Middleboro breaks ground on new industrial park
Lt. Governor Kimberly Driscoll speaks at the groundbreaking ceremony held on West Grove Street on Wednesday, Nov. 5. Photos by Grace Roche
Middleboro officials, Driscoll and state Sen. Kelly Dooner pose together. 
One of the project contractors shovels dirt at the ceremony. 
Driscoll (left) and Select Board member Teresa Farley break ground on the project together. 
Along with officials, representatives from the building project attended the ceremony. 
Attendees, including Dooner (center), toast after the ceremony. 
A bulldozer drives through the construction site.
Lt. Governor Kimberly Driscoll speaks at the groundbreaking ceremony held on West Grove Street on Wednesday, Nov. 5. Photos by Grace Roche
Middleboro officials, Driscoll and state Sen. Kelly Dooner pose together.
One of the project contractors shovels dirt at the ceremony.
Driscoll (left) and Select Board member Teresa Farley break ground on the project together.
Along with officials, representatives from the building project attended the ceremony.
Attendees, including Dooner (center), toast after the ceremony.
A bulldozer drives through the construction site.
MIDDLEBORO — Amid upturned soil and clanking excavation equipment, town and state officials gathered at the construction site of a new industrial park for a groundbreaking ceremony.
Lt. Governor Kimberly Driscoll spoke at the Oct. 5 ceremony, along with Town Manager James McGrail, state Sen. Kelly Dooner and several representatives from Rexa, the electronic manufacturing company soon to occupy the West Grove Street site.
The company currently operates out of West Bridgewater, but outgrew its building and will soon relocate to Middleboro.
Steve Minichiello, the director of sales, said the company was initially considering moving out of state but wanted to remain in the area and avoid uprooting over 200 employees.
Middleboro made a Tax Increment Agreement — an incentive bringing businesses to an area through incremental tax increases over a number of years — with Rexa and brought the $33 million project to the town.
“The Planning Board, Select Board, everybody's been fantastic to work with,” Minichiello said. “It's been a great working relationship.”
McGrail said during his address he and the current Select Board had never overseen a TIF agreement, which was one of the challenges the town faced in bringing the business to Middleboro.
He said after voters approved the agreement, it faced setbacks obtaining state approval. Driscoll, he said, helped push it through.
“Without your leadership in some of this, I don't think we'd be here today,” he said to Driscoll. “We had some roadblocks at the state level, and you bulldozed those roadblocks.”
Driscoll praised Middleboro’s “commitment to the community” and the company’s patience through the TIF agreement process during her address.
She also thanked Dooner, who was also in attendance, for her willingness to work across the aisle.
“I want to believe Massachusetts delivers an adult-in-the-room energy when it comes to governing,” she said during the event. “We don't have to agree on every issue to make sure that we're driving consensus and moving things forward, and this project really represents that.”
Driscoll said she was proud to be part of bringing a company providing new jobs to Middleboro residents, and saw it as not just a new business in town, but a new community partnership.
She said the project is also an important state investment, retaining Massachusetts jobs and bringing more in the future.
“It was great to come here to celebrate — both with local leaders and with Rexha — this major investment in the community that's going to be good for Massachusetts and the sorts of investments we want to see drive our future,” Driscoll said.
