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The Sun, Lowell, Mass., Dan O'Brien Column

Posted on: Monday, 5 June 2006, 12:01 CDT

By Dan O'Brien, The Sun, Lowell, Mass.

Jun. 4--DEVENS WIN GREAT, BUT LET'S PRESS ON: Take that, North Carolina.

Sports geeks in these parts get excited whenever Boston beats New York. Similarly, economics geeks should be excited when the Tarheel State is vanquished in a tussle for jobs.

Well, guess what? We won one. A big one.

On Thursday afternoon, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. CEO Peter Dolan placed a phone call to Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney to inform him that his company had chosen Devens as the site to build a 750,000-square-foot manufacturing plant. There it will produce compounds used to make a drug called Orencia.

If you're not associated with anyone who is suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, there is a good chance you are not familiar with Orencia. But if you happen to be a Massachusetts resident, there is an equally good chance that you don't care.

What matters is that a minimum of 350 new jobs are coming to our state, and not to North Carolina (or Rhode Island or New York for that matter).

Give our politicians and their appointees their due -- just this once, if you please. They busted their tails for eight months straight, offering some $60 million in spending and incentives. Included in that was a change to the state's investment tax credit rules to let Bristol-Myers claim a refund for 5 percent of its investment in the facility, a carrot that could cost the state more than $30 million.

In other words, they bent over backward to convince Bristol-Myers that yes, we do give a hoot about growing our business base here.

Honestly, are you not tired of it? Tired of looking at pictures of smiling young professionals who used to live in the Bay State, only to say they were "chased away" by a high taxes and ridiculous housing prices? Tired of hearing about corporate mergers in which the Massachusetts party is the acquiree, and not the acquirer? Tired of hearing about how "out of touch" we are, that we are old, stubborn and business-unfriendly?

Does the term "Research Triangle" remind you of that "D" you got in trigonometry?

Well, we won one. A big one. So high-fives abound.

Then what? We cannot be complacent, that's what. Here are a few words of caution.

First, there's no need to exaggerate what's already a big impact. Romney was quoted as saying the facility could employ as many as 800 people. Where did he get that? The company says 350 to start, with a potential for 550.

Second, while ground breaks in September, the facility is not expected to be complete until 2009, with commercial production of biologic compounds not taking place until 2011. That's an awful long time, and a lot of things -- good and bad -- can happen in the meantime.

Also, while Bristol-Myers is an impressive company, and operates in an industry with favorable demographics, it isn't what you would call a growth machine. Sales ($19.2 billion last year) and employment (43,000 worldwide) levels are flat, and the drug industry itself is both highly competitive and heavily regulated.

Finally, in the week preceding the Devens win, Gillette Co. announced its intention to close a packaging plant in the very same community. That's at least 100 jobs gone, maybe as many as 300 depending on whom you talk to. Sun Microsystems is clipping another 50 from its Burlington campus. And not long ago, Mercury Computer (80 jobs) and Avici Systems (about 135 worldwide) each announced broad-based layoffs.

You get the point: 350 new jobs can be canceled out pretty quickly.

So congratulations to our state office and agencies. Take a bow. Then get back out there and find some more businesses.

Because just as the Yankees come back to challenge the Sox every year on the diamond, you can bet North Carolina will do the same in the business arena.

Dan O'Brien's e-mail address is dobrien@lowellsun.com.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Sun, Lowell, Mass.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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BMY, PG, SUNW, MRCY, AVCI,

Source: The Sun (Lowell, Massachusetts)

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