Who is a member?
Our members are the local governments of Massachusetts and their elected and appointed leadership.
The Quincy Center for Innovation, an entity designed to help make the city a favored location for biotechnology startups and other life sciences companies, opened at the beginning of October.
Plans for the center – currently housed in space being leased from Eastern Nazarene College, in the city’s Wollaston section – were launched roughly two years ago, according to Dean Rizzo, the president of the Quincy Chamber of Commerce.
As of late October, 11 entrepreneurs were renting space in the center. Rizzo said that the center has space to accommodate close to 100 clients in cubicles or open desk space. Rates range from $100 to $650 a month, depending on each project’s space needs.
In 2011, according to Rizzo, the Chamber of Commerce worked with local companies and the office of Mayor Thomas Koch to assemble a $65,000 fund that was used to market Quincy as the site of a cluster of young biotechnology companies. The fund was used to promote the Center for Innovation in various venues, including Biotech Industry Organization conventions in Boston, Washington, D.C., and Chicago.
Chamber of Commerce members also toured other areas in Massachusetts where the life sciences are important, including Worcester, Lowell, Cambridge and Boston, Rizzo said.
He added that while the Chamber of Commerce is leasing space at a reasonable cost from Eastern Nazarene College, officials envision the Innovation Center eventually moving to the heart of downtown, where a major redevelopment project is underway.