5Q: Stephen J. King

 / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
/ PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

1 Quonset Development Corporation is launching a radio campaign to promote QuonsetJobs.com. What’s behind this effort and how will it help?

This campaign allows us to get the word out and let the job seekers know that there are jobs. And it helps the companies find workers, ultimately leading to their success.

2 With nearly 200 companies employing more than 10,000 full- and part-time workers, what do you pin Quonset’s success on thus far?

We have a plan, we have resources for our plan and we’re persistent about it. The resources are a part of a joint effort with our state and federal partners and the voters who approved some bonds for us, which was key.

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3 How do you plan to grow?

Most of the heavy lifting – the financial lifting and the infrastructure work – is behind us, so it’s just to keep our plan up to date and stick to it and provide certainty to the people who want to locate here. Our plan has been to modernize and prepare our sites for people to come here in a timely and predictable fashion and that’s what we’re focused on, and to follow our overall master plan and focus on what needs to be mixed use, light industrial, heavy industrial and waterfront industrial.

4 What can you tell us about the international convenience-food manufacturer Greencore Group PLC opening in Quonset this spring?

They’ve built a brand-new facility, 107,000 square feet from the ground up, and are wrapping up the construction [this month]. They’re going to have a production line, and they’re doing about 35 million sandwiches and salads a year [to be] distributed throughout the Northeast from Portland, Maine, to New York City and everything in between. They have a time-sensitive product that needs to be delivered in a certain amount of time, so our location for them worked very well.

5 Besides the jobs-awareness campaign, what are key areas of focus for Quonset?

Our master plan projects we can support 15,000 to 16,000 jobs here at the park, so we hope to be closing in on 11,000 by 2016. We have 250 acres of property remaining and we’ve been absorbing that at a rate of about 30-40 acres a year and if that trend is to continue we would absorb most of the real estate and reach close to our goal of 15,000 jobs [by 2020]. I think like any business that has a product to sell, we have to be committed to our customers, to market the place and continue to find companies that are looking to grow and expand – that’s really the focus. •

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