MetroWest495 Biz

MetroWest495 Biz | October 2014 5 roundup Marist Retreat Center plans ditched The Marist Fathers of Boston and Walden Behav- ioral Care of Waltham have agreed to part ways on efforts to develop an inpatient treatment center for patients with eating disorders at the former Marist Retreat Center in Framingham. Walden is moving on from those plans, which received significant opposi- tion from neighbors, in order to respect the wishes of the Marist Fathers, CEO Stuart Komen said in a statement. Walden had signed a purchase and sale agreement on the property in May 2013. The site required a special permit to build a treatment center in the residential neighborhood, which required unanimous approval from the Framingham Zoning Board of Appeals. The ZBA approved the project, prompting Walden to pursue its project through a separate nonprofit entity. A group of neighbors filed suit in land court to block that attempt. The opening of Walden's planned 80-bed facility would have put the Marist property on the tax rolls for the first time, and was expected to create up to 50 new jobs in town. Holliston firm enters into agreement with Texas biopharma A Holliston-based clinical research organization will be providing services to a Texas biopharmaceuti- cal company. Veristat of Holliston said it will provide a series of clinical support services to Molecular Templates, of Georgetown, Texas. The services will include clinical monitoring, safety management, data management, data monitoring committee services, statistics and medical writing support for Molecular's lead compound. The compound, MT-3724, is an immunotoxin that helps patients with relapsed non- Hodgkin's lymphoma. The drug will enter clinical trials during the current quarter, Veristat said. Southboro Medical merging with Reliant Medical Reliant Medical Group of Worcester and South- boro Medical Group will become one at the start of next year as the two healthcare provider organiza- tions complete their withdrawal from Atrius Health. Reliant announced that the two organizations have reached an agreement to merge effective Jan. 1. Together, the two medical groups will employ more than 2,500, including 300 physicians and hundreds of other healthcare professionals, serving about 300,000 patients throughout Central Massachusetts and MetroWest. Natick software firm acquires Toronto company Centage Corp., a Natick-based provider of budget- ing and forecasting software, has acquired Toronto- based financial reporting software maker BI-Metrix Inc., for an undisclosed amount. The deal was financed through $9.5 million the company received last month for acquisitions and other strategic growth moves from TVC Capital & Northgate Capital, Centage said in a release. As part of the acquisition, Centage will add members of the BI-Metrix com- pany to its engineering team, and plans to integrate BI-Metrix's Analytics Maestro product along with additional back office data sources into its existing and future software, it said. VP Solutions joins forces with NYC cloud services firm Framingham-based VP Solutions Inc. has merged with ComputerSupport.com, a national provider of managed IT and cloud services for business based in New York City, according to a statement from the companies. VP Solutions, which has a "strong pres- ence" in the legal community, will leverage Com- puterSupport.com's wider breadth of product and service offerings. Both companies will benefit from more engineering expertise, round-the-clock support for customers, and new cloud products, among other improvements, the statement said. VP Solutions was founded in 1993, while ComputerSupport.com was founded in 2006. BioSurfaces Inc. spins off nanotech medical device line An Ashland company has created a spinoff to com- mercialize medical devices that use nanotechnology to treat patients with heart and kidney disease. NuVas- cular Technologies Inc. was spun out of BioSurfaces Inc. of Ashland, the company said. NuVascular holds an exclusive license for its nanotechnology platform, which was developed over 10 years using $6.6 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health, the company said in a statement. The company is pursu- ing FDA approval of its technology. Marlborough TIF gives GE Healthcare a place to call home The Marlborough City Council has unanimously approved a tax deal that would save GE Healthcare Life Sciences approximately $125,000 over 10 years as the division of General Electric prepares to move into the city. The tax increment financing (TIF) deal gives the company — which will be moving its head- quarters from New Jersey — a break on its property taxes as it invests $21 million and adds 220 new jobs over the next decade, according to a report by the MetroWest Daily News. GE Healthcare Life Sciences will occupy 160,000 square feet of space at the Marl- borough Hills building at 200 Forest St. The company will open the site with 77 jobs that are already located in Marlborough. Under the tax deal with the city, it's required to add the new positions over 10 years. Hudson's Borg gets bigger and better A Hudson machining and engineering consulting services provider will be moving elsewhere in town as it plans to expand. Borg Design Inc., founded in 1945, will move from Apsley Street to 19 Brent Dr., after it bought the site for $1.35 million, according to O'Brien Commercial Properties, which brokered the deal. The seller was Chase-Walton Realty, whom O'Brien represented in the transaction. President K. Andrew Borg said the company, which has about 20 employees, plans to move to the new site around the holidays. The expansion more than doubles the company's workspace; five more jobs could be added in the next year. Cisco cuts jobs in Boxborough Cisco Systems, the California-based technology giant, cut 182 jobs in Boxborough as part of 6,000 companywide job cuts. The local cuts include engi- neering, software development and administrative positions. The company said none of the employees are represented by a union. Cisco had announced in August that it would cut roughly 8 percent of its global workforce. As of 2013, Cisco had 1,240 employees in Central Massachusetts, 1,650 statewide and 75,136 globally. The company is the largest tax- payer in Boxborough with $79.25 million in assessed value, according to 2012 figures. CPA firms join together, adopt new name The certified public accounting firms of Ganley P.C. of Framingham and Needham-based Bonanno, Savino & Davies P.C. have merged and will operate under the new moniker of Bonanno, Savino, Davies & Ganley P.C., or BSDG, the company announced. eBoth firms specialize in providing tax, accounting and business advisory services to family-owned and privately held businesses, individual tax returns, family trusts and nonprofits. BSDG will keep its of- fices and staff. Ameresco wraps up California landfill gas projects Framingham-based energy efficiency and renew- able energy company Ameresco Inc. joined with local California officials and energy industry leaders to commemorate the completion of two landfill gas-to-energy projects (LFGTE), the company said. Ameresco said its LFGTE facilities divert landfill gas through extraction wells and pipe it to a land- fill gas-to-energy plant, where it is cleaned before specialized engines convert it to electricity for sale to the electricity marketplace. The LFGTE facilities also help to improve greenhouse gas compliance and provide revenue for landfill owners. Harvard Bioscience acquires two life sciences companies Harvard Bioscience Inc. (NASDAQ:HBIO), a Holliston-based manufacturer of life sciences equipment, has acquired two companies for a total of $11 million, the company announced. The deals are expected to boost the company's electrophysiol- ogy business. The newly acquired companies are privately held life sciences firms. Multi Channel Sys- tems (MCS) GmbH is headquartered in Reutlingen, Germany. The sale price was $9.46 million, accord- ing to Harvard Bioscience. Triangle BioSystems Inc. (TBSI) is headquartered in Durham, N.C., and sold for $1.6 million, the company said. The two acquisi- EVERytHiNg yOu NEED tO KNOW AbOut MetrOWest Quest Diagnostics opens state-of-the-art lab The new $80-million Quest Diagnostics laboratory in Marlborough will be a hub of innovation, as well as the center for medical testing services for patients throughout New England, Quest CEO Steve Rusckowski told guests at the opening of the Forest Street site. The ribbon-cutting ceremony was held in a lobby of the 200,000-square-foot, LEED- certified facility. Quest is billing the lab as a "state-of-the-art lab of the future" for Central Massachusetts. An estimated 50,000 samples will be processed daily at full operation. Six Quest laboratories formerly housed in other locations in Massachusetts and Connecticut will now operate inside the new Marlborough facility. s page 6

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