Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | March 10, 2025 | Worcester Business Journal 11 has remaining in Central Massachusetts remains a mystery. e company last responded to the WBJ Research Department's annual request for total employee numbers in 2022, when it said it had 6,500 employees in Central Massachusetts, down 31% from the 9,400 employees it reported in 2015. Four properties in Central Massachusetts remain under Dell ownership in Hopkinton and Franklin, totaling about 2 million square feet. e company has offices at three additional buildings it does not own, according to a list of Dell office locations on the company's website. e firm's sale of properties has accelerated since 2024, as it has sold off 753,100 square feet of office and research & development space in that timeframe. e quality of the type of workers in MetroWest has played a role in why EMC has kept a presence in the region, albeit a diminished one, said Jason Palitsch, executive director of the 495/MetroWest Partnership, a public-private effort between municipalities and businesses to promote growth. "What helped EMC thrive in the first place and why Dell kept so many operations here for so many years [post-merger] comes back to the types of workers they can hire here," Palitsch said. "MetroWest has a very highly- skilled, highly-educated, sought-aer workforce, which is the reason that companies want to be here." Even if the cost of doing business and living in Central Massachusetts is higher than places like Texas, Palitsch said the area's skilled workforce will continue to make it a place where large firms are interested in locating. "e business cycle is what it is," he said. "We're in a moment where a lot of big employers are reconsidering their role with their physical space, but it remains the case that our region is home to the type of employees that help the entity to grow and thrive, and we're seeing other employers want to be here." New uses and development Some of the properties previously owned by EMC were never actually utilized by the firm; a 193,228-square- foot, four-story office building at 900 West Park Drive in Westborough was built on speculation and bought by the firm for $40.46 million in 2001 before offloading the property to Westborough-based soware firm eClinicalWorks in 2015 for $21.16 million, according to Town of Westborough property records. at building remains unused by eClinicalWorks, serving as a representation of the abundance of underutilized office space in the MetroWest region. A few prior EMC properties have been adapted to new uses; a 52,700-square-foot property in Milford that EMC used as a training center before selling it for $1.7 million in 2022 is now the Milford 911 Training Center. e building had been vacant for seven years but was brought back to life by its new owner, Calare Properties in Framingham, with the help of architectural firm Connolly Brothers, based in Beverly. More commercial businesses needed Dell EMC's most recent property sales were in Southborough, where it has had a presence along the town's border with Westborough. e firm sold a 193,680-square-foot building at 32 Coslin Drive in December, followed by the sale of a 166,000-square-foot building at 21 Coslin Drive. Kathryn Cook, chair of the Southborough Select Board, said her interactions with global soware giant have been productive, noting it's in both parties' mutual interest to find buyers and new uses. "EMC Dell has been great," Cook said. "ey reach out to us, and so we've had a good relationship." She said the firm was hopeful the Town would make the area part of its MBTA Communities Act zoning, a state-mandated reexamination of municipal zoning laws designed to encourage more multi-family housing production. Southborough instead ended up putting its new residential zones in another part of town, limiting the amount of interest in the Dell- owned properties. Both of the recent purchases in Southborough were made by Framingham-based Atlantic Management. e firm hasn't revealed its plans for the former EMC properties and did not respond to a WBJ request for comment on the topic, but the firm has been involved in a few projects in the area where new life was brought into old commercial campuses. is includes the redevelopment of the former AstraZeneca campus in Westborough into a multi-use site including an Amazon Robotics facility and logistical hub, as well as the reconfiguring of a former Hewlett Packard campus in Marlborough into a live-work-play, multi-use development. Even with Atlantic's purchases, more than 230 acres of EMC-owned, undeveloped land sits in the Town of Southborough's southwest corner. Some of the land is wetlands, and therefore undevelopable, but Cook is hopeful some of that land will eventually be put to good use. "About 85% of the tax base is residential, while 15% is commercial," she said."We really, really need more commercial businesses in this town." Jason Palitsch, executive director of the 495/MetroWest Partnership A decade after the merger, Dell remains at EMC's former headquarters in Hopkinton. EMC's former property at 32 Coslin Drive in Southborough includes an antenna used by local public safety departments. W Fund Your Business with Confidence 800-939-9103 cornerstonebank.com Member FDIC | Member DIF We're here to support your growth and success. Take your business to the next level with tailored financing solutions for construction, equipment, expansion, and working capital. Scan the QR code to learn more.

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