By Bill Archambeault
Journal Staff
A who’s who list of developers has been invited to a Seaport Hotel luncheon on Monday to discuss… Fall River?
The reception will cost several thousand dollars, but it will be money well spent if local officials and business leaders can convince developers to invest in the southeastern Massachusetts city of roughly 93,000 people.
During the recent, unprecedented real estate boom, cities and regions that have lagged behind the rest of the state saw the opportunity to offer an alternative to the no-choice, high-price Boston, Cambridge and suburban markets.
Now that the economy is slowing to a limp, the need to lure development dollars-and jobs- has become even more crucial. The Fall River lunch will eat up about a tenth of the $75,000 budget of the Fall River Office of Economic Development, a private nonprofit organization created in 1978, said Kenneth Fiola Jr., executive vice president.
“I’m not worried about competing with other cities or states,” Fiola said. “The biggest hurdle we have to overcome is getting in the game. Once we get in the game, we can compete with anybody. We’re just starting to get on the radar screen of some of these developers.”
The group, which markets the city’s tax incentive opportunities, says it has provided more than $46 million in direct lending to nearly 400 businesses that created more than 9,000 jobs.
Fall River has already seen some success from the city’s efforts to diversify its economic base, Fiola said, with TJX Cos. Inc. of Framingham opening a 300,000 square-foot distribution facility last summer, Mainstreet Textiles’ completion of a 565,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, the expansion of the Traveler’s Insurance Co.’s local operation from 200 employees to 350and a deal with Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. of White Plains, N.Y., for an inbound call reservation center.
Also, the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth plans to open a 60,000-square-foot Advanced Technology and Manufacturing Center on a 27-acre site, and Roger Williams University of Bristol, R.I., is opening a metropolitan college downtown in early 2002 for more than 400 students.
The areas south of Greater Boston, in general, did not enjoy the recent development boom that the North Shore and MetroWest regions did, and Fiola acknowledges that being tucked away in the state’s southeast corner has hindered the area’s development.
But the extension of commuter rail, which is being targeted for 2004, he said, would go a long way toward removing the location problem.
“I think it’s going to be the smart companies that invest ahead of the curve,” Fiola said.
Fiola also sits on the board for the South Coast Development Partnership; a North Dartmouth based group of 15 communities, including Dartmouth, Fall River and New Bedford.
Half of the SouthCoast’s $500,000 budget comes from a state grant, and has paid for a marketing effort that has yielded more than 100 inquiries and a couple dozen bona fide leads, said executive director Paul Vigeant.
“The downtown and recession only works to our advantage by focusing on the cost advantages of being in this region,” he said.
Chelsea, another city that had languished for years, has undergone an economic renewal that includes office space and hotels. The city is now laying the foundation for the development of it’s waterfront along Chelsea Creek, though city manager Jay Ash doesn’t expect much to happen until the next development cycle kicks in. But with the help of the Boston Harbor Association, the groundwork is being laid now with free public cruises along Chelsea Creek on My 10 and June 9, a walking tour on May 30 and a forum on the morning of May 31.
“We’re looking for decision-makers and influential people from the area to take notice that Chelsea has a waterfront, “ Ash said.
“Burlington is also launching a promotional effort, taking to the web for the first time to market a development project that involves a complicated, four-party land swap.
The site was launched recently in anticipation of a town meeting next month, where the deal must be voted on.
Gary Gianino, a selectman who has been working on the deal for two years, said he is pleased with the response to the web page, www.burlingtonlandswap.com, which was suggested by one of the developers. Gianino says he would use a dedicated web site again.
“It’s a very complicated transaction, and the more people we can make the project available to on an informational basis, the better,” Gianino said.
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