6 February, 2019
The Board of Directors of the Hopkinton Chamber of Commerce urge your attendance at a Special Town Meeting, which will be held Monday evening, February 11th, 7:00 PM, at Hopkinton Middle School. At issue is a property tax relief incentive to ensure that Lykan Bioscience will sign on to occupy long-vacant industrial lab space at 97 South Street.
Lykan proposes to spend $10 million in building improvements and $2 million in equipment up-grades and installations. In return, they are asking Hopkinton to consider granting them a property tax reduction incentive on their new investment. The deal is Hopkinton gets to keep the level of taxes the building is paying now, plus an increment of the taxes due on the improvements, plus a newly fully occupied building in the heart of our South Street industrial zone. Lykan gets an incremental tax break for ten years. In short, our community gains a new industrial anchor at no current cost, but with lots of potential benefits – 125 highly skilled jobs to start, along with the home-buying, restaurant, retail, hotel (if we had one), and general service purchases such jobs bring to any community.
And beyond this agreement, as Lykan moves into Hopkinton bringing new technologies, it builds on our life sciences reputation – already rated “Bio-ready Gold” by the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council - a reputation as a highly educated community well-supportive of smart, clean, high value industry.
While there is enthusiastic support for the Lykan request the greatest concern is low voter turnout for the February 11th Special Town Meeting. Please make it a point to attend this meeting and to cast your vote in favor of healthy economic development in Hopkinton. Further details on this Tax Increment Financing deal, and on Lykan Bioscience can be found in this linked document.
For your convenience, on Monday evening, the Chamber will be updating the projected time for the Lykan Article through the Chamber website: www.hopchamber.com and the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/HopChamber/?ref=bookmarks
Thank you.
Scott Richardson, President
Hopkinton Chamber of Commerce
