June 19, 2016 — GLOUCESTER, Mass. — The story of Gloucester trying to find its next act is not a new one. For years, the nation’s oldest seaport, like so many others, has struggled to reinvent itself in the shadow of a fading fishing industry.
But several developments in recent weeks could serve as a meaningful catalyst for change in the post-fishing economy.
Last week, the much-talked-about Beauport Hotel — a luxury 94-room facility and the city’s only large-scale hotel — opened on the site of the former Birds Eye fish-freezing plant, featuring three conference rooms to lure business travelers, along with a large restaurant and a rooftop pool with views of the harbor to entice tourists.
The hotel followed the May opening of the Gloucester Biotechnology Academy, a one-year certificate program for high school graduates that’s an extension of the Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute, founded in 2013 by biotech entrepreneur Gregory L. Verdine to study marine genetics.
For this North Shore community, the waterfront additions are an important example of what they might call casting a line and waiting for a bite. Influential investors hope a growing marine biotechnology sector will support the working waterfront, not with fishing, but with year-round jobs rooted in science and tourism. A hotel like the Beauport only adds to the appeal.