Despite the recession, the last 15 months have been one of the most active periods in the New Bedford Business Park with seven new companies moving into the park and three existing companies expanding in the park.
Symmetry Medical, which is a New York stock exchange company from Warsaw, Ind. that specializes in orthopaedic products, acquired the former 85,000 s/f Depuy Johnson & Johnson plant. They retained Johnson & Johnson's general manager and all of Johnson & Johnson's 220 employees. Since acquiring the facility in late January of last year, they have added 65 additional employees bringing their total workforce to about 285 employees.
Morgan Advanced Ceramics, which is an affiliate of a $1.2 billion U.K. medical device and electronics company, reconfigured its existing facility to accommodate a significant increase in its sales and workforce. It currently employs 220 workers.
Lighthouse Masonry, which is a construction services company with most of its market located in the Greater Boston Area, completed the construction of a beautiful new 30,000 s/f headquarters office and supply facility. It currently employs 130 workers.

Konarka Ttechnologies purchased the 257,000 s/f former Multilayer Coating Technologies and Polaroid plant to manufacture lightweight thin film photovoltaic products. It began manufacturing recently and expects to grow its workforce to 50-100 workers in the next 12 to 18 months.
Titleist, which has 50% of the U.S. golf ball market and currently manufactures all of its golf balls sold worldwide in the park, completed a 38,000 s/f expansion of its New Bedford golf ball plant. It also has another golf ball plant in the Dartmouth portion of the park and a manufacturing research facility in the park. Currently, it employs about 1,000 workers at the three facilities.
The State Lottery leased 18,000 s/f of office and distribution space in the recently modernized First Highland Flex Building near the park entrance. It currently employs 40 workers.
Veolia Energy, which is an affiliate of a $42 billion French company, moved into the park to operate the 55,000 s/f Multilayer Coating Technologies thermal energy plant. This energy plant provides heating, cooling and backup electricity to Konarka Technologies. It also hopes to provide heating, cooling, electricity and co-gen services to some of the other companies in the park. It currently employs 10 workers.
Lastly, Aquapoint leased 8,000 s/f and Massachusetts Mentor leased 7,000 s/f in the Bennett Flex Building on Barnet Blvd. and Stone Experts leased 4,000 s/f in the Epec Building, which is now owned by Reynolds DeWalt.
The combination of all of the new activity in the New Bedford Business Park already has added or will add approximately 400 jobs to the park within the next year. In total, there are now 41 companies in the park employing 4,500 workers.

Another major accomplishment for the Greater New Bedford Industrial Foundation, which is the developer, manager and marketer of the New Bedford Business Park, is that it assumed the responsibility for the marketing of the 95-acre Energy Park in North Dartmouth that is owned by Dr. and Mrs. Aghai. Currently, Morris Energy's 72 megawatt gas-fired electricity peaking plant is located in Energy Park.
There are 53 saleable acres located off the park's access road with all utilities in place. Also, there is a large 38-acre lot accessible from Old Fall River Rd. The park is located close to the massive state electric grid, and the Algonquin Gas Line bisects the park. Thus, Energy Park is an excellent location for renewable energy companies. It is also a good location for companies that use large amounts of electricity because they can purchase their electricity directly from an adjacent electricity plant at the wholesale rate rather than at the much higher retail rate.
In addition, the 38-acre section of the park located close to Faunce Corner Rd. is an ideal site for a large medical services center.

In summary, the last 15 months has been a remarkable period of new and existing company growth in the New Bedford Business Park. And, despite the recession which is likely to last for most of 2009, we expect to attract several new companies to the New Bedford Business Park and Energy Park in 2009. In addition, we hope to cause one or more existing companies in the New Bedford Business Park to begin expansion projects in 2009. Importantly, we still have 200 acres of land to sell in the New Bedford Business Park and 95 acres to sell in Energy Park.
Thomas Davis is executive director of The Greater New Bedford Industrial Foundation.