Selected Local and Regional Economic projects
Economic Development Strategy
City of Lynn, Massachusetts
The City of Lynn, Massachusetts is an older industrial city lo-cated on the waterfront in the North Shore region of Massachu-setts within 10 miles of Boston. As with many urban centers in the Northeast, Lynn’s employment base declined over the last twenty years, while regional employment increased. The down-ward trend in employment affected the City’s real estate tax base, as residential properties accounted for nearly 90 percent of total taxable assessment in 2004, up from 75 percent in 1985. It was also determined that Lynn was losing nearly $160 million in sales of consumer goods and services. In short, Lynn was transi-tioning from a regional economic center to a bedroom commu-ciates defined and quantified specific goals regarding new jobs, new hous-ing units and new real estate tax revenue, for both the short- and long-term. RKG Associates also recommended ments and suggested organizational changes within local on among municipal departments.
Public/Private Development Financing
South Weymouth, Massachusetts
The former South Weymouth Naval Air Station was closed by the military and a private sector developer, LNR, Inc., was chosen to redevelop the site into a major mixed-use project . Because of the high upfront cost of site clean-up and infra-structure upgrades, the developer in conjunction with a local development authority are seeking public sector financing to help build a new access road. RKG Associates, Inc. was re-tained by the Commonwealth to evaluate the overall merits of the requested $42 million public sector investment. To do this, market research prepared by the developer and the develop-ers’ consultants was independently reviewed and evaluated. In addition the developers financial forecasts for the project were reviewed and evaluated. The Commonwealth is cur-rently evaluating the merits of this project in light of the cur-rent economic downturn.
Westwood Station
Westwood, Massachusetts
Cabot, Cabot & Forbes has assembled a nationally recognized team to design and develop a 4.5 million square foot compre-hensive mixed-use, transit-oriented development plan The plan is proposed for a 117-acre assembled parcel adjacent to the Uni-versity Avenue/Route 128 MBTA/Amtrak station south of Bos-ton in the suburban community of Westwood. The town was to review and permit such a large and urban-oriented development. RKG was hired as the fiscal Peer Review consultant to help the town and its various boards and agencies understand the short and long-term im-pacts of the project and to negotiate a comprehensive develop-ment agreement that includes Tax Increment Financing for over $200 million in infrastructure development. RKG also advised the Town on other development financing mechanisms, including assessment-based financing permitted under special legislation.
Bedford Master Plan Update
Bedford, New Hampshire
Working with a large engineering and planning firm, RKG is completing the economic development chapter of the Town’s master plan. RKG Associates had drafted the 1990 and 2000 master plans. Current RKG’s findings show that Bedford’s economic strategy will need to have both a short-term and long-term focus. The short-term focus will concentrate on ex-isting business retention and ponomic rebound as it begins to unfold. Long-term considera-tions will include insuring that properly zoned land, infra-structure, and workforce are adequate to support sustained development in the future.