although its central tenets have remained surprisingly steady over the decades. Manufacturing remains the largest industry. Real estate continues to grow. Health care and higher education still are the highest-profile industries in this meds-and-eds economy. Of course, the region's economy is always evolving, with businesses opening and closing all the time and new trendy industries overtaking stale ones, in both employment and economic output. The Book of Lists is designed to be representative of the Central Massachusetts business community by providing essential market intelli- gence on the major businesses and professionals making up the key indus- tries of the region's economy. Because of this, the topics of the 45 lists in the Book of Lists don't change much from year to year. WBJ will provide between two and four new lists each year, designed to showcase emerging and interesting facets of the economy. This year, three new lists cover co-working & makerspaces, corporate foundations, and residential mortgage lenders. In particular, co-working spaces have come to Central Massachusetts in a big way in the last two years, as six new co-working facilities have opened in Framingham, Worcester, Sturbridge, Westborough, and Northborough since 2022. The rise of co-working spaces is due to a multitude of trends in the region, not the least of which is the success of more established facilities like Venture X Marlborough and Regus, Framingham Centre. Two of the more interesting trends, though, are increases in entrepreneurship and the uncertainty around the commercial real estate market. Last year, more new businesses incorporated in Central Massachusetts than in any other year since 2017, when WBJ started analyzing corporations filings data at the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth. Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, each year has set a record for startups, as 2,721 businesses incorporated in 2021, another 2,772 in 2022, and 2,948 in 2023. Clearly, many companies are looking for small, affordable spaces with built-in amenities. At the same time, the commercial real estate market has been weird in Central Massachusetts. Nationally, major urban centers like Boston and St. Louis are suffering as their commercial cores empty out in the wake of companies switching to remote and hybrid work and scaling back their office leases. Those problems haven't impacted Worcester in the same way, with high-profile office spaces like The Mercantile Center hitting its highest occupancy rate ever. Still, another large high-profile commercial space in One Chestnut Place is planned for a conversion into a housing complex. Whatever the trend, businesses aren't using office space quite like they used to. The Book of Lists seeks to reflect those changes. All these small tweaks over time eventually add up to the modern economy, which will continue to evolve, subtly. - Brad Kane, editor C O N T E N T S Entrepreneurship + commercial real estate = co-working BANKING & FINANCE ......................................... 7 Banks ............................................................8-9 Credit unions .............................................11-12 Venture capital deals ....................................... 13 Top SBA 7(a) lenders ....................................... 14 Residential mortgage lenders* ......................... 15 PROFESSIONAL SERVICES ............................... 17 Law firms ....................................................... 18 Accounting firms ............................................. 20 Insurance agencies ......................................... 21 IT services providers ..................................22-23 Co-working & makerspaces* ........................... 24 Incubators ...................................................... 25 Advertising, marketing & communications firms ......................................................26 & 28 Clean energy companies ................................. 29 Temporary staffing firms .................................. 30 Chambers of commerce .................................. 31 REAL ESTATE ................................................... 33 Commercial sales ........................................... 34 Commercial leases .......................................... 35 Architects ....................................................... 36 MassDOT projects ........................................... 37 Commercial contractors .................................. 38 HEALTH CARE ................................................... 41 Hospitals ........................................................ 42 Health insurers................................................ 44 Physician groups ............................................. 45 MANUFACTURING ........................................... 47 Manufacturers ...........................................48-49 Life sciences & biotech companies .............50-51 Breweries ....................................................... 52 Marijuana businesses ...................................... 53 HOSPITALITY .................................................... 55 Tourist attractions ...................................56 & 58 Hotels ............................................................. 59 Meeting facilities ............................... 60 & 62-63 Golf courses ................................................... 64 EDUCATION & NONPROFITS ............................ 66 Colleges & universities .................................... 67 Private high schools ........................................ 68 Vocational-technical high schools .................... 69 Human services nonprofits .............................. 70 Grant-making foundations & nonprofits ............ 72 Corporate foundations* .................................... 73 Arts & culture nonprofits ................................. 74 GENERAL INTEREST ........................................ 75 Highest-paid CEOs .......................................... 76 Highest-paid nonprofit chief executives ............ 77 Minority-owned businesses ............................. 78 Woman-owned businesses .............................. 79 Veteran-owned businesses ............................. 80 Employee-owned companies ........................... 81 Highest-paid state employees .......................... 82 INDEX OF PEOPLE AND COMPANIES ..........83-86 *New list created for first time in 2024. INDEXED BY INDUSTRY CATEGORY 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 2024. 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. 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) Editorial Intern Sara Bedigian, sbedigian@wbjournal.com Contributors Sloane M. Perron, Giselle Rivera-Flores, Emily Micucci, Livia Gershon Photographer Matt Wright Worcester Business Journal • 172 Shrewsbury Street • Worcester, MA 01604 • 508-755-8004 tel. • 508-755-8860 fax • www.wbjournal.com Worcester Business Journal WBJ 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 Special Projects Accounts Manager Julie Shorten jshorten@wbjournal.com Human Resources Manager, Tracy Rodwill, trodwill@nebusinessmedia.com Director of Finance, Sara Ward, sward@nebusinessmedia.com Accounting Clerk, Rae Rogers, rrogers@nebusinessmedia.com Event Coordinator, Patty Harris, pattyh@wbjournal.com Director of Audience Development and Operations, Leah Allen, lallen@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 COVER PRICE: $25.00 On the cover: UMass Chan Medical School's New Research & Education Building; Photo | Matt Wright

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