Job Retention & Creation through Massachusetts Alliance for Economic Development
By Gregg Simon, Director of Business Services, Massachusetts Alliance for Economic Development
For the past twelve years, the Massachusetts Alliance for Economic Development (MAED) has served as a public-private partnership dedicated to the economic growth of the Commonwealth through job retention and creation. Created in 1993 as a private sector economic development group to add consistency to the Commonwealth’s economic development efforts over time, MAED has supported the decisions of over 200 businesses to invest in new or expanded facilities across Massachusetts resulting in the retention and creation of over 32,000 jobs.
Our key services in support of economic development include a statewide Site FinderService that can identify land or buildings to meet our client’s real estate needs and a Research & InformationService that answers questions that businesses have about Massachusetts such as business costs, educational network, labor force, industry clusters, economic development incentives, and more. We work as a part of the Massachusetts Business Resource Team with the Massachusetts Office of Business Development (MOBD), MassDevelopment, Massachusetts Office of International Trade and Investment, and others to offer comprehensive economic development assistance to our clients.
As a result of the private nature of our organization we are also able to draw on the expertise and services of our member organizations including utilities, legal, design and construction, finance and accounting, real estate, architecture, statewide and local economic development, and more.
Although we work with businesses in all industries across Massachusetts, manufacturing businesses have been a large part of our client base. Recently, we worked with businesses such as Fabrico, an Oxford manufacturer of precision metal components that had outgrown their existing facility. At the request of their consultant, MAED worked as a part of a team with MOBD, MassDevelopment, and local elected officials to present a proposal to the firm to build a new 80,000 square foot facility in Oxford rather than Putnam, CT, that would result in the retention of 100 jobs and create 50 new jobs.
Another manufacturing firm, IDE, recently utilized MAED for their evaluation of Massachusetts as a location for merging their California operation with their local operations. The merged facility would undertake research, development, and manufacturing of vibration isolation equipment for the semiconductor industry. With MAED’s assistance, the firm recently purchased a 50,000 square foot facility in Randolph that will employ 84 people. The company received a $110,000 Workforce Training Fund grant and obtained financing through the Citizens Job Bank program. MAED-member firm Lincoln Property Company represented IDE in their real estate transaction.
Clinton-based Heat Trace Products, a manufacturer of self–regulating heater cables used in industrial and commercial applications for freeze protection and process temperature maintenance, recently needed to move their operations and 15 employees to a new 20,000 square foot facility. They evaluated options in Connecticut, Ohio, and Massachusetts. MAED assembled a team including the Workforce Training Fund, MassDevelopment, and the Massachusetts Office of Business Development to make the case for a location in the Commonwealth. The team was able to provide assistance as they selected a facility in Leominster, including a tax increment financing package from the city and state. The Massachusetts Export Center was also able to help with technical assistance with a foreign contact and MassPort was able to provide assistance related to shipping products out of the Port of Boston to meet the company’s export growth needs.
These are a few examples of the many growing manufacturers selecting Massachusetts for investments in new or expanded facilities that will result in job retention and creation. In addition to working with existing Massachusetts manufacturers, MAED invests in marketing Massachusetts as a place to do business. We will be leading an effort to market Massachusetts at the MILCOM trade show from October 17-20, 2005. This show for the military communications industry attracts about 3,000 industry representatives and has a direct link to the research and work conducted at Hanscom Air Force base. We will be joined in our Massachusetts It’s All Here booth by several regional economic development representatives and Bill Durgin of WPI and a board member of MassMEP.
For more information about MAED please visit our website at www.massecon.com or call our office at (781) 489-6262.
