Commission highlights town’s biz friendly atributes

By Chloe Gotsis/Staff Writer

GateHouse News Service

Posted Apr 19, 2010 @ 04:11 PM

Chelmsford —

For Datawatch, Chelmsford seemed like the most logical place to open its corporate headquarters five years ago.

Analysis showed the town was the epicenter of where most of the company’s employees lived; it had key facilities the company needed and location-wise it was perfect, said the company’s senior vice president and chief marketing officer, John Kitchen III.

“Chelmsford’s really been so welcoming to us,” said Kitchen. “Not only are there good facilities in town but there are great place to take our clients including funky different restaurants. Not only do we have to do business, but we have to eat.”

Kitchen was one of three senior executives from the four Chelmsford companies recognized in the ‘Boston Globe’s 2009 list of the best places to work,’ who attended the Economic Development Commission’s meet and greet session Monday night, April 12. The half hour session of business card exchanging and networking was held prior to the newly formed commission’s first presentation to the Board of Selectmen.

Joined by the committee’s ad hoc members: state representatives Cory Atkins, Jim Arciero, and Tom Golden, the commission’s chairman Mike Kowalyk talked about the commission’s core mission – to make Chelmsford a destination place for businesses and help the town’s existing businesses prosper.

“We’ve learned this is not a field of dreams,” said Kowalyk. “You don’t build it and they’ll come. We should be that internal voice of the external customer.”

But Kowalyk wants to dispel any ideas the commission is looking to drive new development. Rather, the goal is to strengthen what the town already has.

In a time of economic peril and an unemployment rate teetering at 9.7 percent the commission is hoping its new slogan, — “Chelmsford gets it done. Crossroads of community and commerce,” — will help drive more businesses to open up their doors in town.

“What do we know about Chelmsford?,” said Kowalyk. “We know it’s hard working. This is an award-winning town. We have top-tier businesses. We’re a transportation hub. We’re 30 miles from Boston. It’s about going out and letting people know that we get it done.”

To Kowalyk letting investors and business owners know Chelsmford was named 21st best place to live in the country in 2007 by Money Magazine; and ranked 19th among the state’s 351 cities and towns for being “high-tech friendly” by the Mass High Tech Council is key to making it a destination hub.

“We’re the only town in the state that had four Globe 100 companies,” said Kowalyk, about the town’s companies Zoll Medical, Airvana, Hittite Microwave and Datawatch. “It wasn’t Lexington. It wasn’t Waltham. It was Chelmsford.”

In addition to the commissions seven members – Kowalyk, Joe Ready, Janet Askenburg, David Morey, Laura Schweizer, Brad Marmo and Tony Delpapa, three of the town’s state reps asked to lend their expertise and become ad hoc non-voting members of the commission.

But Kowalyk notes that the officials, who do not live in town, have gone above and beyond their ad hoc membership and are actively working to help the commission at each meeting.

“I’m just floored by their willingness to work,” he said during a recent interview. “They accept homework assignments and they are truly invested. Calling them ad hoc members is selling them short. In fact, Cory [Atkins] even helped develop our slogan and was shouting out ideas with us.”

Atkins said at the meet and greet that she helped with the “community and commerce” line and was working to get the “c” alliteration into the slogan.

Atkins, said at the presentation to the board, that she has been working on economic development at the state level and has learned that planning is key in this economy for development.

“If you plan it,” she said. “It will happen.”

The legislators have helped the commission get their ideas of the ground like the upcoming May 6 breakfast roundtable with commercial realtors. Commission members have said they are seeking to attract larger brokers along Route 129 like Cambridge-based O’Brien Management, the Boston based-brokerage firm Grubb-Ellis and the Lowell-based Edge Group.

“We’re going to say, ‘help us help you,’” said Askenburg previously.

The work of the commission is already impressing executives like Kitchen, who said that Datawatch is very excited about the commission.

“It puts Chelmsford far ahead of other communities,” he said. “It’s nice to see a pragmatic, can-do attitude. Here we are viewed as partners.”

Mark Miner, an executive of Airvana, said the company’s Chelmsford location has been key to the success of the business.

“It’s been key for us to be here,” he said. “It’s a great place to be and I love working here.”

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