Raytheon leaves rich legacy behind in Sudbury
Photo/Emily Micucci
Raytheon will close its Sudbury facility, inset, by the end of 2016. It opened in 1958. Most employees will be transferred to newer facility in Marlborough, shown here.
A company newsletter from 1970 shows the construction and completion of Sudbury’s Raytheon building, which broke ground in 1958 and was completed in 1960.
For the Town of Sudbury, the departure of one company in 2016 will be deeply felt.
Raytheon Company, the nearly 100-year-old defense contractor headquartered in Waltham, will officially cease operations in the town in the next year, 56 years after opening its Sudbury facility. According to company officials, radar development activities housed in Sudbury are being shifted to Raytheon's Marlborough facility for efficiency sake.
The booming city of Marlborough will enjoy yet another expansion of an existing corporate tenant. Raytheon's Marlborough facility is just a few miles west, also on Boston Post Road. The majority of employees, which totaled around 800 in Sudbury at the end of August, will be shifted to Marlborough, while some will be relocated to other Massachusetts locations. The move is expected to be complete by the end of 2016, according to Michael Doble, a company spokesman.
Raytheon officials declined a request for an interview.
“As part of our ongoing efforts to optimize facility utilization and realize cost savings that enhance affordability and competitiveness, we are closing Raytheon's Sudbury facility and will consolidate our radar development efforts into Raytheon's Marlborough location,” Doble said in a statement.
Doble said consolidating in Marlborough “will support the speed of innovation in naval radar and integrated sensors” for government customers.
To the moon
Ground broke on the Boston Post Road complex in 1958. Early on, Raytheon's Sudbury operations developed technology used in NASA's Apollo missions in the 1960s, perhaps most notably the Apollo Guidance Computer produced between 1963 and 1969, according to company materials. Designed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and developed and engineered at Raytheon in Sudbury, it guided the Apollo astronauts to the moon and back.
Over the years, projects at the Sudbury facility also included missile and rocket guidance; U.S. Navy shipboard systems; early warning radars and surveillance; and ground and satellite communications.
The facility also underwent multiple name changes over time, starting out when it opened in 1960 as the Surveillance and Sensors Center, and ending as the Raytheon Engineering Facility.
Filling the void
That leaves the building on Boston Post Road, or Route 20, in Sudbury up for grabs. Raytheon is marketing it for sale, and there have been rumblings that a housing developer is interested in purchasing the site, something that town officials and the company have said little about.
Sudbury Town Planner Jody Kablack told the MetroWest Daily News last month that a developer was in talks with Raytheon to develop the site, but in an interview with MetroWest495 Biz, Kablack didn't confirm that statement. However, plans to build an affordable housing development at the site were presented by developers National Development and Avalon Bay on Oct. 7, the MetroWest Daily News reported.
Earlier this year, the Sudbury Board of Selectmen made its wishes for the site known following a number of joint meetings with its planning board. This came after Raytheon made it known it intended to sell the site when the Sudbury closure was announced last summer.
In a public letter to Raytheon officials, the Board of Selectmen informed the company they'd examined the development potential for the site and suggested that the property is well-suited for mixed-use residential and retail development.
Selectmen: Affordable housing, please
The Sudbury selectmen made the agenda clear, stating that the town would like to see a project that “reflects the nature and character” of Sudbury, while also creating enough housing to reach the state's requirement that 10 percent of a community's housing meet affordability guidelines.
With an affordable housing gap of 240 units in the affluent community, the selectmen said a project that is developed entirely as affordable housing would assist the town with its goal of preventing “undesireable” 40B affordable housing projects that may circumvent town planning and zoning.
“It is our strong preference that any housing component be developed entirely as rental housing under a state-recognized subsidy program so that all units count towards this requirement. This will entail that no less than 25 percent of all units are affordable under the state's definition,” the selectmen wrote. They added that age-restricted housing, such as assisted-living facilities, would be welcome as they would minimize the impact on town services.
Doble, the Raytheon spokesman, did not comment on plans to sell the site.
Bob Haarde, a member of the Board of Selectmen, said the selectmen's vision is a mere suggestion.
“Raytheon, at the end of the day, can sell it to whoever they want,” Haarde said.
Haarde said a mixed-use development would require a zoning amendment for residential use, but if the company were to sell to another corporate user, the town would not get involved. He was dubious about the prospect of Raytheon finding another corporate user for the site, though he said it would certainly be beneficial. He estimated the town's tax base is about 95 percent residential. Raytheon is, by far, Sudbury's largest taxpayer, generating close to $600,000 in revenue per year for the town. The Route 20 site is one of the few in town that could accommodate a corporate tenant, Haarde said.
Local reaction
“We're very sorry to see Raytheon go. Hopefully whatever party buys that land will be as good a neighbor as Raytheon,” Haarde said.
After nearly 30 years working in the area, Marlborough Regional Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Susanne Morreale Leeber said she's become most familiar with the company's Waltham and Sudbury sites. Leeber attended the opening of the newer Marlborough facility about a dozen years ago. At the time, she said the company was producing gyroscopes used on ships that maintained satellite connections for constant surveillance.
Raytheon, which serves on the chamber board, had communicated with Leeber about plans to move to Marlborough in order to reduce overhead. Leeber admitted she was taken aback to hear Sudbury would be phased out.
“I was surprised that they were going to that,” Leeber said, adding that the move will have minimal impact to employees, most of whom will now be working just one town over. n
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