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NEW BEDFORD — With a 50-50 infusion of soon-to-expire pandemic relief funds and capital from Vineyard Wind, the city is renovating the top floor of a late 19th-century building near downtown to serve as a “crash pad” for offshore wind and other maritime industries that need a flexible, temporary space as they work on local projects.
The new $3 million enterprise hub’s anchor tenant will be the New Bedford Ocean Cluster, which is modeled after organizations in Europe that connect established companies, start-ups and local businesses to attract investment and grow a local “blue economy.” Now, like those other clusters, New Bedford’s will have a permanent home, or “cluster house,” as it’s called in Iceland.
“As a marshaling port, we need to make sure that companies can set up here and do their thing as seamlessly as possible. They can get connected to the workforce,” said Mayor Jon Mitchell on Monday. “We’re looking to make New Bedford a place that’s really easy to do business.”
Jennifer Downing, executive director of the Ocean Cluster, said the six-year-old organization has fielded several requests from companies for office space in the city, and that this renovation will help address such demand.
She and Mitchell have visited such centers in Europe, and Mitchell said flexible leases in close proximity to other businesses help grow the local economy and sometimes create long-term jobs.
“We’ve talked about how can offshore wind make a permanent mark on New Bedford, how can we make sure that it’s not just this traveling circus that shows up and [is] gone again,” said Klaus Moeller, CEO of Vineyard Wind. “It’s not having meetings in bakeries or wherever we found in the past. It’s a permanent thing. It’s going to be this hub of ideas, innovation, business… that we really need to take this industry forward.”
The hub will be on the third floor of the existing Quest Center for Innovation, a business support center on Purchase Street — which is being rebranded as “The Quest.” The blueprint for the third floor shows spaces for about 14 companies, in addition to a large conference room.
The Ocean Cluster focuses on four pillars: offshore renewables, aquaculture, commercial fishing and processing, and innovation. With this new center, it aims to create a convening space that supports maritime businesses in all these sectors.
A few years ago, a cluster house, or Hús in Icelandic, was established in Portland, Maine, for the New England Ocean Cluster, though it focuses more heavily on fisheries, Downing said.
The $3 million renovation is tentatively scheduled to be complete by the summer. It will involve external updates to lighting and roofing, upgrades to the main lobby, and the installation of a large “Q” on the side of the building.
The center currently houses Groundwork, the city’s health department, DATMA, and NorthStar Learning Center on the lower floors. Those spaces will be unaffected. The city owns the property, but it is managed by the New Bedford Economic Development Council.
Email Anastasia E. Lennon at alennon@newbedfordlight.org.
Editor’s note: Tony Sapienza is a member of The New Bedford Light’s Board of Directors. The New Bedford Light’s newsroom is scrupulously independent. Only the editors decide what to cover and what to publish. Founders, funders and board members have no influence over editorial content.
Grift from enviro wind $$ and “covid relief$”, disgusting
So many cops and fireman were in on the Covid grift.
Better wind than brown goo.
Negative Andy what’s your proposal to grow New Bedford? The promises centervis,at least can attempt to get fishing aquaculture and windpower in a common space to talk to each other and Marshall city and Vinyard Wind resources to help. Close to the train also it may help to brwathe,some life into a section of the city that has been sleeping for a long time.You can wallow in negativity of the past or help shape the city’s future!
Good points George! This seems to me like a positive attempt at collaboration of those with some differences of perspective and old fashioned economic development initiatives. Nothing to lose here!
I’ve been to the Iceland Ocean Cluster a couple of times and there’s nothing like it. A real economic/employment engine!