Marlborough TIF To Benefit Sepracor's Growth | Drugmaker lands local approval for finance package
The Marlborough City Council recently approved a $3.8 million tax increment financing agreement for Sepracor Inc.’s new buildings at its Waterford Street headquarters.
The TIF as passed will give the pharmaceutical company the tax break in exchange for the creation of 250 new jobs, according to Arthur Vigeant, president of the City Council.
Sepracor is headquartered on a 58-acre parcel at 84 Waterford Dr. Its original building is 192,000 square feet. Its second building, which is under construction, will total 143,000 square feet. The dimensions of its potential third building have not been made public. It has about 700 Massachusetts employees, the vast majority of which are in Marlborough, according to the company.
Consolidation Plans
Right now Sepracor has a number of leased spaces in Marlborough and those locations will be consolidated in the second building once it is finished, the company said.
Vigeant said Marlborough has approved several TIFs over the years, including ones for Ken’s Foods Inc. and Boston Scientific.
While Sepracor is not scheduled to begin construction on its third building until 2014, if it goes ahead in the next six years, that building will be 100 percent tax free each of those years, Vigeant said.
Tom Wellen, executive director of Marlborough 2010, a quasi-public economic development organization, said the point of a TIF is to attract more valuable tax-paying companies that will offer good jobs for workers.
“If you have 10 parcels or research space that could bring in $1.5 million in taxes and 300 jobs versus a warehouse that will bring in $200,000 in taxes and bring 20 jobs, which one would you want?” he said.
Wellen also said that a TIF is an economic tool that the city can use to bring in companies like Sepracor, which is world-class pharmaceutical research company.
“If a large, well-known pharmaceutical company locates somewhere, then others are going to gravitate to the same place; they cluster,” he said.
Sepracor’s second and third buildings will be collectively valued at about $47 million, Vigeant said, and the company will pay roughly $7 million in taxes instead of $10 million, thanks to the TIF.
“They have been a great employer, and it’s the type of business we want in Marlborough and in the state of Massachusetts,” he said. “Biotech and research and development are the wave of the future. That’s not to say we’re forgetting about the manufacturing and high tech industry that is out there, but I think the vast majority of new jobs are going to be in this new area.”
Mayor Nancy Stevens, who has seen four TIFs negotiated since she took office two years ago, has been a part of the process in three of those four agreements.
“For our city, it’s a very valuable tool. We want to make sure that businesses know we value their presence in the community. It also allows us to grow a commercial tax base that allows us to do a lot of things we wouldn’t otherwise be able to do,” she said, adding that it takes a part of the burden off the residential taxpayer.
By attracting companies like Sepracor, who Stevens said is a good corporate citizen, it also attracts employees that get involved in the city. “It makes for a great community.”
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