City officials in New Bedford want to trade in shouts of “Fore!” for factories in order to grow the city’s property tax base.
Mayor Jon Mitchell and city councilors joined state legislators on Friday to announce plans to redevelop part of the 275-acre Whaling City Golf Course into a 1 million-square-foot industrial park. The remainder of the golf course will be renovated, with the potential for additions like a driving range.
Termed the Advanced Manufacturing Campus, the 100-acre project is located at the Interstate 195-Route 140 interchange on the city’s east side.
“Constructing a new business park from scratch is no small undertaking and a complex challenge for any city, but if we are serious in New Bedford about reducing the property tax burden, regenerating our local economy, and keeping local government financial stable, we have no choice but to find a way to succeed. And with our existing business park at full capacity, it is critical to have a new driver of commercial growth. The plan we are announcing today will create that driver,” Mitchell said in a statement. “Several years of study, planning, and revision have brought us to this day. The plan is significantly better for those efforts. It is more pragmatic, achieves more of our goals, and is more responsive to the community. Most important, the project is grounded in a robust body of research that gives us confidence in our approach.”
Officials hope the complex, intended to capitalize on the surging demand for industrial real estate in the Boston area, will create up to 1,000 jobs for area residents.
Part of the plan announced Friday also includes placing 156 acres of city-owned land in neighboring Dartmouth under a permanent conservation restriction to comply with Article 97 restrictions on developing recreational land. Officials said reaching an agreement with Dartmouth officials on this move was key to enabling the business park.
Greater Boston industrial tenants contributed to a record 944,175 square feet of positive absorption in the third quarter, according to CBRE’s MarketView report. The availability rate declined to 8 percent while the vacancy rate dropped to 4.8 percent, both of which are historic lows, CBRE reported.
Asking rents rose to $10.05 per square foot on a triple-net basis, the report said.
