March
15, 2007
By Sean Leonard
/ The Daily Item
A key administrator for business development in the Patrick
Administration vowed Wednesday morning in an address to the
Lynn Area Chamber of Commerce to help remove a major hurdle
in the plan to develop the city's waterfront.
"We are going to get those power lines to go away," said
Robert Coughlin, the former state representative for the
11th Norfolk District who is now serving as state undersecretary
of business development. "(The power lines) will go
away. There is a solution to every problem."
Coughlin's keynote speech followed a presentation by James
Cowdell, new director of the Lynn Economic Development Industrial
Corp., who detailed development concepts for the waterfront,
including a boardwalk or promenade stretching from the General
Edwards Bridge all way to the Nahant Rotary, with plenty
of green space and a number of new high- and mid-rise residential
and commercial buildings.
"Forty-six years ago the power lines prevented development
from ever occurring," Cowdell said, noting that for
the past 18 months Mayor Edward J Clancy Jr., he and other
city officials have been planning to move the power line
corridor. "Once those power lines are moved you'll see
development that you haven't seen for decades in Lynn."
Cowdell estimated a developed waterfront would generate
between $7 million and $10 million in additional annual tax
revenue for the city.
Speaking to Coughlin, Cowdell said, "I implore you
to help us out" in securing funds to move the power
corridor.
Coughlin, who said he meets every Wednesday afternoon with
Gov. Deval Patrick as part of the governor's economic development
team, promised, "This project will be on our radar.
It's something we will have before us every week in our meeting."
Coughlin emphasized in his remarks the administration's
focus on infrastructure improvements and streamlined permitting
to attract new businesses to the Bay State, and identified
key growth sectors for economic development as bio-pharmaceutical
and life sciences, financial services and renewable energy.
With its major universities, Coughlin said that in those
fields, the Bay State has been a leader in new research and
development ventures.
"What's happening is when the R&D
is successful, and (the new company) is ready to manufacture
their product, they're going elsewhere.
"We're 150,000 jobs shy of where we were 10 years ago.
We have to get those manufacturing jobs back," Coughlin
said, reiterating that investment in infrastructure - including
transportation and utilities - is the way to do that. "We
have to make it easier for companies to operate here."
"Other states are giving property
and buildings away to lure companies. But we can compete,
because we have the labor force."
Coughlin estimated every dollar spent in infrastructure
improvement yields a return of $6 or $7 to the local economy.
He said his office is working on 374 prospects between companies
planning to grow in Massachusetts and those interested in
relocating here.
Again speaking specifically about Lynn's
waterfront plan, Coughlin said, "We have a Seaport
Bond Bill, and I see a lot of uses up here in Lynn for
those dollars."
Also addressing the Chamber's breakfast forum at the Knights
of Columbus on Lynnfield Street was Hal McGaughey, director
of the Lynn office of Economic and Community development,
who highlighted the approximate $3 million that has been
invested in aesthetic improvements to the downtown, the 31-unit
housing development under construction on Mount Vernon Street,
as well as hundreds of thousands in planned improvements
to Monroe and Mount Vernon, and a $475,000 facelift for the
structure underneath the MBTA rail bridge. He admitted there
is a problem with those long-vacant commercial spaces, however,
because they are not water-tight.
Speaking briefly at the start of the forum were representatives
of the Essex National Heritage Commission, to promote the
visit of the replica tall ship Friendship to Lynn Aug. 16-19.
The visit, sponsored in part by Old Neighborhood Foods,
Eastern Bank, Salem Five Bank and The Daily Item, will include
public tours of the ship at Seaport Landing on those dates
from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
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