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Marketing efforts and attention to zoning and permitting are key elements for a community to attract development, according to panelists of an Emerging Issues Forum on economic development held during the MMA Annual Meeting on Jan. 23.
“Just cutting your tax rate is not the best way to boost your economy,” said Barry Bluestone, director of the Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University, who moderated the session.
A city or town’s effort to market itself is much more important, he said.
That was a theme shared by panelist Carmine Tomas, general counsel with Retail Management and Development Inc., a real estate development company affiliated with the Market Basket supermarket chain. He added that a timely permitting process and clear, appropriate zoning are elements Market Basket looks for when seeking to open a new store.
“Is it a square peg in a round hole type of development, with half of it in a floodplain?” Tomas said. “Is it part commercial and part industrial and doesn’t know what it is?”
Market Basket also considers quality-of-life issues, such as the performance of the community’s schools, crime rate, civic amenities, and public transportation, he said.
“Don’t underestimate these factors in generating economic development in your community,” Tomas said.
Expedited permitting is crucial, he said. Other advisable steps include doing a thorough evaluation of the community’s infrastructure.
“It’s up to you guys to really capitalize on this,” Tomas told local officials. “If you’re minding the store and getting education in shape, and you’re focused on public safety and amenities … you’ll be fine.”
Another panelist, Anne Columbia, the head advisor for Global Real Estate at TripAdvisor, described why the travel-planning business chose Needham for its new campus once the company had outgrown its space in Cambridge.
Columbia said the presence of the billion-dollar company, which is projected to grow to 2,200 employees within five years, should spur significant economic activity throughout the area.
In addition to access to Route 128, TripAdvisor was attracted to the youthful population in the Needham area, with many people under 30. (Another possible factor, Columbia said, is that senior managers at the company already lived in the area.)
The third panelist, Anthony Sapienza, is the president and chief executive of JA Apparel Corp., a men’s clothing company based in New Bedford. Sapienza cited two reasons why he chose to keep the manufacturing operation in Massachusetts, rather than relocating to somewhere with lower labor costs. The first involved the brand name, and the second concerned the skills and experience of his workforce.
“The lesson for municipal folks, it seems to me, is this: You have to know your company,” he said. “The brand decision that we made was very important to the product.”
By going overseas, the company could have gained market share, Sapienza said, “but it never would have had the same panache as it does now” by being an American company.