2013: A Year Of Departures, Arrivals & Denials
In most cases, businesses take stock of the 12 months past and what they can do better and look forward to in the 12 months that lay ahead.
In that spirit, here’s our take on what we consider to be the top five business stories of 2013 in Central Massachusetts. As we were deliberating over these, we unanimously agreed on the top story; the rest of this list was open to debate, but the impact of each event was clear.
(1) Tim Murray resigns as lieutenant governor to become head of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce
About two years ago, Tim Murray had been seen by many as the next governor of Massachusetts. But after a controversial automobile crash on Interstate 190, along with his political ties to disgraced former Chelsea Housing Authority Executive Director Michael McLaughlin, Murray took himself out of the 2014 race for governor in January. (Murray said he never asked McLaughlin to solicit campaign funds, but accepted responsibility for failing to properly oversee and monitor fundraising activity. He paid a $10,000 fine; his campaign paid an additional $70,000 to the state.)
Four months later, Murray took himself out of politics, resigning as lieutenant governor to return home as president and CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, succeeding the retiring Richard Kennedy.
In less than seven months, the former Worcester mayor has emerged as a high-profile advocate for business interests in and around the city. Within weeks of his arrival, Murray launched a business development fund, raising close to its $1.2-million goal in less than three months. The chamber also called on the city to support a state program that gives tax incentives to developers who renovate old buildings into housing, arguing the program would boost business.
With City Manager Michael O’Brien and Chief Development Officer Tim McGourthy about to leave City Hall for other jobs, Murray will open 2014 as the most prominent business advocate in and around the city.
(2) UMass Memorial Health Care begins layoffs following a $57-million operating loss, months after nurses almost go out on strike
Health care reform is putting pressure on the organizations that provide care, and UMass Memorial Health Care, the largest employer in Central Massachusetts, felt that pressure in 2013, ending its fiscal year with a $57-million operating loss, which led to layoffs earlier this month of some 40 non-medical staff within the three-campus medical center in Worcester — with more to come.
On the clinical side, though, UMass said during the summer that it was looking to hire about 80 full-time-equivalent nurses into early 2014, to meet its contact obligations with nurses within the medical center system. This followed a year of sparring with the nurses’ union over staffing, which came within hours of a one-day walkout by nurses in May before nurses and management reached agreement on a new, three-year labor contract.
(3) Milford puts the 'no' in casino; Leominster awaits answer on slots parlor proposal
Tracking the movements of casino developers around Massachusetts in 2013 was like watching the path of a die on a craps table. Cordish Cos. of Baltimore found a willing partner in Leominster after three other communities — including Boxborough — said no to siting a slots parlor. And Mass Gaming and Entertainment, which also sought the lone slots license authorized under the state’s 2011 gambling-expansion law, came up empty after it couldn’t reach a host community agreement with Worcester, then pulled out after facing probable defeat at the ballot box in Millbury.
Meanwhile, the owners of the Foxwoods resort casino in Connecticut took over the resort casino proposal for Milford from David Nunes’s Crossroads Massachusetts, but came up empty in November when voters in that town resoundingly rejected the $1-billion proposal. That, plus an earlier vote in Palmer that narrowly rejected a proposal by the owners of Mohegan Sun, closed the door to the possibility of a resort casino in or near Central Massachusetts.
The Leominster proposal is competing against others from Plainville and Raynham for the slots license. The winner is expected to be announced within weeks.
(4) Jabil Circuit buys Nypro, which then announces plans to add 265 jobs in Clinton and Devens
In a capital-intensive industry such as manufacturing, Clinton-based Nypro needed money it couldn’t get and capabilities that customers wanted but that the manufacturer of precision plastics products didn’t have.
For that reason, the company agreed in February to be acquired by Jabil Circuit of St. Petersburg, Fla., for $665 million. Jabil is a better-heeled manufacturer that is among the Fortune 200, and one of Fortune’s most admired companies. “I think Jabil is one of the best-run companies” in Nypro’s market space, president and CEO Ted Lapres said in February, “and I know them all.”
It seems like the best of marriages: Nypro got the capital and global reach that Jabil brought, while Jabil gained a pre-established foothold in the health care and consumer packaging markets, and more depth for its consumer electronics business.
And the deal helped Nypro grow in Central Massachusetts. Not long after the acquisition was announced (it was completed in July), Nypro announced it was adding 100 jobs at its Clinton headquarters. And in November, the company signed a lease for 205,000 square feet of space in Devens that will be home to 165 new jobs.
(5) Woo Blue! JetBlue comes to Worcester, restoring commercial jet service to the city after a 20-month hiatus
Located within a 75-minute drive of four larger, busier airports, Worcester Regional Airport is not only stuck between rocks and hard places; it also suffers from a tough, high-elevation locale and the lack of a major road connecting the airport to an interstate highway.
It saw a succession of commercial passenger carriers over the last 15 years until March 2012, when discount carrier DirectAir ceased operations. What followed were 20 months of silence, save for small, private aircraft. But MassPort, which took over the airport in 2010, successfully lobbied JetBlue — already entrenched at Logan International Airport — to come to Worcester, and it launched daily service in November to Orlando and Fort Lauderdale.
The flights are off to a good start, MassPort CEO Thomas Glynn told a Worcester audience recently, although foggy conditions — long an issue at the airport — led a few flights to be diverted to Boston. But MassPort hopes to partially ease fog-induced diversions, delays and cancellations by installing a $32-million, state-of-the-art landing system in the next five years, Glynn said.
Read more
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments