The Pittsfield Economic Development Authority's marketing campaign is already generating leads.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Renewed marketing efforts have begun to yield new leads for the Pittsfield Economic Development Authority as it seeks to move forward developing William Stanley Business Park, including a planned life sciences center.

 

In addition to publicity campaigns aimed both locally and abroad, PEDA has in recent months launched several new websites, including williamstanleybp.com, www.pittsfieldeda.org, and the newly live pittsfieldlifesciences.com, specifically aimed at promoting this hoped-for future complex.

 

"The next thing on the radar screen is the life sciences," said George Whaling, who heads the PEDA board's marketing subcommittee. "We're ready to push hard."

 

The new life sciences site has generated one lead already, according to Executive Director Corydon Thurston, a life sciences company operating out of Hudson, N.Y., that has an interest in developing a new facility.  

 

"It has similar diagnostic testing processes to what Nuclea [Biotechnologies] is doing," though Thurston said it is not a direct competitor to the local firm, which opened offices in the PEDA headquarters this fall, "They dovetail nicely together."

 

Two more prospects attracted by the new Web marketing include a landscaping firm and a beverage warehouse operation, which are currently being screened in the hopes that there will be something more specific to report in the near future. PEDA has also begun to explore possibilities with the Chamberlain Group, a Great Barrington-based life sciences company  that produces anatomic medical models.

 

"We hope to get a meeting with them very shortly, to bring them to the table," said Thurston. 

 

Meanwhile, the proposed life sciences center, long heralded as a potential cornerstone for new industry growth at the former GE property, faces many obstacles. One such impediment is the fact that $6.5 million in state funds earmarked for this project in 2008 would likely only cover a portion of the cost of constructing the facility.  

 

"We fully recognize that the six and a half million probably won't buy us everything we would like to do," Thurston told the board. "Things have changed in the last three or four years, and a 20,000 square foot facility is probably going to run us more like $15 million bucks than six and a half."

 

To this end, PEDA hopes to be able to leverage considerable private support when it finally applies for the earmarked funds.  

 

"We're trying to determine the best way to get this business model created," said Thurston, who indicated he is following up on some possibilities for additional private backing.

 

Members of the board suggested that additional planning work needs to be undertaken quickly to have a better grasp of what the proposed building might be like and to thereby have a better idea of its potential cost, as just one of many steps necessary to eventually be in a position to attract tenancy.

 

"In today's environment, it's great to have pictures, but when businesses want to move, they want to move quickly," said Whaling, suggesting the PEDA agency may need to allocate some its budget on expediting this process.  "We were talking a lot about the same things we're talking about now, six months ago."

 

Board member Michael Matthews called it a difficult "chicken & egg scenario," and questioned whether other vacant commercial properties already in existence in the city might be considered as an option to "incubate" emerging opportunities for the eventual laboratory center.

 

"This building, even if we started today, is still a ways off," said Matthews  "You want to be able to strike while it's hot in this marketplace."