Lease
Signed for Defense Department Training Center
By
John Ryan
Evening
News Staff
Taken
from The Southbridge Evening News dated Monday, April 3, 2000:
SOUTHBRIDGE
- Ted Kennedy knew he had to talk to Bill Clinton right away, if the American
Optical Co. Defense Department project was to be saved.It
was late in the evening on March 12, 1993.that
morning, then-Defense Secretary Les Aspin had pulled the plug on plans
for a 4,000-job DOD accounting center recently awarded to Southbridge.Only
the president could reverse Aspin’s decision.Massachusetts
Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy was one of the few people who could call
the President of the United States at 11 p.m. and get him to listen to
a plea to change what the Secretary of Defense had done.
The
story had begun 11 months earlier, in April 1992, when Southbridge town
officials and the Tri-Community Area Chamber of Commerce entered Southbridge
in the national DOD competition.Dubbed
“the little town that could,” it won.On
this night, however, it was about to lose.
It
came down to a late-night Washington phone call.
Kennedy
told the story of that call to the crowd during public ceremonies on Friday,
March 31, moments before the lease was signed for the Southbridge Defense
Department Executive Management Training Center.The
area behind the former American Optical Co. Main Plant held 400 people
there to see the documents signed.
“I
got on the phone and told the president just how important this center
was to Southbridge, to Massachusetts and to the nation,“ Kennedy said.“I
said that we needed a Defense Department facility, and the Southbridge
proposal had won the nationwide competition (for a DOD accounting center).I
told him that he had the authority to site a center in Southbridge.”
Apparently,
Clinton was impressed.
“The
president ordered the decision to be reviewed the next morning at 8:30
a.m.,” the senator said.
When
Kennedy finished talking to the president, he called Congressman Richard
Neal.The Springfield Democrat had
worked almost as hard as Kennedy on the DOD project for the last eight
years.Neal was also on hand in Southbridge
on Friday.
“I
got a phone call at my Washington apartment from Senator Kennedy at 1:30
in the morning.He told me that he’d
just spoken to the president and that we were still alive,” Neal said.
The
review ordered by the president led to the DOD deciding in May 1994 to
site a management training facility at the former American Optical campus,
now known as the Southbridge Business Center.
The
proposed 4,000-job center was never built anywhere in the country.
Kennedy
and Neal were the keynote speakers Friday morning, when the 20-year lease
was signed by the government and AO for the $84 million project.
Southbridge
Town Council Chairman Laurent McDonald called Friday “the greatest day
of my life.This town will grow again
because of this center.”
General
contractor John Moriarty & Associates of Winchester will oversee the
construction of the 315,000-square-foot center, which will include a 204-room
hotel, conference center and secure government offices and training facilities.
The
center is scheduled to open Nov. 1, 2001, said John Soursourian, vice president
of Franklin Realty Associates, of Boston, the company that manages the
business center for the owners, AO Capital Corp., of Greenwich, Conn.
Under
the terms of the lease, the government will pay AO $10.2 million the first
year, with a 3.5 percent annual increase for the next 19 years thereafter.
The
hotel will employ up to 200 people, while the government will employ 150
or so.
The
Defense Department will use the hotel and conference center 38 weeks a
year, with an average of 180 senior DOD managers staying at the hotel and
receiving training in two-week segments.Any
public facilities not being used by the government will be available for
rent by the public.
Demolition
is just days away.
“We’ll
start asbestos removal on Wednesday,” Soursourian said.“We
assume it will take about five weeks to take out the asbestos.About
half way through that process, we’ll start demolition of the old building.”
The
420,000-square-foot former AO Main Plant has been largely vacant for more
than 20 years.Soursourian said they
will keep the building’s 650 foot Mechanic Street facade, with its five
stair towers, and the circa 1903 clock tower building, with the former
AO executive offices.
The
towers and the offices will be made into hotel rooms.
“I
have mixed feelings about the demolition of a historic old building like
this,” he said, “but the building was designed for the single industrial
use by the AO and that just isn’t what we need it for.The
thing that finally led to us deciding to tear it down was the state’s revision
in 1995 and ‘96 of the seismic code, dealing with earthquakes.The
changes we would have had to make to the old brick structure would have
been just too costly.”
‘A
Model for the World’
Deputy
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Civilian Personnel Policy Dianne Disney
was on hand as well, to explain what the training center will do.
“When
we won the Cold War, defense spending declined.We’ve
had to deal with billions of dollars in cuts.that
means that the people who remain will have to be able to do more things
at more levels,” she said.
“Over
time we’ll be sending 3,000 of the department’s top managers here, to Southbridge,
for training in the top jobs.These
will be the important leaders, taking 10 to 20 graduate courses taught
right here by the best teachers.This
will be a model educational center for the country and for emerging democracies
throughout the world.”
Kennedy
touched upon the same theme.
“This
is really the best, here in Southbridge,” he said.“There
won’t be a finer program like it anywhere in the country.This
will be an extremely vital and important center for our national defense.”
‘Long,
Complicate and Difficult’
When
the lobbying effort started eight years ago, nobody expected it would take
this long.Lease negotiations dragged
on for years.
“The
process was long, complicated and difficult and it shouldn’t have been,”
Kennedy said, “but the people of this community responded, and the spirit
of Southbridge won the day.This
is really your day and your nation’s day.This
center will make a great difference in your lives and in your grandchildrens’
lives and for the United States of America.”
Neal
reached back into Greek mythology to describe the lobbying effort that
took the better part of a decade.
“I’m
reminded of the story of Sisyphus, who was condemned to roll a bolder up
a hill over and over again.Ted Kennedy
and I were honored to roll that boulder up the hill for Southbridge,” he
said.
Neal
praised the people of the community, who sent literally tens of thousands
of letters, postcards and petition signatures to Washington, keeping up
the pressure.
“None
of you ever backed away,” he told the crowd.“I
don’t know what you think of me, but I have never felt closer to all of
you.”
People
at the gathering were pleased to see the lobbying process finally at an
end.
Southbridge
Town Manager Michael Coughlin called the lease signing “a promise made
and a promise kept.This is about
two public servants, Neal and Kennedy.”
Coughlin,
who was appointed town manager March 27, worked closely with the chamber
from the beginning, lobbying, traveling to Washington, getting anyone with
influence to listen.
Chamber
President Robert Chartier said he “always knew deep down that the DOD center
would come.It will increase morale,
revitalize Southbridge and help the downtown.”
Despite
his optimism, he admitted to being dismayed that everything took so long.
“I
guess I learned how cumbersome lobbying is,” he said.“Civic
classes in school never talk about lobbying.”
The
chamber’s Edward Galonek, Sr., another veteran of years of lobbying, said
“this is the day the town comes back.We
expected a triple and we hit a home run.We
went from being a little town to being a model for the whole world.”