2 min read November 2022 — Rick Kidder, Co-CEO of One SouthCoast Chamber, spoke with Invest: about development within New Bedford and Fall River as both are set to become a major part of the offshore wind industry, the construction of a rail connection with Boston and the challenges faced due to high energy costs and demand for a quality workforce.
What have been some of the highlights for the Chamber over the past year?
Overall, we are seeing a return to stability here due to the adaptability of the business community. One SouthCoast Chamber is a regional chamber and the second-largest in the commonwealth in terms of membership. We represent 22 communities with a membership of some 1,500 businesses throughout Southeastern Massachusetts. While we only started in January 2020, we are actually a combination of two chambers of commerce. Regrettably, three months after our foundation we went into lockdown. As such, the biggest change that we have seen is obviously the emergence from COVID. New Bedford is lucky in the sense that it is the most valuable fishing port in the United States; 80% of the world’s sea scallops come from New Bedford. Furthermore, both Fall River and Bedford are going to become a part of the offshore wind industry.
How have membership levels shifted, if they have at all, in 2022 for you?
We lost fewer members on a percentage basis than most did through the pandemic, going from some 1,580 members to about 1,350 members. We have just begun our billings for January 2023 and those are coming in at an astoundingly robust level, even though the payment deadline is by January 2023. Essentially, what we are seeing is that our value proposition has remained strong, although we have seen a small decline in membership.
What are some of the major events that you are looking forward to for the business community?
As we near the end of 2022, most of our events are focused inward, such as our annual meeting where major decisions are taken and reviewed, individual and business awards are handed out, and we have our annual dinner with the governor in December. In 2023, our focus is more toward the public, such as job fairs. We do two major job affairs a year with more than 100 companies and we also have a public-facing celebratory event called Chowderfest.
We are also looking forward to the offshore wind industry as it’ll create many jobs. More significantly, it will be one of the new industries within this area. Furthermore, New Bedford and Fall River have not had a rail connection to Boston since 1958. We have worked tirelessly to re-establish and maintain this connection to Boston and we are proud to say that in 2023, we will have regular passenger rail to Boston. That is going to allow talent to move around a lot more easily than now. It will also enhance us as a visitor location. We are very pleased that SouthCoast Rail will come to life at the end of January 2023.
What are the main challenges that your members are facing?
Workforce, energy and construction costs are the major challenges. Our energy costs are extremely high. There is no natural gas pipeline because there is a strong commitment to clean energy solutions, which sometimes hinders us from getting to a solution to our current energy woes. A lot of our businesses – manufacturing, fish processing, freezing units – are energy dependent so there are challenges there.
The construction industry and workforce housing are also seeing challenges because while the cost of land here is considerably cheaper than in Boston, the construction costs are generally about 90% of the costs for what you would pay in Boston. So, there is often a disconnect between projects and an inability to pencil in new developments here.
Providing a quality workforce has become another problem because while we have a low unemployment rate, we have also seen a decline in the workforce participation rate.
What makes the SouthCoast an attractive location to relocate or start a business?
We have remarkable physical beauty and we have an affordability that is considerably different from other coastlines. On the visitor side, we tend to market the region as “all here, all near,” partly because everything you could want is here. For example, you can go to Martha’s Vineyard on a ferry from New Bedford or you can buy a house here for almost a quarter of what you would pay there. Additionally, New Bedford is an extremely diverse city due to it being a port city. In the past, it was the whaling capital of the world. Additionally, we also have a skilled manufacturing workforce in both New Bedford and Fall River. Remarkable clothing manufacturing is taking place in both of these places even though most of these industries have moved overseas. Fall River and New Bedford also had a strong manufacturing base in the early 1900s, particularly in textiles. Fall River’s nickname was Spindle City once. We also have relatively low entry costs for property and for existing building stock. Our schools have been in a constant state of improvement, which is extremely important for people when they move here, and our tax rates remain relatively low as compared to other places in the Commonwealth.
Also, arts and culture are extremely important to us. New Bedford has a symphony orchestra that has performed for more than a hundred years. We have a magnificent national-level theater with 1,800 seats and local theater companies as well. We also have old mills that have been converted into artist studios. For the workforce, these are real differentiators.
What achievements would you highlight for the Chamber’s educational committee?
We have started to put business people and educators in direct contact with each other through exchange programs. For example, we brought 30 business people to one of our school districts to spend half a day there to see what teachers teach and then we brought the teachers over to our businesses to see what is being done there and what is necessary now regarding the workforce. We are especially doing this work with the colleges because a lot of our workforce will be first-generation college kids. We must build these things into their curriculum.
What is the outlook and your top priority for One SouthCoast Chamber moving forward in the next three to five years?
We are engaged in a strategic planning exercise to build connectivity in the community. Quality of life is going to be a major factor for us going forward. The outlook for both the Chamber and the region is positive as they are both very strong. We are in an excellent cash position and we have emerged from the pandemic probably stronger than when we entered it. The region is going through a revitalization period with the addition of the train and the new energy industry that will bring in a lot of the blue economy activities that are our bread and butter because we are deeply connected with the ocean.
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