Massachusetts Gets $3 Million in Federal Funds
Grants will help create hundreds of new jobs in manufacturing sector

U.S. Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans today in Massachusetts announced $3 million in Economic Development Administration (EDA) investments that will help create an estimated 650 new jobs in the industrial and manufacturing sectors.

“The Commerce Department is pleased to partner with the people of Massachusetts and set the stage for investment and innovation through economic development grants like these,” said Evans. “President Bush and I are committed to working with local communities to grow the economy, create jobs and encourage investments in local areas.”

The investments include:

-- $2 million to the city of Attleboro to help build the Attleboro Business and Industrial Park, Phase I. The construction of the Industrial Business Park will help Attleboro attract new companies and provide expansion opportunities for existing businesses. The development of Phase I is expected to attract 5 new companies, create 400 new jobs, and generate $20 million in private investment.

-- $1 million to the city of Fitchburg to help convert a former General Electric turbine facility located in the Putnam Place brownfields site for use by diversified manufacturing businesses. The Putnam Place Project will create an estimated 250 new high skill, high paying jobs in the community. The unique space at Putnam Place, equipped with 100 ton cranes and high industrial bays, will allow the expansion of Power Technology Incorporated (PTI), a growing company founded by former GE workers.

EDA serves as a venture capital resource to meet the economic development needs of distressed communities throughout the United States. EDA partners with states, units of local government and community nonprofit organizations in economically distressed areas, regions and communities in order to alleviate conditions of poverty and substantial and persistent unemployment and underemployment.

Additional information on how EDA investments are helping distressed communities create a positive and sustainable economic future can be accessed at: http://www.doc.gov/eda.