BioTech Buzz: A Sign Of Good Things To Come?
Boston entrepreneur selects SWIP site in Worcester
City and regional planners, business advocates and local politicos have been touting Worcester's inherent value over Boston and its surrounding communities, especially when it comes to biotech space, for years now.
"Come take advantage of our more affordable housing!" they've cried.
"Expedited permitting? You got it!" they've exclaimed.
"Lab space? Have you seen Gateway Park?" they've asked, with a twinkle in their eye.
"If it's an educated workforce you need, take a stroll around any of our 13 colleges! Please?!"
Well, the message has finally gotten through.
If all goes according to plan, Pharmasphere, a company that specializes in growing plants needed for pharmaceutical development, currently operating out of an office in Boston, will open its first commercial operation in Worcester by early summer, according to Robert Hamlin, one of the company's co-founders.
Towing The Party Line
To listen to Hamlin tell it, you'd think he was a mouthpiece for the city's office of economic development.
"Today, even in tough economic times, the case for Worcester is even stronger," Hamlin said. "The rents in Boston are so high for office space, people are starting to look for alternatives. Worcester is an alternative, and not just for high tech or life sciences. [Worcester] can offer a very centralized, accessible, affordable option to Boston for a lot of different uses."
Hamlin, who was raised at Boston's doorstep in Brookline, said he considered sites in other states, including upstate New York and even Arkansas, but none of the places he looked at had the kind of skilled labor pool he was looking to draw upon.
Until he came to Worcester.
Hamlin said he is impressed by the biotechnology training programs offered at Worcester Polytechnic, Clark University, and various community colleges, and is looking forward to establishing working relationships with those schools.
The established workforce in the region will only be augmented when the project connecting Insterstate-290 and Route 146 is completed, he said, allowing companies like his to draw skilled workers from both Rhode Island and Connecticut. He said the business would employ around 40 people, including skilled botanists and lab technicians, which Hamlin hopes to recruit from the Worcester area.
"With a biotech company like mine, if you can't get the staff you need, it won't work," Hamlin said. "That staff is here. And we can attract other staff here too. If we can show off the affordable housing, we can hire them."
Working with the city's office of economic development, Hamlin will soon take ownership of a blighted plot of land at 49 Canterbury St., where he plans to build a more than 50,000-square-foot "warehouse-type" building on a brownfield site, for "$5 million-ish," he said.
Inside the warehouse, Pharmashpere will grow plants like the Madagascar Rosy Periwinkle, which secretes an anti-cancer agent. The plants will grow in specially constructed spheres, with a light source in the middle, in stacks several stories high. Growing the plants in this way allows Pharmasphere to accelerate their growth and maturity, Hamlin said.
Pharmasphere is slated to become the first tenant in the city's planned South Worcester Industrial Park, which has been on the minds, and the books, of city planners for more than a decade.
A No-Brainer
Hamlin said he is undeterred by the troubled environmental past of the Canterbury St. site, citing the excellent value of the parcel compared to a nearby brownfields site he considered that was not vacant and would have required much more extensive, and costly, remediation.
The total environmental damage to the site has yet to be determined, Hamlin said, but his company took steps to limit the risk involved in buying the parcel. If remediation costs are less than $250,000, he will pay the city $25,000 for the parcel. If the costs are more than $250,000, he will pay only $1.
If the site is badly contaminated, it may be necessary to build his facility on pilings instead of on a slab like he hopes. Still, Hamlin said he is certain the site presents a less expensive alternative to building a similar building in or around Boston or thoroughly renovating an existing structure to FDA standards.
"The more we thought about it, very rapidly this became something of a no-brainer," Hamlin said of his move to Worcester and his site selection. "Hopefully we can be a catalyst for others to do the same."
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