Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | Novermber 13, 2017 | Worcester Business Journal 21 Get Devens a proper workforce The Worcester Business Journal welcomes letters to the editor and commentary submissions. Please send submissions to Brad Kane, editor, at bkane@wbjournal.com. F itchburg has a rich and vibrant history fueled by a hard-working middle class and cultural diversity. When my grandparents came to the United States, Fitchburg was a thriving middle-class town buzzing with downtown factories, mills, markets and retail stores attracting people from every walk of life. Immigrants and trades- men from Ireland, Italy, Greece and Canada filled Fitchburg's businesses with talent and provided people will- ing to work hard with a chance to make life better for their families. The people who grew up here and work here understand this history and know Fitchburg has great potential. It is a great privilege for me to be the president and CEO of a company employing 100 people in Fitchburg. My dad worked as a tradesman, and my mom walked to work in a factory in downtown Fitchburg, not unlike the one I work in today. I grew up here, and I am connected to the people and community in a special way. I'd like to share my impressions of the new mayor of Fitchburg, who under- stands the struggles of an aspiring middle class of workers and the importance of providing a good and dignified job. This kind of connection to the community is precisely why Mayor Stephen DiNatale has been so successful in his first years serving the community of Fitchburg. DiNatale grew up in the Fitchburg/Leominster area and wields his vast political influence and connections as a former Massachusetts state representative. He has a unique and inti- mate view of the city and its issues. He is an extremely hard worker who is always on the job. He relentlessly advocates for the residents of Fitchburg on a 24/7 basis. DiNatale has assembled a very talented team of people who are laser- focused on reviving Fitchburg's economic engine. I've had firsthand experience with the mayor and his team when we started working with a developer to bring market- rate housing to the Monument Square area. Micron Products has entered into an agreement to sell the former Harper Furniture Building and Summer Street Firehouse to a developer who will bring more working families to Fitchburg. This plan will change the Monument Square area to a stunning new gateway to downtown Fitchburg. The project will undoubtedly help to stimulate the local econo- my. These families will spend money at local businesses, which will need to hire more people. Projects like this are typically very difficult to get started, but the mayor and his team understand the simple formula bringing more business to Fitchburg is the way to improve the community and ser- vices available to the city's residents. Fitchburg has come a long way under DiNatale's watch, as evidenced by the many new and exciting improvement projects being started and completed. The city has great potential and the mayor is leading the charge for the city's revival. As a community member and business leader in Fitchburg, I am very confident in DiNatale and his team are catalysts for transformational change. Salvatore Emma, Jr. is president and CEO of Micron Products, Inc. in Fitchburg. DiNatale energizes Fitchburg's economy V I E W P O I N T E D I T O R I A L BY SALVATORE EMMA JR. Special to the Worcester Business Journal Salvatore Emma Jr. WO R D F R O M T H E W E B Tweets of the week "No matter whatever happens with #AmazonHQ2 bids, they've helped Central MA inc. @chamberworc @TweetWorcester to reimagine econ dev pitches." - Zachary Agush (@zagush), Oct. 31, on a story about Central Mass. bids for Amazon's second headquarters "Thank you, @WBJournal - I am lucky to have been given the opportunity to work @ ascentria with such amazing people! #blessed #awesomestaff " - Angela Bovill (@AngelaBovill), Oct. 31, on her being named a WBJ Outstanding Woman in Business W Facebook feedback "What a waste of taxpayers' money." - Pat Falcone, Nov. 6, on a story about Worcester hiring two consultants to help with the city's attempt to draw the PawSox "I wouldn't be too concerned yet. It was a Tuesday night and it was Halloween, neither of which will help attendance (particularly for something which caters to families). Let's see how the attendance looks for the upcoming weekend home games." - Jonathan Wood, Nov. 1, on a story about the Worcester Railers' attendance dropping by 82 percent at their second home game D evens has been a resounding economic success since the former military base was transformed into the iconic MassDevelopment location less than 20 years ago. In the late 1990s, when Ayer, Harvard and Shirley voted to give the site to the state agency, few could have predicted the 100-year-old facility would be home to the likes of a $1-billion Bristol-Myers Squibb biologics development, a 114,000-square-foot hydroponic farm and dozens of other good-sized tenants. Much of the original promise of that large swath of development-ready land has been met. Yet, some pieces are still missing, and the further development of Devens will depend on getting those issues right. Can Devens fulfill its promise as a place where Boston and Cambridge techno- logical firms want to expand their manufacturing capabilities in a less costly, but still easily accessi- ble location? Today, Devens is largely a drive-in, drive-out community. Currently Devens houses about 450 residents, mostly in units formerly used by mili- tary families. Certainly Harvard, Ayer, Shirley and other surrounding towns offer nearby hous- ing for employees, but most workers still need a car to get to the office, and the size of the nearby workforce is limited. What Devens needs is a combination of more housing for its workforce and better transporta- tion options. MassDevelopment is on the right track with construction of a new 124-unit residential com- munity – Emerson Green – in Devens, and a 20-unit apartment complex and a 58-unit senior housing development are in the planning stages. If Devens is going to promote itself as a less costly manufacturing and R&D capital – where compa- nies don't necessarily move their headquarters but will open expansive production facilities – there will need to be more affordable places for those employees to live, and easier ways for them to access transportation to and from Devens. In response to that need, MassDevelopment started a shuttle service in April from Fitchburg and Leominster, but more needs to be done. Devens needs better public transit access towards the Greater Boston area, either through existing nearby commuter rail stations or more bus routes. The community's location off of Route 2 and close proximity to Route 495 does make for easy driving accessibility, and it's certainly a less pun- ishing commute than for those who have to travel the Mass Pike and Route 128 on a daily basis. Yet to expand facilities for manufacturers who rely on a high-volume, lower-skilled workforce for production, the cost and inconvenience barri- ers in getting to Devens needs to be lowered sig- nificantly. Nearly all of Central Massachusetts can lay claim as a more affordable business locale than to our east. We've got a plethora of developable land, a highly trained and educated workforce and plenty of institutes of higher learning all at a much lower cost. With its ready sites and stream- lined permitting process, Devens could really become the embodiment of this Central Massachusetts mantra. First formed during World War I a hundred years ago, the Devens community has made tre- mendous progress reinventing itself over the last 20 years. With the right strategy, the town can take it to the next level, and bring significant ben- efit to the entire region. W

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