GE's Marlborough plan a boost to the city and Central Mass.
The recent announcement by GE Healthcare Life Sciences to move its headquarters to Marlborough is not just an unquestionable boost for that city and Central Massachusetts as a whole. It shows that when you've got a good thing going, people are more likely to cozy up to you.
That applies not only to Marlborough, which has been scoring some major business wins over the last two years; it also applies to the growing life sciences industry in Massachusetts.
Yet, with most of that investment concentrated in the Greater Boston area, GE's pending move proves that when the rich get richer, they can spread the wealth geographically. In this case, the sway of life science companies inside Route 128 has spread west, to MetroWest and Central Massachusetts.
“I think it's great,” said Kevin O'Sullivan, president and CEO of Worcester-based Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives, which promotes the growth of biomedical startups. “The price point is perfect (for GE). The space is there. I think it made sense for them.”
Yet, O'Sullivan foresees a ripple effect, with greater interest in Central Massachusetts as a destination point for life sciences and health care-related firms, notably at the Massachusetts Biotech Research Park in Worcester, and, by extension, at University of Massachusetts Medical School, which owns all five biotech buildings in the park.
Boost for UMass Medical research?
On the research side, UMass Medical can take on the same partnership roles that MIT and Harvard play for Boston-area biomedical companies, said Jim Leary, vice chancellor of community and government relations for the Worcester school. Research institutes and private companies can work together with a general exchange of ideas and resources, but also crucially — in translating research into commercial forms that can be brought to market, he added.
“One of the goals of our research is … to get therapies to patients,” Leary said. “You really have to have that seamless pipeline and it begins with the (National Institutes of Health) research.”
Many drugs and therapeutics have come to market through NIH research and clinical trials, then into the hands of a private company, he said. These relationships yield licensing agreements with companies, as well as additional resources for the companies and opportunities for academic researchers who want to bring their work to market.
“There definitely are advantages to having something that is essentially adjacent to the campus,” Leary said.
Meanwhile, Worcester Polytechnic Institute's Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center, which offers introductory and continuing-education training, also stands to gain.
“We are going to be looking at how we can tailor programs to GE and they are going to be looking for new employees,” said Kamal A. Rashid, the center's director. “And we will be more than happy to provide them with trained employees.”
And, focused training that's available at the center can help improve employees' efficiency while maintaining their certifications within the industry, Rashid added.
“The presence of these universities (provides) a very good source of employees for these companies,” he said. “They don't have to go far to get talented people. They know they can tap into this talent, but they know they can collaborate also.”
For GE, the siting decision came down to availability of real estate, especially laboratory space; access to younger talent through Bay State colleges and universities; and proximity to customers and potential customers, according to Eric Roman, general manager for research and applied markets with GE Healthcare Life Sciences.
What GE got was a 160,000-square-foot space — with room to grow — in the former Hewlett-Packard complex, in the middle of a very active development zone in Marlborough, the former Forest Park, which now carries the moniker Marlborough Hills. New Jersey-based Quest Diagnostics, which provides clinical laboratory services, recently moved into the same site, a little over a year after it acquired the clinical outreach laboratory arm of UMass Memorial Medical Center.
GE: Aiming for the long haul
“We're looking at a long-term play here,” Roman said.
The Marlborough site, which GE expects to open next spring, will employ more than 500, including at least 220 new hires. The division already has a manufacturing facility in Westborough, which will not be impacted by the move. However, GE's healthcare group operations in Marlborough, at the former Xcellerex Inc., which GE bought in 2012, will move to Marlborough Hills.
Globally, GE Healthcare Life Sciences is a $4-billion-a-year business with more than 11,500 employees.
While Marlborough will get the benefits of property tax revenue and a lot of economic spinoff for nearby businesses, officials based outside the city agree that the benefits extend well beyond it.
“We're all in this together,” O'Sullivan said.
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