Lt. Governor Tours Innovation Center, Talks State Investment
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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll toured the Berkshire Innovation Center on Tuesday for a look at Pittsfield's technology sector and the future of William Stanley Business Park.
She then sat down with local leaders to discuss possible avenues for state investment. Late last year, Gov. Maura Healey signed off on a billion dollars in climate tech and life sciences initiatives over the next 10 years.
"We have a lot of innovation happening as part of our economic development bill, the Mass Leads Act, and that bill was adopted with a strong partnership with the Legislature last year, and we are now in operational phases, so we are making these investments," she explained.
"Some of them are in acceleration and incubator work, some of them are in tech hubs, trying to think about every region has some specialties, some opportunities to grow, jobs, tax revenues, new growth, and that's what we're here to talk about at the BIC today, some of the areas that we think allow for real promise for economic futures here. Some of the areas that we think allow for real promise, for economic futures here."
The conversation was closed to press, but was preceded by a tour of the facility and the companies that live inside, including Electro Magnetic Applications Inc. and Noble Carbon.
"It's great to just talk to two different companies who are here. One who started small with one person in an office now has 20 employees and is spread out outside of this building, and more of a startup here working on an energy efficiency initiative being funded with our Clean Energy Center, and trying to find ways to think about how we use electricity in a way that's going to be beneficial and save money, and being deployed in affordable housing across Western Massachusetts," Driscoll said.
"Those are two examples in one building, smaller startup, a larger, a little bit more established entity, both of which wouldn't have been here without this site, and which is largely a partnership with the state, and I think that's what we do well."
Noble Carbon redesigned the century-old circuit breaker to be smarter, faster, and controllable. The company is supported by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center.
In 2023, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst received a $5 million grant from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative towards an open-access additive manufacturing and design/testing facility on campus. Through the project, UMass Amherst then collaborated with EMA, which specializes in the testing and design of materials used in space and operates at the BIC, among other industry partners.
"As we've been walking around, it's great to hear this was a small investment, and it served as a catalyst to maybe put together some private sector investment, some financing, and see companies really start small and then really grow and scale up. And for us, it's thinking about what are those technologies?" Driscoll said.
She noted the strength of Western Mass as a place where people want to stay in adulthood and urged cooperation with the eastern side of the state.
"We've got folks who are super smart, who love living here, they love the community they're in, they either grew up here, have some connection, and they don't want to leave," she said.
"So for us, it's really how do we partner the 617 area code, some of the research that's going on there at the higher ed institutions, with the 413, which also has research at the higher ed institutions, and leveraging the success of both places to really understand what we can do here to have better growth and to take advantage of some of the R&D that's happening in the eastern part of the state that can be manufactured here."
At one point, Driscoll looked out onto the greened-over Site 9 and heard about its potential future. The $11 million redevelopment of the 16-acre parcel was funded by a variety of local, state, and federal funds, and Mill Town Capital has purchased property for development.
"I think it's just terrific to see the city of Pittsfield, the work the mayor is doing in concert with the legislative delegation," she said.
"It's a team effort and local government, state government, really coming together with the private industry. That's what Massachusetts' secret power really is, is the power of, we call it 'Team Massachusetts,' bringing together the best ideas with folks in the region and then operationalizing on them, and that's the approach that we've taken across the administration, and we're really grateful to see it come to fruition here, and can't wait to see what's there next."
Earlier, the lieutenant governor toured the proposed site of the Quantum Supply Chain Accelerator at Springfield Technology Park and the Mass Green High Performance Computing Center in Holyoke.
"We just left a discussion in Holyoke about the new artificial intelligence, AI, hub, and the opportunity to grow jobs and think about research, and we know what AI is going to do to transform many of the services that we're offering, how do we think about it from an economic development perspective?" she said.
"And here we'll spend some time talking about the innovations that are happening here. We think there's more work to do within the Department of Defense. You think about general aviation and Raytheon and areas where Massachusetts already has a strength, particularly here in Pittsfield, like how do we leverage that to ensure that we're seeing this sort of growth in jobs and tax revenues and the opportunities that exist here already tied to housing and and leveraging the investments that are here for greater good."
Tags: BIC, business development, driscoll,
