Jay Ash, secretary of housing and economic development, gives the keynote speech at Friday's economic development luncheon. See more photos here.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The New England Patriots in the late 1990s were looking to move to Hartford, Conn.

 

At the time, Jay Ash was the economic director in Chelsea and he launched an effort to bring the team there instead.

 

He used his connections to set up a meeting with Patriots owner Robert Kraft and arrived with arms full of paperwork outlining a 60-acre site the organization could build a stadium. It was the ideal spot in the center of a highly populated area and close to public transit.

 

However, the site was made up of some 50 parcels owned by 40 different owners. Kraft told Ash to come back to him when all of the parcels were merged into one and owned by only one person.

 

"I had done everything I thought I needed to do to be successful. I got in to one of the most influential businesses leaders in the commonwealth, who by the way has a special place in his heart for Chelsea, but I wasn't able to close the deal because I wasn't prepared for success," Ash told local business leaders at the Crowne Plaza during a Berkshire Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Friday.

 

A few years later, he caught wind that the Federal Bureau of Investigation wanted a new regional headquarters. This time he found an ideal 5-acre parcel and then put the effort in to put the pieces together. "I was prepared for success and as a result, I was able to get the FBI headquarters out of Boston." 

 

A nine-story building is now under construction that will employ 500 or more FBI agents. It is eyed to be a "transformative project" for the city.

 

Ash has now been picked as the secretary of housing and economic development for Gov. Charlie Baker's administration. He called on local business leaders to align themselves in a way to be successful in growing the economy. Right now, Ash is working on nine different projects that could result in hundreds of jobs in the location they finally choose and the Berkshires could be one of them.

 

 "People have their eyes on your area of the commonwealth," Ash said.

 

The secretary says the governor's cabinet is crafting policies to build the economy. Rising to the top is a prepared workforce and the administration intends to put an emphasis on education and job training, he said. 

 

"I've heard time and again from businesses that 'it is not taxes that I am most concerned about. It is not regulation that I am most concerned about. It is workforce that I am most concerned about,' " Ash said. "We need to make sure we have a ready and trained workforce."

 

That trained workforce isn't necessarily the four-year college type jobs that most people envision but rather a growth in science, technology, engineering, and math fields. He said policies will be developed to help get students in middle school looking at modern manufacturing as a potential career path.

 

"We need to continue to work on the public relations side of the workforce in manufacturing and other industries to help people understand that while it is great for our kids to aspire to go off to four-year colleges, sometimes it is great to aspire to having a great job with great firms," Ash said.

 

State Sen. Benjamin Downing agrees, saying technology will provide the "baseline" of a new economy.

 

"When we are at our best, we are forward looking and forward thinking," the senator said.

 

The city already has a jumpstart on creating that workforce, according to Mayor Daniel Bianchi, especially with the City Council's recent vote to construct a new Taconic High School. The school will provide top notch vocational education and be aligned with the local colleges to create a pathway, he said.

 

State Sen. Benjamin Downing serves as the emcee of Friday's event.

Meanwhile, Baker's administration is also taking a close look at competitiveness, he said, with two concurrent studies. Those will look at taxes, housing costs, energy costs, and infrastructure among the issues facing businesses. 

 

"There are 2,250 regulations in the commonwealth and we are looking at each one of the 2,250 and asking the basic question: what can we do about these regulations that will make it easier for businesses to operate while we still promote the great quality of life we want to have," Ash said. 

 

Housing also also risen to the top, Ash said, in a lack of both housing that is affordable for the "middle income" residents and market-rate housing in the downtowns of gateway cities.

 

"The cost of housing and the availability of housing threatens our economy. We need to do better at making housing available for all of our residents," Ash said.

 

He said there is a "gap" in housing options for middle-income and there is a need to revitalize downtown areas by bringing in residents with disposable incomes to support downtown shops.

 

"We are looking at policies that will help create market rate housing in places that aren't named Boston, that aren't named Cambridge, that aren't named Somerville. We believe introducing market rate housing will have an impact on the local economy," Ash said.

 

Overall, Ash said he organizes businesses sectors into three "buckets": high-growth industries like life science, emerging technologies, and traditional industries. The administration's policies are aimed to support all three of those sectors, he said.

 

Ash spoke at a luncheon Friday following a STEM panel discussion led by U.S. Rep. Richard Neal and featuring leaders in business, education, and politics. The focus of that discussion was the growth of high-tech industries along I-90 from New York into Massachusetts.