According to the famous Massachusetts Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson, “In skating over thin ice, our safety is in our speed.”
To grow our economy in this challenging economic environment, the private and public sectors need to work in tandem to shrink the time between developing ideas and executing them.
“The Defense Industry in Massachusetts,” a report recently released by the UMass Donahue Institute, demonstrates that the defense sector successfully and swiftly moves concepts from the laboratory to production. Other key drivers of our economy, such as finance and real estate, need to follow this model as well. Simultaneously, the Commonwealth’s economic-development entities like MassDevelopment must more aggressively court businesses outside state lines to urge them to join the Massachusetts innovation economy, while tending to and encouraging homegrown businesses to stay and expand here.
The transformation of a closed military base into a regional hub for economic growth demonstrates that the Commonwealth can act with both foresight and speed to get things done.
When Fort Devens closed, the Massachusetts Legislature quickly came up with a plan that MassDevelopment, the statewide finance and development arm of the Commonwealth, implemented. Thanks in large part to infrastructure funding provided in this legislation, Devens today hosts more than 70 companies, some of which, such as Bristol Myers-Squibb (BMS), have chosen Massachusetts over competing sites around the world.
As the lone unincorporated municipality in the Commonwealth, Devens represents an outlier in many ways, but also shows the impact that streamlined zoning and permitting can have. Devens offers 75-day zoning and permitting, a tremendous aid to development. For example, BMS received permits for the largest capital construction project in the company’s storied history in an incredible 49 days.
Stepping Up The Pace
The Patrick-Murray Administration – with Housing and Economic Development Secretary (and MassDevelopment Board Chair) Gregory Bialecki playing a key role – has implemented significant programs that provide critical assistance to both communities and developers who seek to move at the pace of business. Initiatives such as Chapter 43D Expedited Permitting, the Growth District Initiative, the Infrastructure Investment Incentive (I-cubed) program and a renewed focus on jobs in Gateway Cities combine to make all corners of Massachusetts more business-friendly.
With these tools in place, the burden falls on all of us in the economic-development arena to use them to attract new companies and encourage existing ones to create jobs in the Commonwealth. MassDevelopment has sought to do its part by hosting conferences for developers to explore growth opportunities in the Berkshires, Franklin County, Lawrence, Lowell, New Bedford, Springfield and Worcester. Additionally, we have partnered with the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council and NAIOP to showcase statewide opportunities to industry leaders.
Emerson wrote his words, so appropriate for this season, 160 years ago in an essay entitled, ironically enough, “Prudence.” For the New Year, we should all resolve to put together wisdom with an urgency to get things done so that Massachusetts can continue to outpace the nation in job creation.
Robert L. Culver is president and chief executive of MassDevelopment, Boston. For more information about MassDevelopment, visit http://www.massdevelopment.com
