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Selectmen Applaud Hopkinton 20/20 For Progress to Date

By Michelle Murdock, Freelance Writer

Members of Hopkinton 20/20, the public private economic development initiative, received rave reviews from the Board of Selectmen at their January 17th meeting as they came before the board to report their progress to date and to update the board on their current activities.

I’m very pleased,” said Michelle Gates. “It’s exactly what I was hoping we would gain.”

“I think it all comes together nicely,” said Brian Herr, “and I applaud what you are doing.”

Chamber President Bob McGuire led the discussion and highlighted the accomplishments of the group since the signing of the memorandum of understanding with the town in September of 2011. In addition to formalizing the agreement with the town and designing their logo, Hopkinton 20/20 has also completed two focus groups, one with commercial real estate brokers and another with commercial land owners.

“One thing seemed to come loud and clear,” said McGuire. “When tenants are looking for space, they typically look for amenities to come along with that space and sometimes that is a little bit like the chicken and the egg; we need density to create amenities.”

The group has also had several meetings with regional and state economic development partners, including the 495 MetroWest Corridor Partnership, the Massachusetts Development Office and the Massachusetts Office of Business Development.

Members of Hopkinton 20/20 were also instrumental in the finalization of the Business Guide, a comprehensive manual for prospective business owners created by Land Use, Planning and Permitting Director Elaine Lazarus.

Collaboration with the Zoning Advisory Committee is ongoing and McGuire says they are trying to better understand the needs of biotech companies.

“We have our own little cluster here, and for those that are familiar with that niche of business, those companies tend to typically group together,” said McGuire, “so we want to try to play off that and see if we can stimulate more growth in that part of the environment.”

In addition to what’s been accomplished, McGuire also outlined what he termed as “on our plate”. Included in that list were the grand opening of the Waste Water Treatment Facility, scheduled for February, identifying ways to expand Hopkinton’s marathon footprint, going live with a new Hopkinton 20/20 website and working with the Planning Board on updating the economic development section of the 2007 Master Plan.

To date, most of the progress made by the group has been made without any significant financial outlay, but Chairman Finley Perry told selectmen that that may change in the future.

“As time goes on, this entity will need a certain amount of funding for mailers, or website updates, or those kinds of things,” said Perry.

Selectman Ben Palleiko, who has been working with Hopkinton 20/20, agreed and also stressed the long term nature of the project.

“This is going to be a long term effort,” said Palleiko, “and so I’d encourage the board to think of it as that and to realize that it’s going to require some level of investment by the town.”

Chairman Cestari said he would have a difficult time opposing any type of investment.

“Bottom line is, that I think we are on the right track,” said Cestari. “This isn’t something where we can expect success if we just take a passive approach and the active approach that you guys have initiated is much welcomed.”

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