FROED One Government Center Fall River, MA 02722-7700 Tel 508-324-2620 Fax 508-677-2840 info@froed.org		New Grants Promise Boost to jobs, Economy The Herald News, Friday, April 3, 2009 - Page A1 FALL RIVER — Job creation and economic development will be the focal points when state and local officials converge at the intersection of Airport and Riggenbach Roads today at noon in the Fall River Industrial Park. Kofi Jones, spokeswoman for the state Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development Secretary Gregory Bialecki, said the event would have major economic development ramifications. “We will be revealing a number of grants to support the creation of the Executive Park in Fall River,” Jones said. “The announcement is a result of a collaboration between city, state and UMass officials and will also include permanent environmental preservation.” The development will include a University of Massachusetts Dartmouth facility as its first anchor tenant. It also will provide environmental safeguards for the nearby Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve, a 13,600-acre area of protected land. Scheduled to attend are Mayor Robert Correia, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Chancellor Jean F. MacCormack; Massachusetts Life Sciences Center Chief Operating Officer Melissa Walsh; Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Mary Griffin; state Sen. Joan Menard, D-Fall River; state Rep. Mike Rodrigues, D-Westport; state Rep. Kevin Aguiar, D-Fall River; and state Rep. David B. Sullivan, D-Fall River. The press conference will take place where part of a new Route 24 interchange will be built, recently funded with $66.9 million as part of the federal highway stimulus package. The new interchange, which will be located between exits 8 and 9 on Route 24, will connect South Main Street in Freetown to the west, Executive Park Drive to the east and Riggenbach Road to the south. The proposed ramp would allow access to both the proposed 300-acre Fall River Executive Park, which would accommodate 2.4 million square feet as a business campus for biotech, medical manufacturing and/or health-related industries, and the proposed 575-acre site at the Freetown Riverfront Business Park, which would accommodate 2.5 million square feet of space. The two parks combined could create 11,000 jobs: 8,000 in Fall River and 3,000 in Freetown, officials have said. As part of the plan, Fall River would build the Executive Park near the Industrial Park on 300 acres of land in the Fall River-Freetown State Forest. The city would purchase that land from the state for $2.45 million. The state plans to use that money to purchase 3,800 acres of private land in the Watuppa Reservation that, combined with 4,300 acres of Fall River-owned land and other state-owned land, would create a 13,600-acre bioreserve planned for recreation, hunting and educational purposes. Back