Gateway Research Park at WPI Receives $2.5 Million Grant
An artist's rendering of the first new building to be constructed at Gateway Research Park at WPI
A $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, announced on March 29 by U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern, D-Worcester, will play an important role in the development of Gateway Research Park at WPI, an 11-acre mixed-use, life-sciences-based campus being developed jointly by WPI and the Worcester Business Development Corporation.
Located adjacent to downtown Worcester, Gateway Park is expected to play an important role in the economic development of the city and region, generating new jobs and private investment, notes WPI President Dennis D. Berkey.
"This is an exciting development and an important step forward for a project that will become an important component of the development of both WPI and downtown Worcester," Berkey said. "Through our investment in Gateway Park, we will enhance our academic and research programs in the life sciences and the important work of our Bioengineering Institute, while at the same time promoting the further development of life science industries that will be critical to the future of the city and the region."
The EDC grant, which was awarded to WPI, the WBDC, and the city of Worcester, will support the development of parking for Gateway Park's first new building and future buildings. Construction of the new $20 million building, which will include 120,000 square feet of space in a new four-story structure at 60 Prescott Street and an attached renovated factory building at 68 Prescott Street, is expected to begin by summer.
More than half of this first building will be occupied by WPI's Bioengineering Institite and the graduate and research programs of its departments of Biology and Biotechnology, Biomedical Engineering, and Chemistry and Biochemistry. The rest will likely be leased by tenants in life science fields.
"This is great news for the Gateway Park Project," noted McGovern, who worked with the EDC to secure the grant. "We're moving forward, and we're building something that everyone in central Massachusetts can be proud of. This project is a tremendous collaborative effort among WPI, the City of Worcester, and the state and federal governments, and it's an opportunity to combine our proud manufacturing heritage with our high-tech future."
Support from McGovern has been instrumental to the development of the park and of the WPI Bioengineering Institute, currently located within Gateway Park at 100 Grove Street. McGovern helped obtain $1.8 million in federal highway funds for improvements to the north Main Street access to Gateway Park and helped the university secure approximately $7 million from the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command for research with the BEI's Center for Untethered Healthcare.
The parking infrastructure supported by the EDC grant will include 680 spaces in surface and deck parking to be built behind the new building on the site of the former New England Plating Co., one of brownfields parcels that was cleared and cleaned up during the initial development of Gateway Park.
The architect for the new building is Tsoi Kobus & Associates Inc. in Cambridge; the general contractor is Consigli Construction Co. Inc. in Milford. "Having steel on Prescott Street visible from Interstate 290 will be a good boost for the city," David P. Forsberg, president of Worcester Business Development Corp., told the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.
