Gaskin: Life science jobs could elevate Boston’s future

I was excited to learn of Mayor Michelle Wu’s $4.7 million in funding to help Boston’s life science workforce and Governor Maura Healey’s $1 billion Mass Leads Act request to support the life science and climate tech industries. I was especially interested in larger funding rounds for biomanufacturing, early-stage drug and device makers, and increased workforce training and internships to bring more blue-collar workers and students without college degrees into the life science workforce.

Trinh Nguyen, Wu’s Chief of Worker Empowerment, is leading the effort to ensure these are effective public, private partnership that create jobs for those living in the Roxbury and Dorchester area. These are often six-figure jobs that could bring real economic development and wealth creation to the area.

I have been a strong supporter of advanced manufacturing in urban areas for years, even though experts told me it is impossible because Massachusetts is a high-cost manufacturing state and thus not competitive with low-cost manufacturing states. They didn’t understand advanced manufacturing and the price elasticity of biomanufacturing or building robotics and clean-tech products.

I was equally excited when Housing and Economic Development Secretary Mike Kennealy and Wu announced a MassWorks award for Nubian Square Ascends, a $111 million project to build a 200,000 sq. ft. development in Roxbury. Nubian Square Ascends is expected to create or sustain approximately 900 jobs and will include contracting opportunities for minority-owned and women-owned businesses during all phases of construction. My City at Peace and HYM Investment Group proposes to build 700,000 square feet of life science space on Parcel 3 in Roxbury.

This is all good news considering urban manufacturing’s demonstrated impact in other cities across the country. Richard Taylor, the developer of Nubian Ascends once said that you can’t create wealth when everyone is running around with an EBT card. That hit me. Grove Hall is one of the poorest sections of Boston based on census track data. The business mix includes non-profits, storefront churches, bodegas, convenience stores, barber shops, beauty salons, and quick service restaurants. These businesses have not provided a clear path to the middle class for many owners or employees.

Nubian Square Ascends, and the new Benjamin Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology (BFCIT) campus being built adjacent to it are joining forces to establish the Nubian Ascends Life Science Job Training Center, which will house the college’s Biotech Manufacturing Training labs. The Training Center will provide new pathways for economic development in the heart of Boston. This job training hub could also anchor an ecosystem for advanced manufacturing, with a special emphasis on the biotech and clean tech sectors — two of the state’s high-growth areas. The advanced manufacturing program will run out of BFCIT and a co-location facility at the Dearborn STEM high school and could service students attending other high schools in the area or Roxbury Community College. Currently, Boston is the only region in the state that does not have a well-funded, state-supported advanced manufacturing program.

This will change because manufacturing jobs do not require an expensive or extensive post-secondary education. These jobs exist in Boston’s core and provide a clear path to the middle class for those unemployed, underemployed workers, veterans, and or union workers looking to upgrade their skills, and those with employment challenges such as CORIs. These two Nubian Square developments and their job training focus areas could change that.

There is a need to tighten the linkage between white-collar innovation jobs and blue-collar manufacturing jobs. There is no reason for us to continue to export jobs to other states and lose the jobs, revenue, and corresponding taxes. But according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, that is what we are doing. As pharma companies increase their R&D investment in the state, we continue to lose the corresponding pharmaceutical manufacturing jobs.

According to MassBio, there has been a record-setting flow of investment into Massachusetts, and now, there’s demand for new factories to make those medicines — and the workforce to go with them.

Leveraging the Nubian Ascends and BFCIT partnership could play a central role in Greater Boston’s workforce development strategy, complementing the existing strategy to place workers in culinary, hospitality, and healthcare jobs.

The state leads in biotech, but not in biomanufacturing. The six largest employer states in the drugs and pharmaceuticals manufacturing segment are California, New Jersey, North Carolina, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, and Indiana. Some argue that Massachusetts cannot be a leader in manufacturing because of high energy, labor, and real estate costs. But California, New York, and New Jersey are not known for being low-cost manufacturing states.

Advanced manufacturing uses knowledge workers more than traditional “laborers.” Those involved in precision manufacturing should be thought of as artisans, making value-added parts that have high margins and are price-inelastic. Manufacturers of these parts can absorb Massachusetts’ higher manufacturing costs while remaining competitive, profitable, and growing. In addition, these jobs can’t easily be offshored.

Based on advanced manufacturing concepts, biomanufacturing includes “bio-ink” 3-D bioprinting and Biofabrication. The clinical biomanufacturing applications market is segmented into skin printing, bone and cartilage printing, blood vessel printing, and other clinical applications. Other applications include the printing of organs. A bladder was 3D printed and successfully transplanted into a human. The potential positive impact of 3D-printed organs is the ability to customize organs for the recipient. This capability would complement the state’s healthcare leadership e.g. the Longwood Medical area. Young Black and brown students, as well as adults from Roxbury and Dorchester, could be learning biomanufacturing skills. We would expect such a training facility to draw students from both the North and South shores, as well as west of the city.

It is estimated that $100 billion in capital expenditure investments will be required to bring approximately 45 gigawatts of offshore wind online in New England by 2050.

The amount that is forecast to be spent on climate change will create significant opportunities in clean tech and workers for those opportunities could be trained in this new development.

Now is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and we need to take advantage of it. We need to embrace the advanced manufacturing industry, tighten the relationships between white-collar and blue-collar industry workers, and open up a pathway to the middle-class.

 Ed Gaskin is Executive Director of Greater Grove Hall Main Streets and founder of Sunday Celebrations.