Incentives

Our financial incentives make the William Stanley Business Park an especially inviting place to start or relocate your business. Some of our grants and loans are not available anywhere else in the state. These unique incentives include funds from the Pittsfield Economic Development Fund (formerly known as the GE Economic Development Fund), as well as from the Pittsfield Economic Revitalization Corporation.

The William Stanley Business Park is in a designated Massachusetts Economic Opportunity Area (EOA) and has a gold rating from the Mass. Biotechnology Council.

Michael Coakley, Pittsfield’s business development manager, may be able to combine funds from multiple local, state and federal programs to obtain the incentives you need. Each program has its own requirements and Mr. Coakley will help you. Contact Michael Coakley at 413-448-9726 or send an email to [email protected].

Here are some of the programs that may be available to you:

Exclusive Pittsfield Incentives
Pittsfield can offer significant economic incentives that are not available anywhere else in Massachusetts. The Pittsfield Economic Development Fund (formerly known as the GE Economic Development Fund) offers incentives for significant business projects in the City. These incentives may include grants, loans with or without forgiveness provisions, and tax relief. Decisions are made on a project-by-project basis. The mayor makes the proposal for funding to the City Council for approval.
Property Tax Relief
This program provides a process for negotiating various local and state tax incentives with qualifying businesses in exchange for job growth and private capital investment. Under this program, businesses have the opportunity to seek exemptions from either or both the Commonwealth and the City.
For selected investments, the City of Pittsfield will negotiate an incremental phasing-in of local property taxes associated with development over five to 20 years. The amount of the tax exemption is typically based on a percentage of the value added through new construction or significant improvement.
MassDevelopment Financing
MassDevelopment offers bond financing programs as a cost-effective way for companies to finance capital projects, new equipment purchases, and facility expansions. They also provide loans and guarantees to help grow your operations, and development assistance for early-stage projects.
Job Creation Grants
The City of Pittsfield makes grants under the federally-funded Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for economic development, particularly job creation and other projects that benefit low- to moderate-income households. CDBG grants are also available to improve housing and for handicapped access to workplaces.
Investment Tax Credits
A 5% tax credit provided by the state for all types of businesses. The ITC applies to the cost of renovations of the real estate and to capital acquisitions having a depreciable life of four or more years.

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Workforce Development

Pittsfield will help you find and train the people you need in your new location.

Berkshire Innovation Center
The Berkshire Innovation Center, a $13.8 million facility at the William Stanley Business Park, builds upon the region’s deep experience in life sciences, custom materials (e.g., plastics, paper, textiles), manufacturing and defense industries. The BIC’s collaborative environment brings together design thinkers, entrepreneurs and engineers so that they can have their next “eureka moment.”
Shared cutting-edge rapid prototyping equipment lets members test ideas before committing to manufacturing. The state-of-the-art facility includes large scale 3D printers for digital anatomy and high-performance materials, SolidWorks CAD software with workstations, a wet lab and a planned cleanroom. Companies in the area can elevate their level of precision and analytical power for prototyping.
Classrooms, lecture halls, five conference rooms, and meeting areas foster formal and informal interactions that stimulate creativity and lead to the next big idea. The BIC plans seminars and programs with leading experts, including those from nearby academic institutions, such as UMass, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and SUNY Colleges of Nanoscale Science & Engineering. Incubator and accelerator space are available for those that want to work in a rich, collaborative environment.
MassHire Career Center and Workforce Development
MassHire’s Pittsfield office wants to help you hire qualified candidates, train new and existing employees for your expansion or location. The services, which are provided at no cost, include job advertising, recruitment, interviewing, and pretesting of candidates. Workforce readiness programs and training are available for potential hires.
Training grants of $2000 to $250,000 from MassHire can help to upgrade the skills of employees so that your business is more competitive in the marketplace. Training grants have been given for machine setup and operation, sales, continuous improvement, software skills, customer service, leadership and more. You may use a training provider of your choice.
MassHire also offers an on-the-job training program that pays half of the wage of new hires while they learn new skills for a period of six months. MassHire assists in creating a training plan with the employer with specific measurements in place. The on-the-job training program is targeted at helping companies that have identified potential employees with some of the skill sets, but not all of the skill sets, that they need. Optionally, the MassHire staff will pre-interview applicants and thoroughly assess skill levels to carefully match applicants to your job requirements. You are not obligated to hire these candidates.
1Berkshire’s The Job Thing
Recruit candidates using 1Berkshire’s The Job Thing, a job portal that hosts only postings for full-time, permanent jobs located in the Berkshires that pay at least $40,000 annually. It’s a major recruitment tool with over 2,000,000 digital impressions in the first year.
Berkshire Community College
Berkshire Community College, located in Pittsfield, offers both credit and non-credit educational programs. Employees may look to improve their skills in accounting or marketing through credit or non-credit coursework or arrange for on-site education and training. BCC offers general business classes as well as courses that will improve skills in reading, writing and analytical thinking. Employees can take single courses or enroll in a degree or certificate program.
The college offers programs in advanced manufacturing, health care and hospitality. For example, the technical degree programs for Certified Nursing Assistants (CNA) and Phlebotomy were created in conjunction with Berkshire Health Systems. The college will also develop programs for employers with at least 12 employees in attendance. Previous programs have included basic communications skills, workshops in communications and food handling.
The credit courses parallel those that one might find during the freshman and sophomore years of business studies at a four-year college. BCC students transfer to public and private universities to complete their Bachelor’s degrees in any number of disciplines.
Because BCC is small and community-based, it is optimally positioned to work with business owners to customize programs for themselves or their employees.
Pittsfield Taconic High School and McCann Technical School
Pittsfield Taconic High School and nearby McCann Technical School offer opportunities for internships and co-operative work programs with majors in advanced manufacturing, automotive technology, computer-aided design, health technology, information technology and metal fabrication. Innovation includes the first-in-the-nation program between Toyota and Pittsfield’s Taconic High School leading to high school students graduating as Certified Toyota Technicians.

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Call Now.

We’ll Help You Get Started.

Michael Coakley
Business Development Manager
[email protected]
1-413-448-9726