All Articles from Editorial -Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council

Articles from Editorial

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1. Eastman Chemical shows it believes in potential of Western Massachusetts (Editorial)
  
  Explore From the EDC Apr 2 2021
  
  Any business that undertakes a major expansion in the midst of a global pandemic must surely be confident it will garner a return on its investment. It is also an indicator that the business believes in its community, convinced the outlook wherever they are located is bright and positive. The news last week that Eastman Chemical is investing $25 million to upgrade and expand production at its plant in Springfield should reverberate all across Western Massachusetts. It’s a positive sign for the entire region.
  
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  Mentions: Springfield Solutia, Inc.
2. Tourist Economy Is Coming Back
  
  Explore BusinessWest Mar 31 2021 Tourism
  
  Every sector of the economy, and every business, large or small, has been impacted by this global pandemic. But this region’s large and important hospitality and tourism sector has easily been the hardest-hit. The hotels, restaurants, tourists attractions, event venues, and cultural institutions have been pummeled by this crisis. Some have not survived; those that have are battered and bruised, and that goes for small mom-and-pop operations, the $1 billion MGM Springfield resort casino, and everything in between.
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3. MGM Must Get Back on the Ramp
  
  Explore BusinessWest Mar 15 2021 Tourism
  
  When everyone gathered on Main Street that hot August day back in 2018 to mark the opening of MGM Springfield, no one really knew what to expect or what the future would bring. Certainly, no one could have predicted what the scene would be like two and half years later. Indeed, the COVID-19 pandemic took a resort casino that was ‘ramping up’ — that’s the phrase we kept hearing over and again from past and present leaders — and knocked it completely off the ramp. The casino was shuttered for several months, and when it reopened, it was only at a ...
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  Mentions: Springfield
4. The Year of the Entrepreneur
  
  Explore BusinessWest Jan 18 2021 Entrepreneurship
  
  Starting in 1996, ˆ has, at the start of each year, presented something we call the Top Entrepreneur award. We do this to pay homage to a long — as in three centuries long — tradition of entrepreneurship in Western Mass., and to recognize companies, institutions, and individuals who are carrying on that tradition today. Over the years, the winners have included traditional entrepreneurs — those leading tech companies, multi-faceted corporations, and some family-owned businesses that have been part of the landscape for decades, if not a century or more — and also some non-traditional entrepreneurs — a college president and a hospital CEO, for example.
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5. Supporting Entrepreneurs Is Critical
  
  Explore BusinessWest Sep 28 2020 Entrepreneurship
  
  Over the years, we’ve written a number of times about the importance of promoting entrepreneurship and mentoring those trying to start and grow their own businesses. This component of economic development, one that is often overlooked amid efforts to attract large businesses, open new industrial parks, and grow new business sectors like biotech, is vital because small businesses have always been the key to the growth and vitality of individual communities and regions like Western Mass.
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6. Small Businesses Need Support
  
  Explore BusinessWest Jul 31 2020 Retail
  
  The recent news that two small businesses located in the Shops at Marketplace in downtown Springfield — Serendipity and Alchemy Nail Bar — will be closing permanently due to a sharp decline in business from the pandemic provides more direct evidence of the damage being done to the business community from this crisis. A number of small businesses have already closed over the past four and a half months, and those numbers will surely rise as the pandemic continues to keep people in their homes. Many of these closings are seemingly unavoidable — they involve businesses, such as event venues, bars, and restaurants ...
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  Mentions: Springfield
7. An Opportunity for Western Mass.
  
  Explore BusinessWest Feb 3 2020
  
  We’re not sure just how the people of this region should take this, but apparently Western Mass. is finally getting some attention. That’s attention as in … things are soooo bad in and around Boston when it comes to congestion, traffic, and the sky-high cost of housing (and living in general) that some people are thinking about maybe — dare we say it — thinking about possibly giving this area a look. That’s what we mean by attention. It seems that, as officials and residents alike ask out loud about possible solutions to the worsening situation in Boston, Western Mass ...
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8. Colorful Path to Economic Development
  
  Explore BusinessWest Jun 24 2019
  
  We’ve written on many occasions in the past about how the phrase ‘economic development’ means much more than trying to lure an Amazon — or an MGM Springfield, for that matter — to your town or filling a business park with distribution companies. Indeed, this kind of work extends to such realms as workforce development, improving public education, public safety, infrastructure, marketing of a given region, and promotion of arts and culture. And, sometimes, economic development is art itself.
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  Mentions: Springfield
9. It’s a New Era for AIM
  
  Explore BusinessWest May 24 2019
  
  As the Roman philosopher Seneca observed, “omni fine initium novum,” or, “every new beginning comes from the end of another.” As the Associated Industries of Massachusetts prepares to write a new and exciting chapter in its distinguished history, I am reminded at every moment of the wisdom, generosity, and quiet determination with which my predecessor, Rick Lord, has paved the road before me. Rick never lost sight of where he came from, and he never forgot that trust and respect are the ultimate currency of public policy and service.
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  Mentions: Associated Industries of Massachusetts Rick Lord Rick Sullivan
10. The Promise of Manufacturing Jobs
  
  Explore BusinessWest Oct 29 2018 Manufacturing
  
  t’s certainly nothing new. Workforce issues have long been a stern challenge for this region’s manufacturers, and especially its precision machine shops. Companies have long struggled to not only gain the attention of young people and their parents, but also convince them that manufacturing has a solid future in this region and is something they should be part of. But this problem is reaching what might be called a critical stage. Indeed, a recent survey of about 40 area precision manufacturers revealed that, at the rate they’re growing — and the rate machinists currently on the floor are ...
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  Mentions: MassDevelopment Massachusetts Technology Collaborative Springfield Technical Community College
11. Exceeding Their Entrepreneurial Goals
  
  Explore BusinessWest Jan 22 2018
  
  Over the past 22 years, BusinessWest has had a number of intriguing recipients of its Top Entrepreneur award. Many would fall in the category of ‘traditional’ when it comes to entrepreneurs, including last year’s honoree, Paul Kozub, creator and president of V-One Vodka, and the 2015 recipients, the second and third generations of the D’Amour family, owners of Big Y supermarkets. But some honorees would definitely be considered non-traditional, or outside the box (there’s an entrepreneurial term). These would include former Springfield Technical Community College President Andrew Scibelli, who, among other things, created the Technology Park across ...
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  Mentions: Big Y Foods Springfield Technical Community College MassMutual Center
12. Amazon Bid: It’s Good Practice
  
  Explore BusinessWest Sep 18 2017 Business Development
  
  Richard Sullivan, president and CEO of the Economic Development Council of Western Mass., was no doubt channeling his inner Mavis — as in Mavis Wanczyk, winner last month of the largest single Powerball payout in history — when he told the local press, “you have to be in the game to win.” He was referring, of course, to a game with a different kind of huge payout — and one that also features astronomically long odds. That would be the contest to become home to Amazon’s second North American headquarters. The prize there is considerable — maybe 50,000 jobs over the next ...
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  Mentions: Springfield
13. Some Things We’d Like to See in 2017 - BusinessWest
  
  Explore BusinessWest Dec 28 2016 Entrepreneurship
  
  As we noted last issue, 2016 was, in many ways, and across the region, a year of progress. The economy didn’t grow by leaps and bounds — although the stock market certainly soared after the election — but that’s been the trend for roughly eight years now. Overall, there was notable movement of the needle in the right directions — on economic development, entrepreneurship, revitalization of downtown Springfield, progress in efforts to reinvent the so-called Gateway Cities, and much more. As the new year approaches, our basic hope is for essentially more of all of the above. Here, though, are some ...
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  Mentions: Springfield Economic Development Council of Western Massachusetts MGM
14. An Inspiring Public-private Partnership
  
  Explore BusinessWest Jul 21 2016
  
  There are a number of intriguing economic-development projects underway across the Pioneer Valley, but perhaps none more compelling — and for a number of reasons — than the initiative taking shape in a building in downtown Holyoke known as the Cubit. There, a public-private partnership on several levels has materialized, bringing to reality an endeavor that will create momentum in realms ranging from job creation to the revitalization of Holyoke’s central business district. The facility being created on the structure’s first and second floors is called the MGM Resorts HCC Center for Hospitality and Culinary Arts at Holyoke. That’s ...
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  Mentions: Holyoke Community College Springfield Holyoke
15. Jobs Will Be Top Local Story for 2016
  
  Explore BusinessWest Jan 14 2016
  
  The Springfield Regional Chamber of Commerce is pleased to be working with the EDC of Western Massachusetts and the Regional Employment Board of Hampden County, along with our community colleges and others, to help ensure that we not only have a trained workforce ready to fill these positions, but that we have enough of those trained in the workforce to fill them and other positions that might be vacated by those moving from existing employers.
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  Mentions: Regional Employment Board of Hampden County Inc. Springfield Economic Development Council of Western Massachusetts
16. Introducing the Class of 2012
  
  Explore BusinessWest Apr 24 2012
  
  With that, we introduce the Class of 2012, a diverse group that includes entrepreneurs, professionals, nonprofit managers, a state senator, and a police sergeant. The stories are all different, but the common denominator is that these young men and women possess that most important of qualities: leadership.
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