New Bedford’s Next Offshore Wind Play: More Office Space

The city is already a hub for marshaling offshore construction, but officials seek to create more space for the industry’s white-collar workers

The city-owned Quest Center for Innovation was built in 1899 as a technical college for the textile industry and now serves as office spaces for government agencies, nonprofits and a coworking center.
The city-owned Quest Center for Innovation was built in 1899 as a technical college for the textile industry and now serves as office spaces for government agencies, nonprofits and a coworking center.
Ben Berke/The Public’s Radio
Share
The city-owned Quest Center for Innovation was built in 1899 as a technical college for the textile industry and now serves as office spaces for government agencies, nonprofits and a coworking center.
The city-owned Quest Center for Innovation was built in 1899 as a technical college for the textile industry and now serves as office spaces for government agencies, nonprofits and a coworking center.
Ben Berke/The Public’s Radio
New Bedford’s Next Offshore Wind Play: More Office Space
Copy

New Bedford’s waterfront is already bustling with the colossal maneuvers of offshore wind construction – there are cranes assembling turbines taller than the city’s biggest buildings, and ships arriving with blades as long as football fields.

But on Monday, Mayor Jon Mitchell announced the city’s latest play in the industry: creating more office space for the industry’s white-collar workers, many of whom are clustered in larger cities and state capitals like Boston, New York and Providence.

The city will lead a $3 million renovation of a building it already owns at 1213 Purchase Street, aiming to reopen the third floor as a flexible office space where international maritime and offshore companies could rent space on a short-term basis during a wind farm’s development.

This story was reported by The Public’s Radio. You can read the entire story here.

New England will face a West Coast challenger for the Feb. 8 championship
Higher taxes on Rhode Island’s richest are increasingly likely, although not without a lot of debate
The National Weather Service warns of dangerous wind chills and up to 15 inches of snow across southern New England
Starting Feb. 1, TSA will require travelers without compliant forms of identification to verify their identity through a biometric or biographic system
About 6.5% of postcard recipients file claims, court records show
Program chair Amy VanderWeele explains why this year’s pick—Happy Land by Dolen Perkins-Valdez—resonates with Rhode Islanders, from land rights to who gets to tell history