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WIB Member Spearheads Growth in Local Business Parks Since 1999, the New Bedford Business Park has been one of the hottest industrial parks in New England with 29 purchases of land or buildings and 15 plant expansions. In addition, the number of companies in the park has doubled to 37 with the number of jobs growing from 1,500 to 4,800, or by 3,300. Spearheaded by Greater New Bedford Industrial Foundation Executive Director and GNBWIB member, Tom Davis, he says the past two years of activity in the park have been particularly strong. “With the completion of six major company projects in 2006 and ten company projects started or completed in 2007, it’s expected that 1,000 new jobs will be added to the park,” said Davis. Three new roads have been added and ten new lots have been made available for sale. In addition, individual companies have been making dramatic improvements to their businesses, with many of them expanding their size including Natco, Commercial Drywall, Five-Star Surgical, Titleist, Lighthouse Masonry, AFC Cable, Zapp Precision Steel, and Aquapoint among others. Some other exciting highlights from recent development in the park include: ...Konarka Technologies: Leased the 257,000 sq. ft former MultiLayer/Polaroid Plant to manufacture photovoltaic products. ...Symmetry Medical: Acquired the 82,000 sq.ft. DePuy Johnson and Johnson plant, retained all of DuPuy’s employees, and expects to hire more as they plan to move other product lines to New Bedford later this year. ...First Highland: Completed a $1M modernization and beautification of the 118,000 sq. ft. Velvet Drive plant, with plans to sell or lease the facility to one or more manufacturers. ...Horatio Sheet Metal: Bought and modernized a 23,000 sq. ft. manufacturing facility. ...Commonwealth New Bedford Energy: Built a new three megawatt electric plant fueled by gas emissions flared from the landfill. ...Vectrix: Leased a newly modernized 65,000 sq. ft. manufacturing plant to build and sell its noiseless, emissions-free motor scooters. In addition to the business park, the Greater New Bedford Industrial Foundation recently signed an agreement with Dr. and Mrs. Aghai to market their industrial and office park, now known as the Energy Park. Located off of Old Fall River Road in North Dartmouth, the Energy Park is currently home to Morris Energy’s 72 megawatt gas-fired electric plant. “There are 67 saleable acres off of the park’s access road with all utilities in place and we have four companies currently considering renewable energy projects in the park,” said Davis. “Both of these parks are on a roll. We have over 200 acres to sell, which gives us the potential to add another 3,000 jobs during the next five to ten years.” 227 Union Street, Suite 206, New Bedford, MA 02740-5946 PH 508.979.1504 • FAX 508.979.5680 E-mail: Webmaster@gnbwib.org |