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A panel at Berkshire Community College on Monday explained some of the partnerships and opportunities being mined for the center.

Local Manufacturers Will Lead New Berkshire Innovation Center

By Joe DurwinPittsfield Correspondent
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Mayor Daniel Bianchi reveals some of the background work that's been occurring to bring the innovation center to fruition.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Mayor Daniel Bianchi believes the long awaited $9.7 million Berkshire Innovation Center at William Stanley Business Park will be "a game changer" for Pittsfield and the surrounding region.
 
At a roundtable press conference at Berkshire Community College on Monday, Bianchi and a coterie of officials revealed more information about the center, which is projected to open its doors in less than two years.
 
Heavyweight local manufacturing companies General Dynamics, SABIC and Crane & Co. will play major roles in the member-based cooperative, which is currently in the process of incorporation and application for status as a 501(c)3 charitable institution.
 
Other companies include Apex Resource Technologies, Synoco Plastics, Cavallero Plastics, Boyd Technologies, Intertech, Onyx Specialty Papers, and Berkshire Steel & Manufacturing, as well as many regional educational institutions such as State University of New York's College of Nanoscience, Albany (N.Y.) Medical College, MassMEDIC, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Lowell, Berkshire Community College, McCann Technical School, Berkshire Community College, and Massachusetts College of LIberal Arts.. 
 
In total, 20 institutions have sent letters of intent, about 70-80 percent of the eventual membership that will be needed to sustain the the facility in the long term, which is anticipating a revenue of around half-million dollars a year through a combination of streams including tiered membership, usage and rental fees on equipment, as well as those for training, along with other forms of sponsorship from major regional players who might not be directly involved in the advanced manufacturing areas.
 
"We have a broad and very strong interest in this," said Bianchi.
 
Susan Carmel, Pittsfield's director of finance, will represent city government on the board of directors as treasurer for the new collective nonprofit.  Board members have already been put forth from most partner companies, and they are expected to hold their first meeting at an sometime in September.  
 
"We have a pretty good cross section of our partnership with education and research institutions and our private-sector customers," said Rod Jane, president of New England Expansion Strategies, a consultant who conducted the feasibility study for the center and is expected to have an ongoing consulting role as the organizational framework is established.
 
Over the 24-month period it will take to design and build the BIC, its board and eventual paid employees will need to be working on planning the administration and all of the programming at the center based on the needs of its membership.
 
While the nearly $10 million facility will be paid for out of the state allocation recently awarded by the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, this funding, which will come in pieces, is only for capital expenses. Some $250,000 is being sought from the city of Pittsfield for initial soft costs of setting up and establishing the programs at the center, to be leveraged to match additional state funding.
 
The MLSC grant includes $7.725 million for design and construction of the approximately 20,000 square foot center, and another $2 million for high tech equipment. These tools, such as precision analysis and microscopy, and rapid 3D prototype printing, are crucial for expanding productivity for smaller companies that cannot afford to invest in purchasing such equipment and would benefit from rental usage, according to Jane.
 
Other R&D resources will include clean rooms, a wet lab and a "state of the art" video conferencing area. The center will also be the site of advanced training tailored to the needs of the companies in the area.
 
Jane said the center will also offer new "educational connectivity" and "collaborative research partnerships" currently lacking in the region.  
 
The Berkshire Innovation Center will offer technical and equipment resources for small manufacturers and collaborative opportunities for companies of all sizes.
"To the extent that we have all these manufacturers in the area, in most cases they were not connected to these research institutions that are only an hour outside of Pittsfield," the consultant explained  "This center will provide a venue and forum to get interactions going with these institutions."
 
The Berkshire Innovation Center began conceptually several years ago as the Berkshire Life Sciences Center, and efforts were undertaken in 2008 by state Sen. Benjamin Downing and former state Rep. Christopher Speranzo to earmark $6.5 million in funds for an amorphous theoretical site geared toward tapping into the biotech growth in the eastern part of the state. 
 
Since that time, the vision for the center has shifted, particularly since last summer, and primarily in result of the information gathered in a two-phase, $119,000 study by NEES, and is now based more on potentiating the growth of companies and manufacturing strains already present in the Berkshire economy.  
 
"It's going to give access to those small companies in the region who just need that help to get to the next level," said Bianchi.  "What's the best way to expand your work base? It's supporting those small and medium-sized companies who have already shown a track record of success."
 
"Our thinking the whole time was that we wanted to be flexible and to make sure that this was a grant that would support the life sciences as they and as they can be in the Berkshires," explained Downing.
 
"We know that because of our strengths in Massachusetts, and because of our education and innovation, and the investments that we've made in infrastructure across the state, that we have an opportunity to leverage to do what I think we all would agree is the most important thing: to create jobs and opportunity in every region of the state, that are good paying and are going to pay dividends for years to come," he continued.
 
In the Berkshires, that biotech sector is still in its "nascent stage" according to Jane, and tends to consist of business in the supply side of the kind of life sciences manufacturing going on farther east. Connecting some of those companies with larger research institutions and with access to the various facilities and equipment is key to the center's mission.
 
Pittsfield state Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier hailed the center as a result of effective partnership over a number of years between local and state government along with private business and academia.  
 
"Everybody working together is what makes things successful," said Farley-Bouvier. "This is for the long term good of Berkshire County, and I can't think of a better success story."
 
Bianchi referenced the seemingly long lull period between the original planning and the recent traction on the project, suggesting that some of the criticism over slow progress in the Pittsfield Economic Development Authority's establishment of a business park on the former GE properties may have lead to a veering away from emphasis on manufacturing.
 
"The focus had sort of shifted, and the board was looking at other avenues," according to Bianchi, who said getting back to manufacturing and life sciences had been a priority for him upon appointing himself to the board of PEDA shortly after being elected.
 
Joining the board of the quasi-public body that controls the business park was a point of contention in Bianchi's 2011 campaign for mayor, with Bianchi identifying PEDA as a "top priority" for his administration. In addition to his own appointment to the board in early 2012, he also initiated a process of changing the Legislature's regulations on that body to expand the maximum board members from seven to 11, appointing five new members to join the five previously appointed by Mayor James Ruberto.  
 
For much of that year and a half period, PEDA was under ongoing criticism from both the public and City Council over a proposed deal with Waterstone Development to bring a retail superstore to one of the more challenging sites of the business park. Bianchi made known his opposition to the concept of retail at William Stanley since his first week in office, and following subsequent meetings with the MLSC, in spring 2012 PEDA began to refocus its marketing efforts more squarely on the life sciences arena. It also developed working subcommittees and a comprehensive working budget for the first time in 14 years of operation.  
 
Over the course of the past year, William Mulholland, director of economic development at BCC, worked closely with NEES in the analysis that lead to the re-envisioned "Berkshire Innovation Center" proposal, which ultimately resulted in the $9.7 million award announced this May.
 
Colin Donnelly, senior coordinator for government and policy at the Massachusetts Life Science Center, said the board of the MLSC closely scrutinized the project to make sure "that the city was identifying the best means of creating a life sciences center."
 
"The board is tough, they're not a believer in 'if you build it, they will come,' they want to see a real need and engagement with the community," said Connelly. "We think this is a great project and we're very excited."

Tags: business park,   economic development,   GE,   industry & manufacturing,   life sciences,   PEDA,   

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EPA Lays Out Draft Plan for PCB Remediation in Pittsfield

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

Ward 4 Councilor James Conant requested the meeting be held at Herberg Middle School as his ward will be most affected. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — U.S. The Environmental Protection Agency and General Electric have a preliminary plan to remediate polychlorinated biphenyls from the city's Rest of River stretch by 2032.

"We're going to implement the remedy, move on, and in five years we can be done with the majority of the issues in Pittsfield," Project Manager Dean Tagliaferro said during a hearing on Wednesday.

"The goal is to restore the (Housatonic) river, make the river an asset. Right now, it's a liability."

The PCB-polluted "Rest of River" stretches nearly 125 miles from the confluence of the East and West Branches of the river in Pittsfield to the end of Reach 16 just before Long Island Sound in Connecticut.  The city's five-mile reach, 5A, goes from the confluence to the wastewater treatment plant and includes river channels, banks, backwaters, and 325 acres of floodplains.

The event was held at Herberg Middle School, as Ward 4 Councilor James Conant wanted to ensure that the residents who will be most affected by the cleanup didn't have to travel far.

Conant emphasized that "nothing is set in actual stone" and it will not be solidified for many months.

In February 2020, the Rest of River settlement agreement that outlines the continued cleanup was signed by the U.S. EPA, GE, the state, the city of Pittsfield, the towns of Lenox, Lee, Stockbridge, Great Barrington, and Sheffield, and other interested parties.

Remediation has been in progress since the 1970s, including 27 cleanups. The remedy settled in 2020 includes the removal of one million cubic yards of contaminated sediment and floodplain soils, an 89 percent reduction of downstream transport of PCBs, an upland disposal facility located near Woods Pond (which has been contested by Southern Berkshire residents) as well as offsite disposal, and the removal of two dams.

The estimated cost is about $576 million and will take about 13 years to complete once construction begins.

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