Middlesex 3 Coalition: Eileen Donoghue, City Manager, City of Lowell

What is the most exciting job/project/goal for your company/city or town in 2021? The most exciting project currently in construction is the $343 million, 623,000 s/f, Lowell High-School addition/renovation project. Upon completion in 2026, this state-of-the-art facility will provide high-school students with a 21^st century learning environment. The new renovated high-school will serve approximately 3,500 students.

What types of companies is your city or town looking to attract? Lowell is home to a healthy mix of well-established companies from high-tech (i.e. Kronos), biotech (i.e. Cirtec), to food manufacturing (i.e. Plenus Group). Lowell is also home to the MA Medical Device Development Center & Biotech Incubator at UMASS Lowell (M2D2) where dozens of medical device start-ups succeed and soon will be ready to grow their footprint outside of their incubator. We want to make sure that we’re in a position to support both start-ups graduating out of these incubators as well as more established companies to find the space they need to succeed in Lowell. We strive to be strategic on our business recruitment efforts and mindful of the existing industry clusters in the Greater Lowell/ Middlesex 3 Region. As part of our recruiting strategy, we will work in close collaboration with our regional economic development partners such as M3 and with our educational partners: UMASS Lowell and Middlesex Community College. We want to ensure that we are aligning our workforce with the skill-set needs of our employers. The pandemic has shifted where companies want to be located as Boston has become less attractive for office space. Lowell has become a favorable location for companies looking to relocate their headquarters or establish a satellite office outside of Boston. Lowell is centrally located to a highly skilled workforce, providing comparable urban lifestyle and amenities that a larger city typically offers.

What would you tell a company looking to move to the M3 region? M3 region has a highly-skilled workforce and where several of the largest high-tech / biotech companies in the world are located. Companies such as Kronos, I-Robot, have invested millions in state-of-the-art office and R&D facilities. UMASS Lowell has great corporate partnership programs to assist companies with not only their workforce needs but also research & development.