2013 In MetroWest: A Look Back At The Year In Business
Raymond C. Kubacki
President and CEO, Psychemedics Corp., Acton
From movements and expansions to the growing biotech sector, the pending loss of a large manufacturing operation and a resounding defeat of a casino proposal, here are the top five MetroWest business stories of the year.
MOVEMENTS ...
Among the positive economic developments for Marlborough, home to roughly 39,000, was global medical device-maker Boston Scientific Corp.'s (BSX) relocation of its corporate headquarters there.
The company, which has been Natick's second-largest commercial taxpayer, announced its plans in 2012 and began carrying them out in the spring. The move involves relocating employees from just off Route 9 in Natick to a LEED-certified building it purchased in 2004, located on Scientific Way, while a new building is being constructed on the Marlborough campus. The move is expected to be complete in the summer of 2014, about the same time the new building is ready, according to BSX.
When it was announced, CEO Mike Mahoney said the move was designed to fit with the company's strategic plans.
“Consolidating our Natick and Marlborough facilities is expected to foster greater collaboration and efficiency, benefiting our employees, our customers, and ultimately, the patients they treat,” Mahoney said in November 2012.
The 500,000-square-foot building BSX is leaving behind in Natick will be put to good use. The company sold it to neighboring MathWorks, which is renovating it to accommodate expansion, though terms of the sale were not disclosed. An adjacent warehouse building was also sold to be redeveloped as a package distribution facility for FedEx Corp.
... AND EXPANSIONS
Other notable MetroWest companies are increasing their footprints. MathWorks' plans for the former BSX facility include a pledge to create 600 jobs and invest $113 million to renovate the property, aided with a $3-million state tax credit. That's in addition to the expansion MathWorks recently completed at its Apple Hill Drive campus on Route 9. The $100-million project increased square footage from 400,000 to about 580,000, the company said.
In October, biotech giant Genzyme, based in Cambridge, announced it would increase its Framingham presence by building an $80-million processing facility next to its current manufacturing site. The facility will “significantly expand” the company's purification capacity to support growth, according to Genzyme. Fabrazyme, which treats a genetic disorder by helping to replace missing enzymes, will be processed at the new facility. This follows the opening of a new biologics manufacturing facility on the Framingham campus in 2011.
And Framingham-based TJX Cos., which once considered relocating its corporate headquarters to Marlborough, has announced plans to expand in Framingham. The parent of off-price retailers T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and Home Goods has proposed a 96,000-square-foot expansion of its offices on Cochituate Road, at a cost of $23 million. According to documents filed at town hall, the building would include space for employee training, a product development library, merchandise presentation and an employee fitness center.
The project, which is subject to review by the Framingham Planning Board, will help TJX, Framingham's largest taxpayer, meet the terms of its tax increment financing agreement, issued by the town in 2012 to keep TJX in town. The company agreed to spend $143 million on infrastructure improvements and create 225 new jobs in exchange for tax incentives.
BIOTECH STEPS UP …
Biotech is indeed the hot industry of the future in Massachusetts, and the accomplishments of some companies in MetroWest during 2013 helped create notable momentum to help move them — and the industry — forward.
For starters, Sunovion Pharmaceuticals of Marlborough won federal regulatory approval for a new drug to treat epileptic seizures. Earlier in the year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration allowed two new uses for the company's Latuda drug, which treats bipolar depression.
Meanwhile, as Boston Scientific (BSX) prepared to shift its headquarters from Natick to Marlborough, the company endured a rocky year in which it lost $168 million over the last four quarters, while switching chief financial officers and facing legal action over its transvaginal mesh devices and a contract it had with the inventor of the pacemaker. But on the bright side, BSX bought the electrophysiology business of New Jersey-based C.R. Bard. BSX said the deal could boost its capabilities in the fast-growing market for advanced electrophysiology procedures.
And there were other strong exhibitions of growth and expansion.
On the growth side, HeartWare International of Framingham, which makes technology to fight heart disease, added revenue and cut losses as sales of its HeartWare System pumps picked up. Also, Psychemedics Corp. of Acton, led by President and CEO Raymond Kubacki (pictured) hit sales records in its last two completed quarters. The maker of drug-detection tests said its growth is coming from several different segments. Meanwhile, PLC Systems of Milford, which focuses on technology for cardiac and vascular care, saw an 80-percent jump in revenue during the first nine months of 2013, propelled heavily by sales of its RenalGuard product, which prevents or reduces the onset of contrast-induced nephropathy, a severe form of hospital-acquired kidney injury in at-risk patients.
And then there's physical growth. Along with Genzyme's planned expansion in Framingham, PerkinElmer added 55 jobs to fill a new three-story addition in Hopkinton. Next door in Milford, SeraCare Life Sciences said it expanded its research and development facilities at its headquarters, driven by new manufacturing opportunities.
… INTEL — AT LEAST PART OF IT — STEPS OUT
In the 1980s, MetroWest served as the base of operations for two notable high-tech manufacturers: Digital Equipment Corp. and Data General. They're gone now, having become part of Hewlett-Packard and EMC, respectively. By the end of next year, another tech giant, Intel, will no longer have manufacturing operations at its Hudson plant. In September, the global semiconductor chip maker announced it will shut down that part of its operations, eliminating 700 jobs. (The non-manufacturing operations, which include the design center and development labs, and employ about 850, will remain.)
Ann Hurd, a spokeswoman for Intel, said the company needed more space to modernize its manufacturing processes in Hudson, but there was no room to expand. Since the company opened the Hudson site — formerly part of Digital Equipment's operations — it invested more than $2 billion in it.
Christopher Sandini, Hudson's interim executive assistant, told MetroWest495 Biz that the town would have accommodated expansion plans, and has provided infrastructure updates to support plant operations in the past. Intel also has an active tax increment finance deal (TIF) and has fulfilled TIF obligations, he said.
What will remain? The R&D work that will go into some of the company's most advanced, complex microprocessors, as well as embedded communications applications.
CLAMMING UP ON CASINOS
It seems that only voters in Plainville have an appetite for casinos, as the town is one of three — Raynham and Leominster are the others — that are vying for the sole slots parlor license called for in the 2011 gaming-expansion legislation. Beyond that, slots parlor proposals in Boxborough and Littleton never made it to the ballot.
But the loudest rejection of casino gambling came out of Milford last month, when voters resoundingly rejected a proposal pushed by the owners of the Foxwoods resort casino in Connecticut for a $1 billion complex near the junction of Interstate 495 and Route 16 that would have called for a 200,000-square-foot gaming floor, 500-room hotel, restaurants and shops.
The lopsided vote — by a margin of 65 percent to 35 percent — denied Milford a financial windfall that included up-front payments totaling $33 million and annual payments of $34 million, some of which the developers argued could reduce property taxes in the town of about 27,000 people. Foxwoods also said the casino would have created 3,500 permanent jobs and 3,000 construction jobs, with a commitment to filling those slots with people from Milford and surrounding towns. n
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