Boston Innovation District

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The Boston Innovation District is a large-scale, mixed-use development initiative which was built to transform the South Boston waterfront into an urban environment that fosters innovation, collaboration, and entrepreneurship.
What are the main aims and objectives?
The main aims and objectives of the Boston Innovation District are to foster economic growth, innovation, and job creation by bringing together entrepreneurs, start-ups, and established companies. This is achieved through a 'Work, Live, Play' strategy that encourages clustering of related firms and individuals, promoting faster innovation through shared technologies and knowledge. The district also prioritizes the provision of flexible and affordable housing options and public spaces, aiming to create an environment that stimulates creativity. Moreover, it strives to transform education, city services and aims to make the city more connected. Additionally, it aims to promote technological advancements by hosting events and establishing global headquarters of companies like PTC. 
How does the program work?

The Boston Innovation District, centered around the "Work, Live, Play" motto, has several key features that contribute to its success: 

  1. Firm and Individual Clustering: This district is designed to bring together innovative entrepreneurs, start-ups, and established companies to foster quicker innovation through the sharing of technology and knowledge. 

  1. Cross-Sector Interaction: The district promotes interaction between anchor institutions, startups, and businesses, facilitating increased creative production, new tax revenues, and job creation. 

  1. Work-Live-Play Environment: It offers a unique environment that caters to the needs of startups and tech companies by providing flexible and affordable housing options, public spaces for networking, and stimulating environments to spur creativity. 

  1. Public-Private Partnership: The district represents a partnership model involving the government, business, and non-profit sectors. This inclusive ecosystem offers economic opportunities to those not traditionally connected to the tech sector. 

  1. Event Hosting: The district fosters technological advancements and innovation by hosting events and establishing global headquarters of companies like PTC. 

The development aims to help generate and test civic-tech ideas, provide inclusive and sustainable growth to the region and promote open public collaboration between the various stakeholders. For example, District Hall is a multi-purpose civic space in the innovation district for community members to gather in order to discuss and exchange ideas. Not too far away is Factory 63, an onsite live/ work space offering the versatility of home and office in the same venue. A defining feature of innovation districts is that they are trendy, and Boston’s has an array of nightlife spots, restaurants and cultural attractions. 

In addition, it is suitably connected to all the major inter and intra city transport links; Logan airport, MIT, and downtown Boston are all within 15 minutes by public transport. 

What is the overall cost?
There is currently no information available about the overall cost of the Boston Innovation District. However, it is worth noting that since the majority of the land is privately held, the financial burden of the initiative will not primarily fall to the local authority.  
How was it implemented?

In January 2010, during his fifth inaugural address, Mayor Thomas M. Menino officially declared his vision to redevelop the Seaport District into the “Innovation District”. 

The Mayor’s vision was split around four key features: 

  1. To be industry-agnostic: opening up the district to industries of every kind allowed for broad inclusivity of established companies and SMEs with space for community engagement.  

  1. To build clusters: clustering innovative entrepreneurs to increase proximity and density was a key aspiration of the model.  

  1. To adopt an experimental framework: the public sector adopted an experiemental framework characterized by expedited decision making and planning flexibility. This created momentum for the public sector’s efforts to private partnerships.  

  1. Position the City as Host: an early decision was made that Boston itself should be the host not a university or research firm. The identification of the District with the city meant that the neighborhood has been free to develop organically and allowed innovation to spread across Boston.  

Key developments: 

2010 – Mayor Thomas M. Meninio declares his vision for the Innovation District 

2010 - MassChallenge, the world’s largest startup accelerator moves in 

2011 – Vertex Pharmaceuticals, a global biotechnology drug developer with 1,200 employees signed a deal to locate its global headquarters in the district.  

2011 – through the efforts of Mayor Menino, Babson College signs a lease for 3,500 square feet of classroom space 

2012 – Waterside Place, 315 on A, +Factory 63 break new ground with housing projects in the public innovation spaces 

2012 – Construction begins on District Hall, the world’s first freestanding public innovation building 

2012 – 3500+ new jobs created since the launch 

2013 – District Hall opens  

2013 – 5000+ new jobs created since the launch 

2014 – New innovation spaces and co-working open with WeWork, Blade and Waterside Place  

What impact has been measured?

A report published in 2015 found that: 

New Jobs  

- Added over 5,000 new jobs in over 200 new companies 

- Technology companies have contributed 30% of new job growth 

- 21% of new jobs are in creative industries like design and advertising 

- Greentech + life sciences are growing, with 16% of new jobs in these sectors 

New Companies 

- Of the new companies, 11% are in the education and non-profit sectors 

- 40% of new companies are sharing space in co-working spaces and incubators 

- 25% of new companies are small scale, with 10 employees or fewer 

What lessons can be learned?

While the program has generally been seen as a success, this success has led to rising rents and capacity constraints which have compelled a number of local startups to head to other parts of the city which has in turn driven up prices in other parts of the city also. One local startup branded the term “Innovation District” a misnomer due to rising rents and the arrival of large firms like PwC crowding out genuinely innovative startups and reducing the benefits of clustering.  

The program also serves as a lesson in cross-sector collaboration which demonstrates that these projects have much greater chance of surviving if they are aligned with mayoral priorities. Mayors can be hugely influential champions of initiatives and have a platform to attract large amounts of public attention, building a sense of legitimacy and prestige, access to stakeholders, and mobilizing financial resources.  

CURATED BY

Siddharth Bannerjee

Researcher, Digital Startups
Nesta
United Kingdom