Economic development bill green-lights investments across Western Massachusetts Ali Guerra | usagoldmines.com

SPRINGFIELD — Food science, quantum computing and cybersecurity: These are some of the efforts in the Pioneer Valley named in the economic development bond bill signed by Gov. Maura Healey Wednesday.

The $4 billion piece of legislation touted by the governor as a way to create jobs and bolster businesses includes $30 million for a food science research center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and $40 million to boost quantum computing in Springfield and Western Massachusetts.

Increased funding for cybersecurity statewide will also flow to Springfield because of the cybersecurity center that recently opened in Springfield’s Union Station, said Richard K. Sullivan, president and CEO of the Western Mass Economic Development Council.

“It probably is the single biggest investment in very specific sectors,” Sullivan said, “certainly in a long period of time. A lot of credit is due to the governor for it.”

Sullivan also thanked the region’s legislative delegation for the bill, which also includes a tax incentive for data centers that could restart a dormant project in Westfield as well as line items for Westmass Area Development Corporation’s Ludlow Mills project and for Springfield’s redevelopment project on South Main Street at the landmark Clock Tower Building at the corner of State and Main.

“These are important earmarks and important statements from the state,” Sullivan said.

He warned, though, that the bond bill is just the first step. The next step is to refine projects and get the money appropriated.

University of Massachusetts Amherst’s preeminence in food research and clean water technology is an underutilized economic asset for the region, according to an EDC-produced study released in March.

And just last month, the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center and its Boston-based partner, QuEra Computing, announced plans to build a $16 million quantum computing complex in Holyoke over the next two years.

The $5 million cybersecurity center opened for the fall semester in Union Station offering classroom and training opportunities as well as a real-world security operations center that can help local companies, nonprofits and governments deal with and protect from threats.

In Westfield, developers proposed a $2.7 billion data center back in 2021, teasing that a major player in the computer world like Google or Meta might be among the potential clients.

State Rep. Michael J. Finn, D-West Springfield, said facilities like this one can spend $50 million or more a year updating equipment.

“That can be cost-prohibitive in a lot of places,” Finn said.

Massachusetts included. That’s why developers held out for the tax break, promising 400 jobs. Otherwise, the project location is attractively close to power lines and Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport.

Jeff Daley, president and CEO of Westmass Area Development Corporation said he’s already started talking with the potential developers about restarting the project.

Daley also praised earmarks in the bill.

There is $3.5 million for the Ludlow Mills brownfields redevelopment project. The money will be used to prepare buildings for construction and to make the project more carbon neutral by planting more trees, for instance.

Another $1 million went to DevelopSpringfield, also overseen by Daley, for the Clock Tower project. A Chicago-based developer plans to create 90-plus market-rate apartments in three city-owned buildings, including the Clock Tower Building sitting at the corner of State and Main streets in Springfield.

The bill also authorizes public agencies and municipalities to enter into project labor agreements for public works contracts when such an agreement is in the best interest of the public agency or municipality.

That provision answers a Hampden County court decision that threw out a project labor agreement for the new West Parish Water Treatment Plant at the Springfield Water and Sewer Authority. The ruling came much to the frustration of labor unions but was hailed by nonunion contractors.