Governor Healey Announces $2M Boost for Pittsfield Tech Hub
PITTSFIELD, Mass.— Governor Maura Healey visited the Berkshire Innovation Center on Wednesday to see where millions in state funding will help build a tech hub for advanced optics.
On the same day, her administration announced a $2 million award to the BIC for its upcoming Advanced Manufacturing for Advanced Optics Lab. This is on top of $5 million from the MA Tech Hub designation and a total of $1 million from the city’s economic development funds.
"This is so inspiring to be at this site to look out at what was and to see how it's coming back to life in a new and even better form," Healey said, looking over at the former "moonscape" surface of Site 9 that is now greened over, a $10 million effort.
"…One thing that we've leaned into as an administration is innovation. It's been core to who we are."
An 8,000-square-foot addition is planned for the BIC to welcome a new company, Myrias Optics Inc. Myrias, a meta-optics producer, has a partnership with BIC tenant Electro Magnetic Applications for testing and simulation services, and the two companies will be able to work side by side once the expansion is complete.
Project funding has been closed with this award, and shovels will be in the ground in the fall. Myrias will bring up to 55 employees to Pittsfield with an average salary of $110,000.
Patrick Larkin, founder and director of the Innovation Institute, the economic development division of the MassTech Collaborative, said this was only possible through the Tech Hub program that has "really catalyzed communities."
"This region has captured advanced optics. It’s where they want to build an economy," he reported.
"There are 150 optics firms in the state. There are about 20 in the Pioneer Valley. You bring in Rochester, another 300, and we're building a real center of excellence here in optics that can really be a magnet for growth."
Healey emphasized that when she thinks about innovation, she doesn’t just consider the Eastern part of the state. Her administration has observed that once you start to build, others follow.
She visited the BIC more than three years ago at the beginning of her term and finds all of the movement on the property since then "so inspiring."
"One of the things I like to do is talk directly to founders, investors, scientists, researchers, and hear directly from them what they need," Healey said.
"In some places, it's housing, particularly the eastern part of the state; it's housing, and in other places, it's different things, quicker access to capital, and we talk about that a lot."
Together, the partners committed $11.6 million to the AMAO Lab and to expanding the BIC’s capabilities.
Mill Town Capital recently closed on 4.7 acres on the overhauled GE site once described as looking like the face of the moon, as well as some land across the street for a residential building for $200,000.
Mayor Peter Marchetti was glad to report that there is a potential housing project, as housing production is needed in Pittsfield and across Massachusetts.
"Here's a vision to take something that's been inoperable for more than 30 years and putting it back in place, but we couldn't do that without your support and the entire delegation," he said.
Pittsfield's Business Development Manager, Michael Coakley, explained that Site 9 was undevelopable for decades, and more than $10 million had to be raised to crack the concrete and green the site. This included state monies.
