Global engineering firm to move 800 employees to One Beacon building

An office of the Shaw Group, a well respected global engineering firm, will move 800 employees to the One Beacon Building at 150 Royall Street in Canton. Most of the employees will move from the Stoughton and Cambridge offices in 2012.

The nearly 190,000-square-foot space will be leased after One Beacon downsized its operations. One Beacon will remain in a smaller portion of the complex (70,000 square feet).

The Shaw Group is a global provider of engineering, construction, technology and support services in the energy, chemicals, environmental, infrastructure and emergency response industries. It is a Fortune 500 company with 2011 revenues of $5.9 billion. The company has nearly 27,000 employees around the world.

In other business news, Gene Manning, chairman of the town’s Economic Development Committee, said the Cumberland Farms Realty Group has begun demolition of some of its buildings on the Dedham Street site in hopes of improving the view of the property for sale. Cumberland Farms has moved its corporate offices to Framingham as it has combined forces with Gulf Oil.

“Cumberland Farms felt the building was an eyesore and that it was blocking the view to the entire site for a potential new development,” said Manning. “There were costs associated with maintaining the building (sprinklers and heat), so they decided to take it down.”

Manning said there is some interest in the site, although many companies are waiting for the new I-95 exit ramp on Dedham Street to be completed as the new ramp will increase traffic capacity in the area.

Manning also commented on the impact of the Shaw Group move as well as some of the other projects the EDC is working on.

“The town of Canton looks forward to welcoming the Shaw Group and their 800 associates to 150 Royall Street in summer of 2012,” he said. “We would like to acknowledge the great partnership with John Ferrari, vice president of real estate at One Beacon Insurance and president of the Canton Association of Business and Industry (CABI) in their initial investment and development of the property and their ongoing support of the Canton business community.

“The Canton Economic Development Committee and the Board of Selectmen are currently working on additional projects, including the recent sale of 10 Pequot Way to Harbar Inc., who will be expanding their existing business located at 320 Turnpike Street, and also 40 Pequot Way to Lojack Corporation, who will be consolidating offices from Westwood and Canton and relocating 200 associates.”

Manning said the EDC and selectmen are working closely with the state Office of Business Development and with the offices of both state Senator Brian Joyce and state Rep. Bill Galvin to leverage state and federal programs that are available for business development.

“We believe Canton offers all of the key attributes that businesses consider in choosing a location in eastern Massachusetts,” Manning said, “with a premier geographic location, access to both commuter rail and major highways, and outstanding town services, combined with municipal leadership supportive of business development. Our economic development strategy is to position Canton for long-term growth and prosperity and continue to attract private sector investment. We feel Canton is a tremendous community to locate a business in Massachusetts and look forward to the Shaw Group joining our existing business member companies.”

Besides the sale of the Cumberland Farms site, two other sites the EDC is actively pursuing are 10 and 20 Dan Road. Both sites are available because Armstrong Pharmaceuticals is moving to 10 John Road. The two sites have 150,000 and 100,000 square feet of retail space, respectively. Manning envisions that both Dan Road sites could have tenants by the first quarter of 2012.

Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=9867

Posted by Mike Berger on Nov 23 2011. Filed under Business. Both comments and pings are currently closed.