PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A funding gap for the Berkshire Innovation Center hasn't stopped PEDA from continuing to plan for construction early next year.

 

At the end of September, the lowest bid for the project was $7.1 million, which was $600,000 more than anticipated. The low bids leave the Berkshire Innovation Center with trying to find additional state funds to fill the gap or reduce the project even further. City officials are hoping the Massachusetts Life Science Center, which awarded the funding in the first place, will allocate additional resources but it is still unclear if that will happen.

 

The Pittsfield Economic Development Authority, which oversees redevelopment of the William Stanley Business Park where the center is supposed to be built, is confident the funding gap will be filled.

 

"There was a little hiccup in that the bids came in higher than anticipated," said Executive Director Corydon Thurston, adding that, hopefully, in the next few months the answer to how the gap will be filled will be answered.

 

Construction on the project was first anticipated to start this fall. 

 

Meanwhile, Thurston says the BIC board of directors has fulfilled the obligations to receive $250,000 from PEDA for startup costs. Seeing a gap for the first two years, before the building's opening, PEDA matched the city of Pittsfield in allocating $250,000 each toward getting the organization up and running.

 

"That grant was to be paid out in four installments and we set benchmarks," Thurston said. "The reports satisfy the requirements ... my intention is to issue the final payment on Jan. 4."

 

The PEDA board had no objections to issuing the payment despite its limited income. The organization is funded through a longtime settlement with General Electric but so far, there are only a couple land leases in place to generate income.

 

According to board member Michael Matthews, in recent years the operational side of the ledger has been cut from $600,000 a year to short of $300,000 a year. And next year looks to be the same.

 

"We continued to operate. There hasn't been any surprises. We have a pretty straightforward operational model we are operating on," Matthews said. 

 

The early versions of the next operating budget calls for just about level funding, he said. 

 

To help with more long-term financial planning and general accounting, the board brought on Ryan Killeen, a certified public accountant with Fenton, Pinsonnault & Quinn, as treasurer. Killeen was appointed to the stipend position in October.

 

"We off loaded a lot of tasks to him right away," Matthews said. 

 

Meanwhile, construction of the bridge over railroad tracks on Woodlawn Avenue continues with spring still being eyed for opening. Thurston reported that the bridge's deck was poured and workers will continue construction for as long as the weather allows. PEDA has also reached an agreement with the city of Pittsfield to grant an easement so the road could be treated as a public way.

 

"Those legal agreements are now done. We expect those to go to the City Council in January," Thurston said.

 

On the marketing side, member Christina Barrett said there is a continuing advertising effort in the Albany, N.Y. market. The early responses to the campaign hadn't been great, but Barrett says marketing is a continual effort so the ad will stay up, though somewhat tweaked, for another month or so in hopes to attract new tenants to the park.

 

While that particular advertising campaign may not have triggered direct hits yet, Barrett said the website continues to provide strong analytics and early dabbles in social media marketing have proven fruitful. Marketing is one area of the operational budget that hasn't been cut much in recent years, Matthews said.

 

Chairman Mick Callahan also reported that Patrick Reuss is leaving the board of directors. Reuss, a representative from SABIC, is moving out of the county for work. SABIC announced earlier this year that the company was leaving the city and transferring many of its employees to other locations. 

 

PEDA shares office space with Nuclea Biotechnologies and it is unclear if changes to that company's leadership will impact the agreement. PEDA rents half its office space to the company and now CEO Patrick Muraca is departing the company. Thurston said the shared space was always considered to be somewhat temporary but he doesn't know if that agreement will end with the new leadership.