A rendering of the Berkshire Innovation Center expansion. The original facility ends at about the middle of the expanded building, where the dark gray meets the light gray. That light gray and everything to the right of it is the expansion.

Myrias Optics will be the main occupant of the expansion as it makes small mirrors for advanced manufacturing needs.

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By Nate Harrington

iBerkshires Staff
(c) 2026 iBerkshires

PITTSFIELD — The Berkshire Innovation Center has come one step closer to having new manufacturing capabilities that could bring dozens of jobs to Pittsfield.

At a Pittsfield Economic Development Authority meeting last Thursday, plans for the 8,000-square-foot expansion to the Berkshire Innovation Center were unveiled. The space is set to begin construction in November and should be complete by early summer, said Michael Coakley, the executive director of the development authority.

“This will very much put the city of Pittsfield at the forefront of technology here with the advanced manufacturing and tech hub,” Coakley said.

The center first opened in early 2020. The two-story, 23,000-square-foot building cost $13.8 million to construct and took 12 years to get from conception to completion. It was seen as a way to compete with and build on the high-tech economy in eastern Massachusetts.

Over the past six years, the center has hosted labs testing materials that could be used in space missions and entrepreneurs looking for solutions to climate problems, like a water-filtration startup.

Now, the center looks to add to that breadth of industry and establish a tech hub where more advanced manufacturing and other high-tech companies could occupy. That starts with the 8,000 square-foot addition which will be primarily occupied by Myrias Optics.

“They’ve commercialized nano-imprinted optics technology, which are micro lenses,” Coakley said. “They’re used for consumer electronics, datacom, telecom, augmented reality and industrial applications.”

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And in the coming expansion, the company will set up manufacturing inside the BIC. Myrias Optics will sign a 10-year lease and hire 10 full-time employees earning at least $65,000 annually. As it grows, the company projects it could employ as many as 55, with average salaries exceeding $110,000.

Myrias is one of two anchor companies the BIC has, which will hopefully attract other companies to come, Coakley said, especially those that need to use a clean room.

A clean room prevents contamination that could be detrimental to the quality of products produced by companies like Myrias, where precision is required. These rooms limit the airborne particles and other contaminant matter by having strict entry and exit protocols and industrial air-filtration systems.

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The coming expansion is chiefly funded by a $7.2 million state grant that was awarded by the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, Coakley said. The Pittsfield Economic Development fund offered the BIC $500,000 for the project, and Myrias was offered $500,000 from the Pittsfield Economic Development fund.

The foundation work for the expansion — which, looking at the BIC from East Street, will be added to the right side of the building — will be started in November, Coakley said. The shell of the expansion should be done by February, with the clean room, the final phase, finishing in early summer.