Patrick Stops At Gateway Park
PHOTO/BRANDON BUTLER
Gov. Deval Patrick visits with business leaders and academic officials at WPI's Gateway Park on Tuesday. From left to right, are: Paul Wengender, CEO of Blue Sky Biotech, WPI President Dennis Berkey, Gov. Deval Patrick.
Gov. Deval Patrick stopped by Worcester Polytechnic Institute's Gateway Park in Worcester Tuesday to tout his administration's $1 billion, decade-long commitment to the life sciences sector in the state.
While on a swing through Central Massachusetts Patrick met with business leaders and WPI officials to discuss the Gateway Park project.
"It's about growing opportunities in science and jobs and across the spectrum," Patrick said about the Life Sciences Center. "And it's working."
The Waltham-based Life Sciences Center is a quasi-public organization that has invested about $186 million in public funding to attract more than $800 million in private investments, Patrick said.
WPI received a $6.6 million grant from the Life Sciences Center to support Gateway Park's newest building, an 80,000-square-foot research and academic building that WPI officials hope to break ground on before the end of the year. WPI President Dennis Berkey said college officials are working to finalize a developer for the project. Danvers-based Kavanagh Advisory Group had signed a letter of intent to develop the project, but that agreement was allowed to expire, according to Jeffrey Solomon, WPI executive vice president and CFO.
Gateway Park's first new construction finished in 2007 with the completion of the WPI Life Sciences and Bioengineering Center, a 120,000-square-foot facility, which houses a handful of companies and academic research space.
Companies in that space were on hand to attest to their growth plans. Noah Beerman, president and CEO of RXi Pharmaceuticals, which one of the companies in the bioengineering center, told Patrick he hopes to hire five or six employees in the coming months.
Paul Wengender, CEO of Blue Sky Biotech Inc., said he hopes to move his company, which produces materials for biotechnology scientists, to the new Gateway Park building once it is constructed.
"We're running out of space," he said about his company's current facilities.
The new 80,000-square-foot, $36 million building is expected to create about 120 construction jobs and 140 permanent jobs.
Patrick's tour in Central Massachusetts also included a stop in Hopkinton where he met with town officials to discuss local solar installation projects. He also officially designated 35 Massachusetts cities and towns as so-called "Green Communities," which allows them to apply for grants from the government.
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