WESTFIELD – In a segment of his “Act to Promote Growth and Opportunity”, Governor Deval L. Patrick has developed a $15 million transformative development fund to enable equity investments and technical assistance to support transformative efforts in the Commonwealth’s neediest municipalities.
While the sign on the door may say Texon International Group, the company’s USA Operations and Group Information Technology Manager Tom Humphrey’s office is actually located within an entirely different company in Westfield. (Photo by Carl E. Hartdegen)
Twenty-six mid-sized cities statewide have been designated Gateway Cities – communities which anchor small regional economies but have fallen on tough economic times which the state believes can prosper again.
The Hampden County cities of Chicopee, Holyoke, Springfield, and Westfield have all been granted Gateway City status, making them eligible to receive some of this funding, which can help support the creation of what are known as collaborative workspaces.
Often found in progressive, urban cities like Cambridge, officials believe that collaborative workspaces – basically buildings which house multiple tenants who utilize their spaces differently – have the potential to alter a city’s economic landscape.
“They’re a great opportunity for entrepreneurs,” said Maureen Belliveau, executive director of the Westfield Business Improvement District. “It’s an opportunity to share in expenses, and they’re sometimes called ‘colliding spaces’, where you can collaborate and receive other energies from other entrepreneurs on your journey.”
While words like “energies” and “journey” when referencing business may seem a bit wonky for a city like Westfield, Belliveau disagrees.
“They have a lot of them (collaborative workspaces) in the Boston area, but you’re seeing them pop up on the outskirts of cities that others may consider more remote,” she said, attributing this to the relative affordability of real estate outside metro Boston. “It’s a great opportunity for entrepreneurism in the city and to partner with educational institutions like Westfield State University. It’s always wonderful when can retain all of that fresh young talent here in our city, to offer that sort of venue.”
One individual who is already working in a collaborative workspace in Westfield is Tom Humphrey, USA group information technology manager for the Texon International Group, whose office was in Russell prior to Texon’s mill closing in 2012.
Now, Humphrey’s office is on School Street in a building owned by Patrick Berry, whose business, the Westfield New Group, is one of several in the city that are becoming more efficient and streamlined, and are finding they have space available to rent to those with limited spacial needs.
Gagliarducci Construction of Springfield is another business which is renting space in the Westfield News Group’s building.
“When the mill closed, I began looking for office space in town,” said Humphrey. “I looked around, then came here and talked to Patrick. We then worked out the logistics and this office became my home.”
Prior to the mill’s closing, Humphrey said he was given the option by Texon to work from his home in Westfield, but he still felt he needed an office.
“I didn’t need a lot of space, but I needed all of the facilities to run a business,” he said. “What made this more attractive than what else I had looked at was that the others seemed to be four or five offices in a hallway, where you come in, lock your door, work, and leave.”
Humphrey said that the camaraderie of working in close proximity to another vibrant business appealed to him.
“It made it seem like I had a fellow workstaff, even though I don’t,” he said. “I’ve been here since January 2013, and to me it’s worked out really well. I have everything I need.”
He believes collaborative workspaces can help boost an economy like Westfield’s.
“Any time you have idle space and you can fill it, it’s going to boost the economy,” Humphrey said. “First, the person who has the real estate is now getting some cash flow. And when I worked in Russell, my economic spending was all out there – if I went to lunch, if I bought gas. Here, I walk out of my office, I have five places I can eat, places I can run errands.”
“I have friends who are in business who live in Westfield, but they drive to Connecticut or Northampton or Boston, and what happens is they don’t become part of the community,” he said, adding that collaborative workspaces would not only provide businesspeople the option to work closer to home, but might also entice people from neighboring communities to set up shop in Westfield.
Westfield Community Development Block Grant Coordinator Diana McLean believes that, while these collaborative workspaces effectively fill space, erecting buildings for that specific purpose requires planning.
“You need to find out what the needs are before you start building a space. Do you make a bunch of boutiques in your space and hope that retailers fill it? Or do you want people who work from home who just need a little office space occasionally?” she said.
“Some can be something monthly, like a gym membership. Some places you pay as little as $2 an hour, like at a coffee shop.” she said. “It’s interesting how it can take on so many different shapes and that is what has to be strategic.”
McLean said shes hoping that the grant will pay for a feasibility study to look into locations and where to find potential tenants for these proposed workspaces.
“It seems like it’s a lot of networking. Do you hire someone who goes out and does the networking for you? Or is it something that the Chamber, the BID, the city and business leaders do together?” she said, referencing the Scibelli Enterprise Center in Springfield as a local example. “You just don’t dive into it. We’re thinking of using CDBG funds to do a feasibility study to see what need exists and use them to create space. It’s all about job creation.”
“We’ve looked at collaborative spaces but also incubator spaces,” said Joe Mitchell, economic development director for the city. “Incubator spaces are shared space, in smaller units. It’s less about collaboration and more about startup businesses where folks who may not have the capital to rent their own space will share a space, grow their business and ‘graduate’ from the incubator space.”
“It’s kind of what the creative people are trying to do, whether artistically or technologically, to create synergies and to learn from one another,” said Westfield Community Development Director Peter Miller of these workspaces. “I think it’s something that needs to build itself up organically, that the small business community has to demand from us.”
“We need to gauge the interest in the community for it. The last thing we want to do is force something onto people they don’t think is a necessity,” he continued. “When entrepreneurs want something like this, I think using CDBG and the economic development strategy is the first step in assessing whether the collaborative culture can exist in Westfield.”
“In Cambridge, it’s all IT and bio. In Northampton it may all be the arts and some IT. Here, maybe it’s people with small precision machining, or students who’re teachers’ aides,” said Mitchell. “We have to find out what the community wants and we’ll pursue it in that arena.”
