Brockton is recognized as a desirable location for innovators, entrepreneurs and businesses - by Michael Gallerani

Michael Gallerani - Brockton 21st Century Corp.

In recent months our ads for Brockton have featured the slogan “Opportunity Lives Here”. Brockton is a “Gateway City” and is the seventh largest city in the Commonwealth. As a Gateway City, Brockton is recognized for its distinctive ability to be a desirable location for innovators, entrepreneurs, and businesses as well as being a place where people have choices of where to live. Opportunity does in fact live here in so many forms.

During the last 24 months Brockton has been home to major investment, business expansion, and planning. The following are but a few of how Brockton is moving forward.

Along Main St., in the heart of the city, the Enterprise Block project is a vibrant, mixed-use development that has brought back to life a significant city block and its street edges.  Within walking distance of the commuter rail station (and a 30 minute commute to South Station) Trinity Financial has created a transit-oriented development that is a cornerstone of the new downtown. The 113 residential units of project’s Phase One are filled and the selection of tenants for the commercial spaces is ongoing. The goal is to bring a restaurant into the mix that will be one of the city’s new anchors for both daytime and evening dining and entertainment as well as set the tone for significant development in and around the area.

Brockton’s Downtown is currently the subject of a major parking and development studies and design projects that are looking at past studies, and conducting focus group and planning workshops with community leaders, decision makers and residents, with the intent of making this important area a place for people to live and shop, dine and enjoy the city and all its offerings.

Beyond the Downtown, opportunity awaits as the Brockton 21st Century Corp. in partnership with the Brockton Redevelopment Authority has moved forward with a traditional Main Streets Program. Modeled after the very successful Boston Main Streets, the first area to be addressed is the Campello neighborhood. The area is within a comfortable walking distance to the commuter rail and is a live and work neighborhood. Currently concepts and ideas are being brought forward with the intent of bringing new investment and a new look to the commercial area. Sidewalks, parking areas, lighting, street furniture, facades, and signage are part of the planning mix. Technical assistance, entrepreneurial training, access to capital, and organization are elements of the business assistance program.

Brockton mayor Bill Carpenter and lieutenant governor Karyn Polito at the new City Hall Plaza ribbon cutting.

During the coming months the Massachusetts Gaming Commission will make a decision with regard to the granting of the State’s third casino license. Brockton is the host community for the lone application that is pending. The proposal submitted by Mass Gaming and Entertainment calls for a casino resort that includes a full casino, hotel, restaurants, and meeting space on the Brockton Fairgrounds property. Campanelli Stadium, a 4500 seat minor league baseball facility and the Shaw’s Center (meeting, conference and event venue) is adjacent to the Fairgrounds. The casino, stadium and conference center would form the nucleus for a new entertainment/tourism district.

Brockton’s history as the home to countless shoe manufacturers is a vital chapter in the Massachusetts manufacturing story. Brockton has evolved to a modern-day diversity of manufacturers. Today Brockton is home to food producers and distributors such as Concord Foods, Cindy’s Kitchen (salad dressing, sauces and dips), Washburn Candy, Uno Foods, Spence & Co. (seafood), Kinnealey & Co. (meats), Cape Cod Café (pizza), Boston Fresh, and Superior Bakery. Other manufacturers include WoodCraft (millwork), and Evans Machine, and will soon be joined by D. W. Clark.

On the health care side Brockton is home to Signature Healthcare’s Brockton Hospital and Good Samaritan Medical Center.

Brockton is home to Massasoit Community College and the Brockton Area Workforce Investment Board, both of which are active participants in training the workforce that make local companies go.

Businesses of all types have been established and grown in this city of 93,000 people. The opportunities are limited only by what an investor, innovator, inventor, entrepreneur, developer or dreamer can imagine.

Michael Gallerani is the executive director of the Brockton 21st Century Corp., Brockton, Mass.