Dear Friend,

Over 100 developers, investors, businesspeople, (many visiting the city on business for the first time), attended a half day developer conference in New Bedford on June 26th. The conference made a clear statement that “New Bedford is open for business” highlighting many development opportunities in the city. The event, sponsored by MassDevelopment, the City of New Bedford and the New Bedford Economic Development Council, also drew city and elected officials. 

The Developer Conference provided us with an opportunity to share the city’s tremendous assets including our work force, our geographic proximity to other cities, our transportation infrastructure, including our harbor and airport, our art, culture and ethnic heritage, and the Lang Administration’s openness to any business. Even in a down economy, we must continue to press New Bedford’s positive case for investment in our city and our people. This is the first of many such opportunities.

This issue compiles press coverage of the conference, a NECN video, two opinion pieces and a presentation made by the NBEDC.
 

VIEW PHOTO GALLERY

Sincerely,

Matthew A. Morrissey
Executive Director

 New Bedford seeks its third economic boom

NECN's Peter Howe has details.
Massachusetts developers are looking to revitalize New Bedford. The community once served as a massive economic center.

New Bedford, Massachusetts overflows with history, including two great fortunes that came and went from this fishing port. Its fabled days as an 1800s whaling capital, when New Bedford was briefly the world's richest city, and then the 20th century textile boom. Now, New Bedford seeks a third boom, hoping to persuade developers it's [read more]

 City woos developers with tour, sales pitch

New Bedford – The city’s economic development cheerleaders put their best faces on Thursday as developers and real estate investors toured the harbor, downtown and New Bedford Business Park in a highly organized push to boost investment in the city.

MassDevelopment – the quasi-public entity that has underwritten a number of SouthCoast projects – and the New Bedford Economic Development Council teamed to bring in potential investors and developers, along with organizations that already have projects under way [read more]

 Economic Development Conference
 

Out of the Leviathan-like belly of New Bedford’s (NE) Fast Ferry emerges an economic development collaborative. Spearheaded by State Senator Mark Montigny, New Bedford Mayor Scott Lang, Economic Development Director Matt Morrissey and the states MassDevelopment President and CEO Robert Culver, the day was structured to bringing a host of potential investors to the city. Along with a scenic harbor tour the group of CEO’s, Presidents, local senior executives and other outside companies with ownership interest in local real estate and other tax base expansion possibilities, were treated to a Red Carpet itinerary. [read more]

 The city is open for business

Everybody knows corruption in government is wrong, but people can differ on how they define corruption and what impact it has. Is taking a bag of cash bad? Sure. How about peddling influence, doing favors or as in the best tradition of New Bedford, buying blocks of $50 tickets to political fundraisers? In case you didn't know, "$50" is the magic number in Massachusetts -- any contribution above that requires a name and affiliation be reported. But heck, a block of 20, 50 or 100 tickets at $50 each that will be "resold" individually is $1,000, $2,500 or $5,000.  In New Bedford politics, that is the kind of money [read more]

 Plan ahead to attract development

For businesses looking to locate or expand in Massachusetts, getting the state and local permits needed to do business has been a major challenge for many years. We need to address this issue front and center in order to grow our economy and create jobs. We can fix this problem, without sacrificing the character of our communities or the quality of our environment, by planning ahead for new growth and development.

We have developed a bad habit in  [read more]
 

  “New Bedford is open for business”

The investment opportunities highlighted in this presentation represent a fraction of those available in New Bedford. It is not intended to be comprehensive, but to give developers an idea of what New Bedford has to offer. Many others were discussed at the conference and will be vigorously pursued. For more information, please direct your questions to mmorrissey@nbedc.org.  [read more]