The opening of the new, environmentally and employee-friendly Genzyme headquarters in Cambridge, Mass., in April 2004 is just one of many active examples of brownfields turning green across the Commonwealth.
      After closing on the former Texas Instruments site in Attleboro in January 2005, Philadelphia, Pa.-based Preferred Real Estate Investments broke ground in March on its planned mixed-use redevelopment of the 261-acre (106-hectare) site and its 14 buildings. The transformation includes a $29-million, 220,000-sq.-ft. (20,438-sq.-m.) business and technology center for TI's Sensors & Controls business, with TI investing US$7 million of that total. TI, which employs 1,300 at the site, signed a 20-year-lease for the build-to-suit, as well as a 10-year lease for 215,000 separate sq. ft. (19,974 sq. m.) of manufacturing space.
      Meanwhile, Preferred is pointing out the on-site industrial wastewater treatment plant, redundant power and freight rail access as major selling points for the remaining space, located some 30 minutes south of Boston. Even though negotiations with the city yielded no incentives for the project, Preferred went ahead, and company officials from both TI and Preferred still hope to work out some kind of deal.
      TI performed uranium operations on part of the site from 1952 to 1981, and completed successful remediation in 1997. Seven years later, Texas Instruments engaged The Staubach Company to represent them in the sale and repositioning of the campus. TI's S&C business currently occupies about 1.1 million sq. ft. (102,190 sq. m.) at the Attleboro site. The eastern end of the site includes about 110 acres (45 hectares) of undeveloped land that is currently zoned for residential uses.
      "Throughout the project our goal has been to achieve the best use of the site for both TI and the larger community," said Jim Armstrong, a TI vice president, in a press release. "With a quality partner like Preferred, we feel confident we will meet those objectives."
      That sense of best use has been at the center of another property across the state for decades, and the results of unparalleled collaboration are beginning to see the light.