eClinicalWorks Lands TIF In Westborough
Officials in Westborough have negotiated the town's first-ever Tax Increment Financing plan (TIF), which will provide a more than $190,000 tax break to eClinicalWorks in exchange for the company keeping its headquarters in the MetroWest community.
The company announced last year that it had outgrown its offices in the Westborough Executive Park on Route 9 and needed a new location. After discussions with the Westborough Economic Development Committee, eClinicalWorks purchased a building at 2 Technology Dr. in the Westborough Technology Park, near the intersection of Route 9 and Interstate 495.
The company considered multiple other locations both inside and outside Massachusetts, according to Selectman Rod Jane, chairman of the Westborough Economic Development Committee.
To entice the company to keep its 400 jobs in town and to house the company's rapid expansion, the board approved the TIF plan earlier this month. It still must be approved by town meeting members this spring.
According to Jane, the decision by eClinicalWorks to stay in Westborough is part of a string of wins for the town in recent months.
More Moves
In addition to eClinicalWorks moving just two miles down Route 9 and staying in Westborough, BJ's Wholesale Club moved its corporate headquarters from a cramped five-building location in Natick to the former National Grid building on Route 9 in Westborough last year. That move brought 950 new workers into the town.
"It's great to be under one roof," said BJ's spokesperson Kelly McFalls.
Another company, A123 from Watertown, has also recently opened up shop in Westborough.
The lithium-ion battery producer has moved some jobs from its Hopkinton facility to its new 66,000-square-foot Westborough location. There are about 70 workers from A123 in Westborough and about 270 in Massachusetts. The company hopes to double the number of Massachusetts employees in the coming years throughout all of its locations.
Another company is moving to the town this year.
Columbia Tech, a division of Coughlin Cos. of Worcester, has begun filling a 60,000-square-foot manufacturing space the company recently began renting, which will bring about 60 new jobs to town.
As for eClinicalWorks, the company's TIF is based on the more than $14-million worth of investments the company is making to the 2 Technology Dr. building, which the company purchased for $4.6 million last year.
Jane said the TIF only applies to new taxes the company will generate at the facility.
In the first year of the TIF, the company will pay about $178,000 in property taxes and by the fifth year it will pay $233,000, according to Jane.
The company is also getting a break on its personal property taxes through the TIF, Jane said. Those taxes will increase from $81,000 in the first year of the TIF up to $140,000 in the fifth year.
Westborough qualified to hand out TIFs after being designated by the state as an Economic Target Area. About 200 of the state's 350 cities and towns are Economic Target Areas. The TIFs must be approved both locally and by the state.
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