Spring 2011
Office of Economic Development
Also In This Issue
Small Business Week Page 2
UMass Lowell Researchers Receive
$50K in New Tech Grants
Page 2
iShop Lowell: Buy Now, Win Later!
Page 2
Lowell Keeps Moving Forward
Page 3
Development Services Goes Online
Page 3
Lowell Businesses in the News
Page 4
What’s New in Lowell Page 4
LOWELL CITY COUNCIL
James L. Milinazzo
MAYOR
Kevin P. Broderick
VICE MAYOR
Edward “Bud” Caulfield
Franky D. Descoteaux
Rodney M. Elliott
William F. Martin
Joseph M. Mendonça
Rita M. Mercier
Patrick O. Murphy
Office of the
City Manager
Bernard F. Lynch
CITY MANAGER
Adam Baacke
ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER/
DPD DIRECTOR
Theresa Park
DIRECTOR OF
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Your Success is Our Business!
Entrepreneurship Drives New Economy
Entrepreneurship and
innovation have helped
shape the country’s
economy and are poised
to drive a new era of
prosperity. With the re-
cession in our rearview
mirror, entrepreneur-
ship and innovation will
play vital roles as key
contributors to new job
Dogpatch Labs, Cambridge MA
growth, merging local
businesses and investment into both financial and social communities. The
federal government has recognized the importance of entrepreneurs and in-
novation and has launched Startup America, an initiative to celebrate entre-
preneurship. But for innovation to flourish in Massachusetts, state and local
governments and organizations must implement various strategies to foster
entrepreneurs in their community. Here in Lowell, the needs of commercial
property owners and entrepreneurs must be aligned to support start-ups,
and to better understand the environment in which entrepreneurs flourish.
Entrepreneurship — Continues on Page 4
Community Teamworks Looks To Further
Entrepreneurship
Starting a business is a life-long goal for many - a goal unattainable to
many low-income entrepreneurs due to limited access to capital and other
resources. Lowell’s Community Teamworks Inc. is bridging this gap with
the help of a JOLI (Job Opportunities for Low Income) grant to develop the
Lowell Initiative to Further Entrepreneurship (LIFE) which will support
self-employment and microenterprises that will provide jobs to Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipients and other low-income
individuals trained in family child care, farming, and construction- and
energy-related fields. Through the LIFE program, entrepreneurs will be able
to take advantage of professional guidance, social support, and have access
to financial resources to get their business up and running.
CTI conducted research and found that the industries selected for LIFE are
well suited to self-employment and microenterprises. These new businesses
will also improve the Lowell community as a whole by creating jobs and
lowering the unemployment rate, which in turn will increase the amount of
money spent throughout the community. To learn more about Community
Teamworks, Inc.’s programs and services please visit www.comteam.org.
 MARK YOUR Small Business Week - 2011
CALENDAR
In order to celebrate and acknowledge the importance of the
MAY 19, 2011 estimated 26.2 million small businesses and entrepreneurs in
City of Lowell
the nation, the President has proclaimed May 16 - May 20 as
Small Business Fair
and CEO Luncheon National Small Business Week. Now, more than ever, small
businesses play a crucial role in the economic well-being of
10:00 AM - 1:00 PM
America. On May 19th 2011 the City of Lowell will be holding
UMass Lowell Inn
and Conference Center
its fourth annual Small Business Week Resource Fair to show
50 Warren Street support and provide valuable resources available for local
Lowell, MA small businesses. To find out more information please visit
the event website or follow our new city Twitter account at:
MAY 23, 2011
CityofLowellMA.
Free Legal Workshop
for Small Business, UMass-lowell Researchers Receive $50k In
Economic Justice Project
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
New Tech Grants
Middlesex Community College Through their Commercial Ventures and Intellectual Property Technology Devel-
Federal Building, opment Fund, the University of Massachusetts has given out $200,000 in grants to
Assembly Room
33 Kearney Square eight UMass researchers, which include two research teams comprised of Lowell
Lowell, MA and Worcester researchers. Each researcher or team received $25,000 to advance
RSVP: commercial development of their projects which include a high-tech bandage
lgsmith@lawyerscom.org and miniature pressure sensors that can be inserted into blood vessels to help
heart attack patients.
MAY 24, 2011
Coffee Hour in The high-tech bandage is the product of a team led by Stephen McCarthy and
the Sandbox! Raymond Dunn, both professors at UMass Lowell’s Plastics Engineering Depart-
8:30 AM - 10:00 AM ment, and Ronald Ignotz and Scott Wharram, professors at the Department of
Boott Cotton Mills Plastic Surgery at UMass Worcester. The “Biodegradable Bandage for Wounded
115 John Street Skin Regeneration,” is a bandage that can accelerate healing, deliver drug thera-
Lowell, MA pies to a wound site and then dissolve as the skin regenerates itself.
http://www.eventbrite.com/
event/1566546583 The second team consisted of Xingwei Wang, assistant professor of Electrical and
Computer Engineering at UMass Lowell, and Kurt Barringhaus, assistant profes-
sor of medicine at UMass Worcester. Their device, “Disposable Miniature Pres-
MAY 31, 2011
sure Sensors in Cardiology,” has the potential to help cardiologists better evaluate
The SBA Advantage
patients prior to angioplasty, the process of mechanically widening a narrowed or
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM obstructed blood vessel using stents. Lowell is quickly becoming home to many
Thomas P. O’Neill innovative medical device companies through the Massachusetts Medical Device
Federal Building Development Center (M2D2) and its soon to be completed incubator facility. Ad-
10 Causeway Street,
Room 265
ditional information on M2D2 can be found at www.uml.edu/m2d2.
Boston, MA
http://web.sba.gov/ iShop Lowell: Buy Now, Win Later!
calendar/public/
index.cfm?rc=0101 When you shopped or dined in downtown Lowell and spent over $25 this
spring you were qualified for a chance to win either an iPod product, a season
pass to the Lowell Summer Music Series or the grand prize of the new iPad.
JUNE 2-3, 2011
Over 1,100 people entered throughout the ten weeks and spent over $70,000
TiECON East 2011 in downtown retail establishments and restaurants.
June 2: 2:00 PM - 9:30 PM
June 3: 8:00 AM - 9:30 PM Visit www.lowell.org
The Westin Hotel to see pictures of
Waltham, MA the winners and
http://www.tieconeast. to see a list of
org/2011/ the participating
businesses!
Lowell Keeps Moving Forward MARK YOUR
CALENDAR
Hamilton Canal District
JUNE 7, 2011
On Monday, April 11th, city, state and local officials joined together to celebrate
Strategic Business Owner
the groundbreaking of the $4.72 million Canal Street Bridge and Jackson Street
Coaching Workshop
Improvement project located in the Hamilton Canal District. This is just another
6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
step forward in this $800 million project that is transforming 15 acres of vacant
and underutilized downtown land into a more vibrant community. The new Greater Lowell
Chamber of Commerce
bridge will allow access to the new Hamilton Canal District for both pedestri- 131 Merrimack Street
ans and automobiles. This portion of the project also includes improvements to Lowell, MA
the sidewalks, http://www.
lighting, and greaterlowellchamber.org/
streetscapes to eventCalendar.aspx
make it more in-
S
viting to tourists
and potential res- DO YOU HAVE AN EVENT
idents. Funding COMING UP THAT WOULD BE
of this project was OF INTEREST TO
possible through OUR READERS?
$2 million from LET US KNOW!
the U.S. Economic
Development Ad- Send an email
ministration, the with your event and
federal Commu- contact information to
nity Development Newsletter@LowellMA.Gov
Block Grant pro- to be included in
gram and match- our next issue.
ing funds from
the state’s Execu- L. to R.: City Manager Bernard F. Lynch, State Senator Eileen Dono-
tive Office of Hous- ghue, State Representative Tom Golden, U.S. Congresswoman Niki Development
ing and Economic Tsongas, and Mayor James Milinazzo at the site of the Canal Street
Bridge and Jackson Street improvement
Services Goes
Development. Online
Phase 1 of the Hamilton Canal District, when completed, will be home to 55,000 The City’s Development
SF of commercial space in the redeveloped Freudenburg building and 130 new Services Division now pro-
affordable artist live-work units at the Appleton Mills. Construction for the new vides development project
$175 million judicial courthouse is scheduled to commence in spring/summer information online. Project
2012. To learn more please visit www.hamiltoncanal.com . information will be made
available for those seeking
UMass Lowell Planning Board, Zoning
UMass Lowell continues to expand; a new $40 million classroom facility is on Board of Appeals or Conser-
the rise at the University’s South campus. The new 69,000 square-foot Health and vation Commission approval.
Social Sciences (HSS) building will be home to three of the most popular majors Projects already seeking re-
at UMass Lowell: psychology, nursing, and criminology. The four floor building view and permitting from the
will contain seven classrooms, 16 seminar/project rooms, eight conference rooms city’s land-use boards will
and 72 faculty offices. Completion of the construction is expected in the spring of also be available. The City
2013. This marks the second time in a year that UMass Lowell has broken ground hopes that this will mean
for a new building. Construction began last year at this time for the new Emerg- greater resident participa-
ing Technologies and Innovation Center which will be home to nanotechnology, tion in decision-making and
plastics engineering, biomedicine and electro-optics. To learn more information improved city user services.
about the status of these projects visit www.uml.edu. To learn more please call the
Division of Development
Services at 978-674-4144 or
Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/CityofLowellMA visit www.lowellma.gov/
for updates and special offers from downtown businesses! depts/dpd/permitting/
developmentprojects.
 Lowell Businesses in the News
Litle & Co.
Lowell-based Litle & Co., was the recipient of the 2011 Stevie Award in the “New Product & Ser-
vice” category: “IVR or Web Service Solution” for Litle Vault, the company’s platform-integrated
card tokenization service in Miami, Florida. The payment processing company behind leading
ecommerce and consumer-direct brands which include Overstock.com and Ancestory.com, also
received a runner-up nod in the “Back Office Customer Service Team of the Year”. This isn’t the
first Stevie Award for Litle & Co.; last year the company received the e-Commerce Customer Service Award.

Held yearly, the Stevie Awards honor - and generate public recognition of - the efforts, accomplishments, and
positive contributions of companies and business-people worldwide. Litle & Co. is a leading payment manage-
ment and processing platform for businesses that sell goods and services to merchants. The company is headquar-
tered at Cross Point Towers. www.litle.com.

Xenith
Xenith LLC, a Lowell-based company has raised $10.5 million for its high-
tech football helmet that has been designed to prevent concussions. The
funds have come from 61 equity investors. Xenith is the creator of the X1
helmet, which is based on two patent-pending technologies: one, a chin strap
designed to fit the helmet better to the head; the other, shock absorbers that were designed to respond to different
levels of impact. Xenith has been making a name for themselves throughout the country, with concussions becom-
ing a recurring injury in sports. To learn more about this innovative company, visit their website: www.xenith.com.

Entrepreneurship — Continued from Page 1

What’s New in Lowell
Stop in at Indigo Salon and Day
Spa at 165 Merrimack Street in
downtown Lowell where you can
receive a variety of beautifying and
rejuvenation services including a
haircut, manicure, or massage!
Visit www.indigo-dayspa.com.
For a night out in Lowell where you
can enjoy some live jazz, comedy,
and drinks, stop in at Back Page
located at 15 Kearney Square. Visit
rgem at www.backpagelowell.com.
Need a morning or afternoon break?
Stop by the new King’s Coffee on
Market Street for a hot coffee or
cappuccino to get you going!
Looking for a new outfit and shoes
to match? Then stop in at Persona
Boutique located at 51 Market
Street or visit their website at www.
shop-persona.com.
Stop in to George’s Textiles at 350
Merrimack Street. With a new store
and website, come see what they
have to offer! You can also visit them
at www.georgestextiles.com.
On March 29th, the Economic
Development Office visited Cam-
bridge, MA and toured three very
different coworking spaces - the
Cambridge Innovation Center, Dog-
patch Labs, and Performable Inc to
better understand of how coworking
space could work in our city.
Coworking involves shared office
space yet independent activity. It
is attractive to entrepreneurs and
start-ups that have few employees
and is cost effective for those who
can not afford their own building.
The proximity of the businesses in
coworking space encourages shar-
ing, energy, and serendipity between
similar and diverse companies ac-
cording to Xconomy. Cambridge
Innovation Center is a coworking
space of 130,000 SF with the space
roughly broken down to 400 SF
areas, suitable for 350 businesses
of 4 - 8 people. On the other hand.
Dogpatch Labs and Performable Inc.
are open floor plans with each busi-
ness having its own desk. Each of
these spaces have shared conference
rooms, common areas with kitch-
ens, and free internet. The idea of
coworking spaces like these three is
not to move companies out the door,
but to enable entrepreneurs to work
collaboratively in an encouraging
environment. This model has proven
to be very successful in helping
small businesses and entrepreneurs
get off the ground and improve their
success rate in the world.
Lowell has many qualities attractive
to entrepreneurs - access to cutting
edge research, peer networking op-
portunities, cultural and recreational
amenities, and much more. Adapt-
ing buildings for coworking space
would clinch Lowell as a go-to desti-
nation for entrepreneurs. The three
examples offered here are just some
of the ways to affordably retrofit
space to meet the needs of entrepre-
neurs’ work styles. To learn about
the three spaces described please
contact the Office of Economic De-
velopment or visit www.cictr.com,
www.performable.com , or www.
dogpatchlabs.com. To learn more
about Startup America visit the
Startup America site at www.white-
house.gov/issues/startup-america.