After 11 years, the Fall River bio-park is about to be filled. How many jobs will it mean?
FALL RIVER — The city’s Redevelopment Authority has entered into three land sale agreements in the SouthCoast Life Science & Technology Park, valued at little more than $14 million.
If the three sales are finalized, comprising a little more than 82 acres, it means that the entire 300 acres of bio-park land are sold.
RDA purchased the 300-acre parcel of undeveloped land in 2011 with a purchase price of $2.45 million.
The development of the last of the available land could also potentially provide 800 to 900 new jobs in the region, according to Ken Fiola, vice president of Bristol County Economic Development Consultants, the organization that does consulting work for the RDA.
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The five-member RDA board approved the three land disposition agreements during executive session at its monthly meeting last week. After, in a public vote, the board unanimously approved the sales agreements.
The New England-based development corporation VMD has been negotiating for the purchase of two parcels with RDA for just over a year, said Fiola.
The corporation has agreed to terms to purchase one parcel of 23.2 acres at $4.16 million and pledged to build a 300,000-square-foot facility that could potentially employ 200 people (the Amazon warehouse is just over 1 million square feet, for comparison's sake).
Fiola said it would likely be a "spec" project, meaning it initially doesn’t have a designated tenant.
“That’s a good thing for the city because there really is not a lot of space in the city,” said Fiola.
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On the larger 53.19-acre parcel with a purchase price of $9.5 million, the company has pledged in the agreement to construct a 600,000-square-foot facility that could help create up to 600 jobs.
“They’ve spent a lot of time and money getting the proper permits over the last year to develop the parcel, so they are pretty much ready to go,” said Fiola.
RDA Chairman Joseph Marshall said the board did its due diligence regarding vetting VMD, which has developments around New England and in Miami.
The third land deal is with the Bristol Tape Corporation, and the existing Fall River company located on Airport Road.
The company is purchasing a 6-acre parcel for $564,540.
Mayor Paul Coogan said he was very pleased with the sales agreements and noted it shows “the demand for space in Fall River,” said
“But real estate agreements, it’s dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s," said a cautiously optimistic Coogan.
“But they are very close.”
Jo C. Goode may be reached at jgoode@heraldnews.com. Support local journalism and subscribe to The Herald News today!
This article originally appeared on The Herald News: SouthCoast Life Science & Technology Park: last parcels to be sold
