WBDC to develop 500K sq. ft. Worcester biomanuacturing facility

Courtesy Photo Lt. Gov. Karen Polito made the announcement of a new 44 acre Friday afternoon.

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By Sam Bonacci

The Baker Administration has selected the Worcester Business Development Corp. to redevelop 44 acres of land on the former Worcester State Hospital Campus into a biomanufacturing facility that could employ up to 500 people.

The proposed 500,000 square feet of biotechnology facility space is expected to attract companies moving from the research sector to commercialization sector of biomanufacturing. At full capacity, the new site will have the potential to create more than 500 jobs.

"As the original developer of the biotech park, the WBDC has been fortunate to have developed strong partnerships with the state, the city of Worcester, and UMass Medical School throughout the park’s development. This next phase is a great opportunity to expand the park to now include biomanufacturing, a vision that the founders of the park had from the beginning,” Craig Blais, president & CEO of the Worcester Business Development Corporation, said in a statement.

The redevelopment of the land is part of the commonwealth’s ongoing Open for Business Initiative that seeks to redevelop underutilized state assets into productive pieces of our state economy. The development fits with the Baker Administration’s push to take “public domain land that has been lying fallow and useless and turning it into something useful and tax-bearing for our communities,” Kevin O’Sullivan, president of Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives, said in a statement.

The new facility will advance Massachusetts’ ability to manufacture and builds on the infrastructure of research and development that already exists in the state, said Travis McCready, president & CEO of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, in a statement.

The WBDC has completed other Worcester projects along the lines of the one announced Friday such as the Massachusetts Biotechnology Research Park, Gateway Park, and Centech Park.