Economic Development

New Bedford, Massachusetts-The Downtown New Bedford Business District will grow again this week with the grand opening of a full-service florist shop on Purchase Street.  Ana Grochmal, proprietor of “The White Bouquet,” a successful florist shop previously established in South Dartmouth has relocated her business to a Downtown New Bedford storefront at 763 Purchase Street.  The White Bouquet is a full service florist shop that provides services for weddings and all special occasions.

New Bedford, MA - The New Bedford Area Chamber of Commerce, the Massachusetts Community Development Finance Corporation (CDFC), and the Affirmative Market Program (AMP) have teamed up to host a special training workshop for minority and women-owned businesses (M/WBES) on the state’s procurement process and how to maximize their M/WBE certification status.

New Bedford, MA - If you had to close your business because of a natural or human-caused disaster, how prepared would you be to maintain contact with your employees, customers, vendors and others to do whatever it takes to get back in business as soon as possible?  What if equipment or machinery that you rely on were severely damaged?  What if you lost critical information or vital records, essential to the continuation of your business?  Would you lose market share and damage your reputation?  According to the Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS), at least one-fourth of all businesses that close because of a disaster never reopen. 

New Bedford, Massachusetts- Today, Mayor Scott W. Lang and Lafrance Hospitality Co., announced that the proposed downtown waterfront hotel has cleared another major hurdle; Lafrance Hospitality has received approval from the Marriott Corporation to establish a Marriott Fairfield Inn and Suites in New Bedford.  The franchise approval allows the developer, Lafrance Hospitality, to progress to the next stage of the multi-million dollar waterfront project.

New Bedford, MA – May 5, 2008 – The New Bedford Area Chamber of Commerce and BankFive would like to recognize the achievements made by smaller businesses in the creation of jobs and economic opportunities throughout the SouthCoast region. The issues and concerns of small businesses are essential components of Chamber initiatives, and the success of our member programs is dependent on the involvement of local professionals.

New Bedford, Massachusetts - Weston Associates, Inc., a Boston-based real estate firm signed an agreement to acquire the site of the former “Keystone Building” a significant piece of downtown New Bedford real estate, located on Union Street between Purchase and Pleasant Streets.  Weston Associates, Inc., signed the purchase and sale agreement earlier this week with property owner, Dennis Keohane. 

The YWCA Southeastern Massachusetts, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s Women’s Resource Center and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) invites women to participate in a program on Tuesday, May 6th to help close the wage gap between women and men at work. 

The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth commemorated 25 years of excellence in education and service of its Medical Laboratory Science Department, highlighting partnerships with area hospitals and bio-tech companies,  including Abbott Laboratories, which donated a $150,000 laboratory device to the department last fall.

New Bedford, Massachusetts- On Thursday, April 3, 2008, Governor Deval Patrick and the Department of Housing and Community Development and the Division of Banks awarded cities and non-profit agencies across the Commonwealth a total of $2 million to support foreclosure prevention education and assistance.  The New Bedford Office of Housing & Community Development was awarded a $150,000 grant for the development of a Regional Foreclosure Education Center that would centralize foreclosure prevention efforts and offer counseling and loan programs for homeowners affected by the current mortgage crisis. 

The  Center for Marketing Research was activated in 1999 and initially named the Center for Business Research, later adopting its present name, Center for Marketing Research. The appointing authorities asked Dr. Nora Ganim Barnes to create a Center that served the needs of the University, its students, the business community, and residents of southeastern Massachusetts.

New Bedford, MA — Is stress impeding your productivity at work? Is work interfering with your personal relationships? If so, don’t despair! There are solutions, and they can be found at the Sixth Annual SouthCoast Women’s Forum to be held at Rachel’s Lakeside, 950 State Road (Rte. 6), N. Dartmouth, on Tuesday, April 29th from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

North Dartmouth, MA -  Senator Joan Menard (D-Fall River) and Representative Michael Rodrigues (D-Westport) are pleased to announce that the UMass Dartmouth Advanced Technology & Manufacturing Center (ATMC) located on Martine Streetin Fall River has received a $250,000 grant from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative's Renewable Energy Trust Fund. The grant has been awarded as a result of the ATMC's proposal to establish a Marine Renewable Energy Center (MREC) in a collaborative effort with officials in Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.  The Center's goal is to accelerate the use and commercialization of marine renewable energy technologies.

Gloucester, Massachusetts - On Tuesday, April 1, 2008, Mayor Scott W. Lang, as a member of the Governor’s Seaport Council announced that New Bedford has secured $5,615,000 for projects vital to both the economic development and the security of the Port of New Bedford.  

Jeff Beatty was greeting by an enthusiastic audience in New Bedford's Wamsutta Club on Friday March 28th. Locals eager to hear about his campaign to unseat long time incumbent John Kerry from his US Senate seat in this coming election... This is a 5 part video of the entire meeting.

New Bedford, Massachusetts-The New Bedford/Fairhaven Harbor Plan is a five-year document that has reached the end of its intended life. Thus, a Harbor Plan Renewal Committee was recently appointed and the renewal process is underway. This initiative will assess the changing character of and new opportunities for the port, identify elements of the Plan that warrant modifications, and also set the Harbor’s vision and development objectives for the next five years. An entering assumption is that the Plan will protect the traditional working port while also offering opportunities for new industry and more public access to the water’s edge and out onto the harbor. Diversification is a key element but not at the expense of existing marine industry and other desirable long-standing harbor uses.

New Bedford, MA — Is stress impeding your productivity at work? Is work interfering with your personal relationships? If so, don’t despair! There are solutions, and they can be found at the Sixth Annual SouthCoast Women’s Forum to be held at Rachel’s Lakeside, 950 State Road (Rte. 6), N. Dartmouth, on Tuesday, April 29th from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

North Dartmouth, MA - UMass Dartmouth's Pavement Research Institute of Southeastern Massachusetts (PRISM) has entered into a $399,000 research agreement with the Massachusetts Executive Office of Transportation and Public Works to design and evaluate specialized hot mix asphalt mixtures for roadway applications in Massachusetts.

North Dartmouth, MA- A fish culture research team at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth under the direction of Drs. Kenneth Oliveira and Whitney Hable recently accomplished for the first time the artificial spawning of the American eel.  Larvae of the American eel lived for 4 days after hatching and this is the first time the fertilized eggs or larvae of this species have been seen by human eyes.  This is a major accomplishment in the area of fish culture.  The UMASS Dartmouth Team built on the techniques that have been developed for the Japanese eel in Japan and the European eel in Europe to accomplish the successful culturing process.

North Dartmouth, MA - The Short Sea Shipping Symposium will be held on March 26 –27, 2008 at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in the browsing area of the Claire T. Carney Library. This two-day conference will give attendees a broad picture of the promise of domestic Short Sea Shipping as a viable and environmentally friendly commercial freight alternative that utilizes inland and coastal waterways to move cargo from major domestic ports to its destination.

North Dartmouth, MA - The School for Marine Science and Technology of UMass Dartmouth is hosting a consortium of 20 universities and organizations this week to plan the initial stages of a system to monitor the changing conditions and health of coastal waters from Massachusetts to North Carolina.  The consortium is developing a sophisticated network of weather stations, satellites, coastal radars and robotic underwater vehicles to produce a three-dimensional view of conditions in the coastal Mid-Atlantic.  The current, three-year phase of the project is funded with an $8.7-million grant from the NOAA Coastal Services Center.

New Bedford, MA – The New Bedford Area and Fall River Area Chambers of Commerce will bring Beacon Hill to the South Coast when they host Salvatore F. DiMasi, Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, as the keynote speaker at their Legislative Luncheon at White’s of Westport, 66 State Rd., Westport (at the Fall River line) on Wednesday, April 9th. The event is sponsored by Comcast.

New Bedford, MA – The New Bedford Area Chamber of Commerce is pleased to announce that it is now accepting nominations for the Greater New Bedford area’s “Small Business of the Year.”

Mayor Scott W. Lang delivered his third State of the City Address on March 6th to a packed house at Cafe Funchal. The address was broadcast live on WBSM AM 1420 and is now presented here in audio MP3 format (5MB). This recording of the event is approximately 45 minutes long. Hosted by the New Bedford Area Chamber of Commerce.

When Celia Britto opened her boutique in the former Cherry and Webb building in 2003, she had scouted locations at the mall, surrounding towns and elsewhere in the city. But it was the downtown area that she found was the most attractive, the most interesting.

“Small, smart and powerful,” are a few of the adjectives UMass Dartmouth Marine Science Professor Louis Goodman uses to describe the new device he is building to gather data from the ocean.

New Bedford, Massachusetts - Last evening, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, New Bedford Mayor Scott W. Lang, and the Greater New Bedford Workforce Investment Board, hosted a successful roundtable discussion with community advocates and business leaders on the subject of youth employment opportunities in New Bedford.  In addition to a $10,000 commitment by the Attorney General, businesses and community organizations pledged to sponsor more than 50 youth jobs during the summer of 2008.  These employment opportunities will connect New Bedford youth 16 years of age and older with valuable work experience.

North Dartmouth, MA- UMass Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) Professors Steven Cadrin and Daniel Georgianna have both been appointed for three-year terms to the New England Fisheries Management Council's Science and Statistical Committee.  The appointments were announced by Council Chair John Pappalardo at the Feb. 12 Council meeting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

The balance between selling and marketing is critical to the success of an entrepreneur, and the next meeting of the Southern New England Entrepreneurs Forum (SNEEF) on February 28th will benefit from successful entrepreneurs sharing their experiences.

North Dartmouth, MA- A southeastern Massachusetts delegation of government, education and business leaders today announced the results of a Feb. 15-22 trade mission to the Azores, including agreements between UMass Dartmouth and the University of the Azores to collaborate on faculty/student exchanges and research initiatives in the marine sciences, business, nursing, and Portuguese Studies; and the sharing of library and archival resources.

New Bedford Area Chamber of Commerce in conjunction with NewBedford360 are happy to provide an online Audio Podcast of the recent Good Morning Southcoast Breafast held at the New Bedford Country Club.

Diane Darling, author of The Networking Survival Guide, discusses how to connect with people who can put you on the path to success...and keep you there! Kristin Decas, executive director of the New Bedford Harbor Commission, was also on hand to give an update on developments on the New Bedford Waterfront.