MORE Grant Award

PRESS RELEASE – 4:30 p.m. June 13, 2008

RESIDENTS OPPOSE GOVERNOR PATRICK’S ANNOUNCEMENT OF PUBLIC FINANCING OF GLOUCESTER CROSSING SHOPPING MALL

Governor Deval Patrick has announced a state $2.2 million MORE Jobs grant to Gloucester Crossing, a new shopping mall to be built in Gloucester by private developer, Sam Park. This grant is in direct violation of the guidelines of the MORE program established by the State legislature in 2007. The Governor’s office has not responded to multiple inquiries and questions from Gloucester residents about the inappropriateness of state funding for this private mall developer. A petition with over 600 signatures in opposition to grants or tax breaks for Gloucester Crossing has been submitted to the Governor’s Office of Housing and Economic Development.

Citizens have articulated their many reasons for opposition to public financing.

Gloucester Crossing does not meet the MORE grant criteria to generate substantial sales from outside the Commonwealth and create 100 new permanent full-time jobs.
Gloucester Crossing will not provide exceptional economic benefit to Gloucester. To the contrary, it is likely that this new shopping mall will lead to more and more stores closing in Gloucester’s downtown area and in the industrial parks. Any jobs created will be low-wage service jobs. Profits will head out of town as well. In effect, this grant will be a “reverse MORE” project, because revenues will flow out of rather than into Massachusetts.

There are far superior uses of MORE grant and other state support to Gloucester, such as:

-Wastewater pretreatment on the harbor – The Gloucester Harbor Committee has requested funding for years for wastewater pretreatment that would allow for substantially more value-added fish product development on the harbor. When the “dehyde” plant was closed years ago, much fish processing went elsewhere in the state. This is the kind of project that the MORE Jobs program has funded in the past.

-Parking garage in the downtown – Downtown development committees and other City plans have routinely recommended that additional parking be provided for shoppers. This will help Main Street businesses, rather than hurt them.

The City has not conducted a complete economic analysis of the impact of the project. Lost business on Main Street has not been considered nor the lost multiplier effect of sales circulating over and over within the local economy. The developer has announced his intentions of engaging corporate “box” stores and national/international hotel and assisted living chains.