Worcester Business Journal

4 Worcester Business Journal • October 12, 2015 www.wbjournal.com T here's something about having a local baseball team that some locals have a soft spot for. After all, a coalition of local business leaders tried to form an ownership group to take over the former Worcester Tornadoes, an independent minor league team that suffered financial disaster back in 2012 and is now defunct. The play for the Tornadoes didn't materialize, but shortly after, the collegiate Futures League team, the Worcester Bravehearts, was founded in 2014. But to play in the bigger leagues costs money, and even with speculation that Worcester could be a viable location for the Pawtucket Red Sox, Boston's minor- league affiliate, there seem to be some obstacles; Holy Cross's Fitton Field, home of the Bravehearts, seats 3,000, while a stadium for 10,000 would be required for the PawSox and the big question is, who would foot the bill for an adequate facility? Does the team really want Worcester? Backing up a bit, let's review what PawSox owners have said about Worcester as a potential new home for the team, following a failed bid to get the City of Providence to help fund a new waterfront stadium in that city. PawSox owner Larry Lucchino indicated to a Worcester Telegram columnist last month that Worcester may have the right elements to host the team. And according to news reports, some city leaders in Worcester are open to hearing the team out, though the PawSox have made no official statements confirming their interest in a particular Massachusetts location. Springfield also appears to be interested in what the team has to say. Does Worcester want the team? But since financing was the sticking point for a new stadium in Providence, it's reasonable to assume it will be so in Worcester. While city councilors Gary Rosen and Philip Palmieri appear to favor the idea of the PawSox in Worcester, asking City Manager Edward Augustus to sit down with owners to determine what their needs for a stadium are, others have expressed caution, or outright opposition, about investing public dollars in a stadium, and have wondered what the economic and other benefits would be to the city, should the PawSox locate here. Given their wariness, and the fact that Augustus has been loath to take sides on the issue, it appears that the city isn't much closer to becoming the new home to the PawSox than it was two decades ago, when, according to a Boston Globe article that ran in July, the team "flirted" with Worcester before deciding to stay in Pawtucket; today, speculation is that the PawSox may even try again for a Providence stadium. Timothy Murray, president and CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, told the Globe it's hard to foresee widespread support for the PawSox this time around. "I don't think anybody is interested in getting played twice," Murray said. n MARLBOROUGH — A drug-deliver- ing and self-dissolving arterial stent made by Boston Scientific has received Food and Drug Administration approval, the Marlborough-based com- pany announced. Boston Scientific's SYNERGY Bioabsorbable Polymer Drug-Eluting Stent System (BP-DES) has been approved for the treatment of coronary artery disease. It is the only stent of its kind in the country, accord- ing to the company. With this FDA approval, the company will begin com- mercialization of the stent system, Boston Scientific said in a statement. MARLBOROUGH — A 50,000-square- foot office building and an adjoining property have sold in Marlborough for $4.7 million. The single-story office building at 630 Forest St. was sold for $3.8 million with an adjacent 8.35-acre parcel going for an additional $900,000, according to brokers New Dover Associates Inc. All of the property is fully leased to Verizon New England Inc. The sellers were 630 Forest Street Realty LLC and 686 Forest Street Realty LLC, respectively, and the buyer of both properties was Yellow Brick LLC. Scott R. Hughes, president of New Dover Associates Inc. of Framingham, bro- kered the sale of both properties. WORCESTER — Culture in Worcester has received a $15.25-mil- lion boost with the announcement that the Myles & C. Jean McDonough Foundation will grant those funds to seven cultural institutions in the city and surrounding area. The commit- ment will be used to support initiatives at the American Antiquarian Society, EcoTarium, The Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts, Music Worcester, Tower Hill Botanic Garden, Worcester Art Museum, and Worcester Historical Museum. McDonough and her late husband Myles, founder of Spencer manufacturer FLEXcon, have long sup- ported these institutions, according to a statement. The seven institutions com- bined represent more than 850 years of serving the Worcester community and attract nearly 580,000 visitors each year, the statement said. MARLBOROUGH — The lease of 7,150 square feet in Marlborough has nearly doubled the office space of CLP Resources Inc. in Marlborough, a sub- sidiary of publicly traded Trueblue Inc., according to a release from Bret O'Brien, president of Greater Boston Commercial Properties, who facilitated the lease. CLP Resources placed its staffing office in 4,000 square feet at the location in 2013. The latest lease repre- sents a renewal of that initial 4,000-sqa- ure-foot lease and an expansion into new office space that will serve the company's payroll department, accord- ing to O'Brien. ACTON — An Acton startup that manufactures professional sports play- er figurines wants to move to Marlborough, according to documents submitted to the city council by Mayor Arthur Vigeant. Oyo Sportstoys, founded in 2011 by former medical device executive Tom Skripps, is plan- ning to spend $8 million to renovate space it will lease at 111 Locke Drive. The company is seeking a tax incre- ment financing (TIF) deal from the city council, which would provide tax breaks on value added to the property over the life of the 10-year TIF agree- ment. The plan is to create a "state-of- the-art" manufacturing facility and corporate headquarters, according to Vigeant. Oyo would move 95 full-time jobs to the city by mid-2016, and create an additional 100 jobs over the next 10 years, he said. WORCESTER — A partnership between the University of Massachusetts Medical School and the University of Connecticut Health Center has been selected for up to $29.2 million in funding as part of the federal Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative. Funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will go to 39 U.S. health care collaborative networks. The partner- ship between UMass and UConn — to be called The Southern New England Practice Transformation Network — will receive up to $29.2 million, UMass Medical School said in a statement. The initiative stems from the Affordable Care Act and is designed to support more than 140,000 U.S. clinician prac- tices over the next four years in sharing, adapting and further developing their comprehensive quality improvement strategies, according to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. WORCESTER — The national Legal Services Corporation has awarded Worcester-based Community Legal Aid a two-year Pro Bono Innovation Fund grant valued at more than $200,000, according to a statement from UMass Memorial Health Care, Community Legal Aid and Legal Services Corp. Community Legal Aid will partner with UMass Memorial Health Care to develop a clinic-based program to help the area's low-income and minority communities tackle legal needs that negatively impact health. The initiative will add legal services providers, including pro-bono private attorneys, to the clinical care team to help address such legal barriers to good health as substandard housing and lim- ited access to benefits. REGIONAL BRIEFS >> Continued on next page Verbatim "I do think that his decision to be so open and public about his own strug- gles will be helpful to other people who deal with similar kinds of issues and struggles themselves …" Gov. Charlie Baker, weighing in on former Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy's new book, "A Common Struggle: A personal Journey Through the Past and Future of Mental Illness and Addiction." Source: State House News Service, Oct. 6 >> "A beautiful building became available, and we essentially jumped on it within 48 hours and bought it." Girish Navani, CEO of eClinicalWorks in West- borough, which purchased the office building at 900 West Park Drive, Westborough, from EMC Corp. for $21.1 million, and plans to add about 1,000 employees to its headquarters workforce. Source: Telegram & Gazette, Sept. 29 >> "This is good for the city and what we are trying to do." Worcester City Manager Edward Augustus Jr., about plans unveiled for an AC by Marriott hotel that will add 168 rooms and a sleek, upscale note to CitySquare when it opens in 2017. MassLive.com, Oct. 7 >> In Review BRIEFING: PAWSOX IN WORCESTER? CENTRALMASS

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