Worcester Business Journal

14 Worcester Business Journal | April 2, 2018 | wbjournal.com F O C U S H E A L T H C A R E Select Central Mass. communities, particularly in MetroWest, have achieved the status to be marketed as biotechnology destinations BioReady BY GRANT WELKER Worcester Business Journal News Editor B iopharmaceutical jobs are more clustered in MetroWest than practically another other industry except for information technology, and they're high-paying and growing fast. A group advocating on life science companies' behalf wants to help make sure communities are ready to accommodate the growth of existing compa- nies or others that may want to move in. The Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, a nonprofit formed three decades ago to support the state's life sciences industry, is aiming to make it easier for communities to make themselves ready through the right zoning and permitting programs. "We're only going to show them to the communi- ties that are most willing to accept them," said Robert Coughlin, MassBio's president and CEO. Cambridge nonprofit MassBio has created a scor- ing system called BioReady for communities to both give cities and towns something to strive for and make it easier for biotechnology companies to know where they may have the clearest path toward putting a shovel in the ground for a new project. "e top issue is speed to market," said Tony Coskren, the executive managing director at New- mark Knight Frank, a Boston company helping life science and other companies find space in the area, including along I-495. "For companies, it's 'How do I become operational as fast as possible?'" Massachusetts is a national leader when it comes to life sciences. It has the most biotechnology research and development jobs in the country, and its number of biopharmaceutical jobs has grown by 28 percent in the last decade to reach 66,000, according to MassBio. Central Massachusetts alone has more than 50 life science companies, including Abbvie in Worcester, Bristol Myers-Squibb in Devens, Sanofi Genzyme in Westborough and Framingham, and Sunovion Pharmaceuticals in Marlborough. But MassBio and others aren't resting. "We created BioReady because we needed cities and towns to choose to compete," Coughlin said at a regional life sciences forum in Marlborough in February. "I've gotten mayors calling me up disappointed that they don't have better ratings, but we want them to be ready for these companies that we represent." PlatinumReady Grafton is among those with the top rating – plati- num – despite being smaller and less developed than its fellow communities at the top rung, like Framingham, Marlborough and Worcester. MassBio says platinum communities have zoning allowing for biotech laboratory and manufacturing uses by special permit, and public water and sewer infrastructure in all commercial and industrial areas. Grafton has acres of unrealized development potential and is ready for it. The 80-acre Grafton Science Park, owned by a subsidiary of Tufts University and adjacent to the Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, has a capacity for 440,000 square feet of life science office space in a cluster of planned buildings to join the Tufts New England Regional Biosafety Laboratory, a research facility. The town has rezoned 40 acres for similar use on the same side of Route 30. Town officials are helping to craft state legislation to open a nine-acre parcel of the former Grafton State Hospital off Centech Boulevard for mixed use to help draw development. "The platinum is what gets people in, but we want to show them Grafton is forward-thinking," said Joe Laydon, the Grafton town planner. Grafton's Town Meeting last fall approved engi- neering for what would be a 1,500-foot sewer line expansion from the west along Route 30 to the area to provide more capacity for businesses. The town has made the area attractive to companies wanting to be next to higher education research facilities and down the street from a commuter rail stop. "When we said we could act as a magnet for life science company activities, they were enthusiastic and active partners," Joseph McManus, the executive associate dean of the veterinary school, said of the town. Achieving gold Ashland – which was just upgraded last month from bronze to gold – is sandwiched between Framingham and gold recipient Hopkinton, two communities with far more developed life science industries. The town is looking to catch up. "We really want to have more of a biotech commu- nity here because we feel like we offer a lot of the things [those companies] are looking for," Ashland Town Manager Michael Hebert said. Ashland's success story for life sciences is the Ashland Technology Centre, the former Telechron clock factory housing tenants like MatTek, which engineers human tissue, and BioSurfaces, a maker of medical device technology. Lower rents and a strong school system have helped draw such companies to Ashland so far, Hebert said. "That's something that businesses that have moved in – not just life sciences but others – have remarked about, the affordability," he said. BioSurfaces moved to the Ashland Technology Centre in 2010, more than tripling its space. Bio- Surfaces co-founder Matthew Phaneuf, an Ashland resident, called the town a hidden gem. "ere are oher biotech companies here that a lot of people don't know about, but they're fairly suc- cessful," he said. Holliston has a bronze rating, hurt in part by a lack of a town-wide sewer system or commercial- or industrial-zoned areas. The town lost a potential Ashland Town Manager Michael Herbert outside the Ashland Technology Centre, a former clock factory now home to life sciences companies. P H O T O / E D D C O T E

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