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Help Shape the Future of the Choose Framingham Newsletter
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We hope you enjoy reading our Choose Framingham newsletter each month. To better understand the news about Framingham's economic development initiatives that you find most useful, we have created a short survey that we hope you'll consider taking. Please take a few minutes to fill out our Choose Framingham survey so that we can ensure we are providing you with the news and information that you find most interesting and informative. Thank you for being a Choose Framingham subscriber, and thank you in advance for your feedback.
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Golden Triangle Planning Study Completed
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The
Golden Triangle Planning Project, pursued in collaboration with the Town of Natick, has been an ongoing initiative of the City of Framingham since 2016. The Golden Triangle area consists of 956 acres of land, is anchored by Exit 13 of the Massachusetts Turnpike, and supports a major regional retail and commercial real estate center. It's an area of great significance - not only to the two municipalities, but to the region as a whole. In Framingham, the area is home to the DDR Corporation's Shopper's World, the world headquarters for the TJX Companies and the International Data Group (IDG), and many other retail and commercial properties.
The plan establishes a shared vision for the future of the area and provides property owners and businesses the flexibility to respond to fast-paced changes in the retail and commercial real estate markets. The clear vision and flexibility will help protect and enhance the region's competitiveness many years into the future.
The final, long-term vision is documented in an expansive 240 page report (available
here). The report is the result of extensive research, community outreach, and engagement with property and business owners - all under the oversight of a joint, Framingham/Natick steering committee. The report presents the opportunities available, the unique challenges of the area, and the best ways to overcome them through a long-term implementation process.
Ensuring the Golden Triangle's competitiveness and attractiveness will require ongoing, long-term collaboration with the Town of Natick as both communities work to advance the vision outlined in the study. The plan points to transitioning the area into neighborhoods integrating many uses across smaller, more walkable blocks, along with interior roads, bike paths, green space, and ready access to amenities, such as Cochituate State Park and the Cochituate Rail Trail. The plan envisions phased implementation, concentrating development in select areas and allowing less-intense development in transition areas protecting nearby neighborhoods.
Taken together, the long-term plan's many recommendations offer property owners a flexible path to protecting and boosting property values, in an attractive development pattern that also seeks to protect adjacent neighborhoods. Overall, the recommendations offered will help to keep the area competitive while improving quality of life in the region.
The city's Community & Economic Development Division presented the report to the Framingham Planning Board in November 2018, generating a unanimous recommendation for the city to accept the report. Looking ahead, the city will work to create a formal collaboration with the Town of Natick to begin drafting zoning changes and engaging with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) to advance transportation improvements.
"The Golden Triangle plan outlines a long-term approach to protecting and enhancing this area's revenue and job creating capacity amid rapid changes in retail and the world of work. Implementing the plan will require ongoing community outreach and engagement," said Arthur Robert, the City of Framingham's Director of Community and Economic Development. "Together with Natick, we are committed to this long-term approach to boosting the competitiveness of this area, in a way that further enhances our City and brings value to our businesses and residents."
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Mayor Spicer Pledges to Continue Focus on Economic Development in State of the City Address
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Highlights TOD Achievements, Infrastructure Improvements
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 In her second State of the City address since becoming the City of Framingham's first mayor, Mayor Yvonne M. Spicer highlighted the achievements the city has made in promoting economic development over the past year while also committing to focus on successful economic development strategies.
"On Inauguration Day, I told you I was putting out the shingle that Framingham is open for business," said Mayor Spicer. "I have done just that! The city has seen increased interest from new businesses, across a variety of sectors."
Highlighting the success of the city's transit-oriented development efforts for Downtown Framingham, Mayor Spicer noted that Framingham has managed a pipeline of significant residential real estate projects, and will eventually add up to 900 units of housing to the neighborhood. "I believe our downtown will thrive with new investments and businesses that offer additional jobs and opportunities," she said.
Mayor Spicer listed a number of new businesses that opened in Framingham in 2018, from food establishments like Pollo Royal and MiniBites bakery to a new X-Finity office on Route 9. She also emphasized the city's growing Life Sciences cluster and recalled the tour of Life Sciences executives that the city along with its regional partners held in June 2018. Additionally, she discussed the importance of the city's creative economy, using as an example the fact that Exhibit 'A' Brewing has hosted performances of Mass Ballet.
Looking forward, Mayor Spicer also discussed the city's joint efforts with the Town of Natick to create a strategic vision for the Golden Triangle and talked about the relationship between economic development and safety and infrastructure.
Mayor Spicer ended her speech by identifying economic development as one of her four core areas of focus. "A strong economy is the heart and soul of a community. Our government is faced with the challenge of balancing growth and sustaining that growth. It's crucial that we do this smartly! Essential to this is staying ahead of up-and- coming markets while supporting our existing businesses," said Mayor Spicer. "As we invite new businesses to our community, we will do it thoughtfully to ensure they are a good fit for Framingham."
You can read Mayor Spicer's State of the City address at the city's website and follow the city's economic development initiatives at ChooseFramingham.com.
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Business Profile: Definitive Healthcare
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Definitive Healthcare Helps a Rapidly Evolving Industry Manage Change
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The healthcare sector has undergone a tremendous amount of change over the past decade. Framingham-based Definitive Healthcare has helped the industry manage that change by offering data and insights to the provider market. Choose Framingham caught up with the company's Chief Executive Officer, Jason Krantz, to find out what's in store for healthcare and why they chose Framingham as the location for their growing business.
Give us a brief description of Definitive Healthcare and the work that it does?
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| Jason Krantz, CEO of Definitive Healthcare |
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Definitive Healthcare is the leading provider of data, intelligence, and analytics on the healthcare provider market.
Based right here in Framingham, we are an organization of over 320 highly motivated and talented individuals, who are proud be part of one of the fastest growing companies in the United States and part of an organization that has been named a
Boston Globe and
Boston Business Journal Best Place to Work in Boston multiple years in a row.
Tell us a little more about your history - how did you start and why did you end up Choosing Framingham as a location?
Founded in 2011, Definitive Healthcare was started to address a need in the marketplace for clients to access highly accurate and analytical insights on healthcare providers. During the last decade, the healthcare industry has been changing at an unprecedented rate. Definitive Healthcare was built to allow various players - ranging from pharmaceutical companies and technology vendors to hospitals and health systems - adapt their sales and marketing efforts to industry changes. Since its founding, Definitive has consistently innovated its product and it now covers the entire healthcare spectrum.
When selecting a location, Framingham was an easy choice. We are a company focused on tracking data on everything from hospitals and physicians to imaging centers. In Framingham, not only are we surrounded by some of the best and brightest in the biotechnology, technology, medical devices, and pharmaceutical industries, we are also located right near the 128/Mass Pike intersection, which connects us to a large pool of talented individuals in both the Worcester and Boston areas.
In September 2018, Inc. ranked you as one of the fastest growing companies in the US for the second year in a row. What has fueled that growth?
At Definitive Healthcare, we do everything we can to serve our customers - and our fast growth reflects that. We will never stop improving the quality and breadth of intelligence that we've worked so hard to develop. We try to think beyond simply providing more information; we're building a solution designed to help users derive insights so their businesses can operate at a rapid pace. Because of this, in the month of January 2019 - our busiest month for renewals - we were thrilled to earn an outstanding 98 percent customer renewal rate.
Talk a little bit about how being located in Framingham has helped the company expand.
 This year, we saw our talent base grow by 75.5 percent, adding 126 new faces to our team here at Definitive Healthcare. And this year we are planning to add 100 more! Given our demand for the best and brightest talent, ranging from analysts to sales reps, Framingham was a natural choice. Its location gives us instant access to the talent-rich markets of both Boston and Worcester.
What do you and your employees like best about being located in Framingham?
Many Definitive Healthcare employees are excited about the convenience of Framingham's retail and restaurant locations. In December, Definitive Healthcare employees often complete their holiday shopping at nearby shopping centers like the Natick Mall. There's also a wide array of restaurants to choose from, and we all enjoy heading to nearby bars and grabbing drinks with coworkers and friends after work.
Just this month, you announced that Definitive Healthcare will purchase HIMSS Analytics' vendor data business. What is the significance of this development to your business?
Everything we do in our business is designed to create a strategic advantage for our customers. Our
recent acquisition of the HIMSS Analytics' data services business not only deepens our customers view of healthcare providers with enhanced coverage of IT, but it also contextualizes that data and makes it more actionable with broad purchasing intelligence. When combined with Definitive's leading affiliations data, up-to-date executive profiles, cutting edge commercials claims, and a growing number of reports and platform analytics, our customers will have access to the data that they need to drive their businesses forward. Now more than ever, we are helping our sales and marketing customers build the right strategies and increase their market impact. Ultimately, this acquisition is another step in fulfilling our long-articulated growth strategy to build and deliver the most reliable and consistent view of healthcare provider data and analytics in the market.
What's next for Definitive Healthcare?
Propelled by the momentum from our recent acquisition and our product launch of
commercial medical claims, this year we are particularly focused on platform enhancements that drive advanced reporting and analytics to deliver even greater insights across our extensive provider data sets.
In 2019, we will continue to innovate with new data families, analytics, and products that extend the value of our insights platform for existing and new customers. The healthcare market is constantly changing - there's just so much data to sift through that it can quickly become overwhelming. Every step we take at Definitive Healthcare is designed to help our customers grow and build efficiencies within their businesses, as they contribute to improving the overall healthcare landscape.
Anything you'd like to add?
At Definitive Healthcare, we hire individuals that share our community-minded culture and values. We launched
DefinitiveCares in 2015 to create opportunities and structure for employees to be part of something larger than themselves and give back to the community. We all believe that we have a responsibility to use our energy, drive, and creativity to help those in need while bringing our team closer together.
While I am honored to build a successful growing business, it is the community and culture of giving I see every day that truly inspires me. In 2018, we
donated over $193,901 to 30 charities, and I am proud to say that we had a 100 percent employee volunteer rate for the past two years.
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