After 37 years of software innovation and growth, MEDITECH recently broke new ground in a more literal sense, laying the foundation for its sixth facility in Fall River, Massachusetts. A ceremony, held on September 21st, was attended by MEDITECH's senior management team, as well as Fall River officials and representatives from the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency and the Massachusetts Department of Business and Technology.

MEDITECH currently operates five facilities located in the Metro-Boston area, where technology jobs are plentiful and housing costs are high. But the decision to build a new facility in Fall River, an area hit hard in recent years by the decline of U.S. manufacturing, was simply common sense to Chairman & CEO A. Neil Pappalardo.

"We began this process more than a year ago, when we first identified this terrific site," he says. "It made sense for me to expand in Fall River, where the median price of housing is maybe $260,000 and unemployment is perhaps double what it is around Greater Boston, making it easier to attract staff there."

The new building will be located at the site of the former Kerr Mill, which was destroyed by fire in 1987, putting some 1,000 people out of work. Fall River Mayor Edward Lambert was quoted at the groundbreaking as saying, "this is the most exciting economic development the Fall River area has seen in decades."

The 120-square-foot building will eventually employ 600 people, adding to company's current roster of 2,500. For now, MEDITECH is renting office space at South Coast Research and Technology Park in Fall River, with a staff of approximately 60 people. The company is expected to maintain this presence in the area until the new building is ready to be occupied in late 2007.