Neal Tours Berkshire Innovation Center as Pittsfield's Tech Economy Grows
PITTSFIELD, Mass. —Congressman Richard Neal visited the Berkshire Innovation Center Thursday to highlight $735,000 in federal funding secured for a new cybersecurity training and testing facility.
"The number one job of the federal government is to provide for the security of its people. I mean, we should never lose sight of that, whether it's China or Russia, every single day there are these belligerents that are attempting to infiltrate national security here in the United States, and we should not be naive about it," Neal said. "I mean, we can have an argument about proportionality; we can do a lot of different things, but not to miss the point of what they're trying to do every day."
The new cybersecurity facility will provide regional manufacturers and businesses with research and design equipment, specialized lab space, and training facilities and is planned to be housed in a to-be-redeveloped space across the street from the Berkshire Innovation Center (BIC), located at 45 Woodlawn Ave.
The derelict property, formerly owned by General Electric, is now known as the William Stanley Business Park.
The project is a $7.2 million dollar investment from the state, $5.2 million from the tech collaborative, $2 million from bond funding secured by Neal, and $1 million that will be split into two phases: $500,000 for BIC to begin building and $500,000 for Myrias Optics to start production in Pittsfield, said Mayor Peter Marchetti.
BIC Executive Director Ben Sosne said manufacturers often highlight the need for help with cybersecurity, particularly in meeting the security requirements necessary to conduct business with General Dynamics and other major contractors.
Collaborators in the field and the public sector have recognized the need that has only grown since technology has advanced and is a great career opportunity, Sosne said.
"I think ecosystem is the key word for us in terms of what's happening in the environment in the community. You can't build a successful business if you don't have a vibrant, growing, strong economy…The stronger the local economy is, the stronger we're going to be, and the easier it will be for us to continue to grow," said Chris Montferret, General Dynamics vice president of strategy and business development.
The Berkshire Innovation Center’s 24,000-square-foot facility is "bursting at the seams" and continues to expand, with new companies bringing their operations to the area and established local companies continuing to grow, Sosne said.
"So, the BIC is really just a center of gravity for companies throughout the region and using … not just our resources, but really each other," he said. "Frankly, that's what it comes down to: is building a community that leverages the expertise that's here in the community.
The BIC is collaborating with several technology groups, including General Dynamics, Myrias Optics, and Synagex.
Since 2021, General Dynamics has brought hundreds of its suppliers from across the country to the BIC, Sosne said.
The collaboration between BIC and UMass, brought the operation, Myrias Optics, a spin-out company from UMass Amherst, to the area, helping expand Western Massachusetts' presence in advanced manufacturing, polymer science, optics, photonics, and everything that feeds into the quantum supply chain, said Loren Walker, UMass Office of Research Development director.
"We know there's major quantum companies in the Eastern part of the state, and as they expand and that revolution takes place – you want to capture as much of that industry in the Commonwealth as possible," he said. "Having a partnership with the BIC in this area of the state is key to that because we can do certain things in Amherst really well, but we're constrained by our geography there and opportunities for commercial space."
"Out here in the Berkshires, with a partnership with the BIC, we've got space for prototyping, space for [research and development,] space for spinouts to grow and have an impact throughout Western Massachusetts … Regional partnerships are critical here," he added.
Giovanna Fessenden-Fairbank, BIC vice chair and assistant general Counsel IP at Marvell Technology Semiconductor said Berkshire County has a culture of innovation dating back to the invention of the first lightbulb, lit in Great Barrington.
"We've had tech companies throughout our history, and they're growing, and our tech hub growing here is going to help augment that process. It's just the beginning of our innovation, economy, and tech stretching from Boston to New York," she said.
State Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier said when General Electric left Pittsfield in the late 80s and early 90s, it left behind a 52-acre "toilet" in the heart of the city—a barren, moonscape-like property that residents would spend the next three decades looking at.
"We don't want one big company coming in for Pittsfield. We want a diverse range of companies here, small companies feeding into…and have an ecosystem here that sustains us and does not hold us hostage," she said. "So God bless GE. I know they provided a lot of good jobs generations before us, but now it's up to us to rebuild our city, and we're going to do that with the partnerships that we have."
While General Electric paid millions of dollars in environmental remediation costs over the course of a decade, the city has also invested millions in efforts to revitalize the area–a project that started during former Mayor Linda Tyers administration and continues under Marchetti's leadership.
"Successes so far: the first 4 acres of Site-9 has been sold to Milltown for the first commercial building to be restored on the GE property to put people to work," Marchetti said. "As we've alluded to, there are two other companies that we're working with for the other two pieces of Site-9, but the deals are not finalized far enough yet to put out that much information."
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