LOWELL — The technology company Draper held a groundbreaking ceremony for the Integrated Microelectronics Production & Advanced Chip Technology (IMPACT) Center in Downtown Lowell Tuesday.
What is now an empty lot in the Hamilton Canal District along Dutton Street will be transformed into an 111,000-square-foot building, part of the Lowell Innovation Network Corridor project of UMass Lowell.
The IMPACT Center will produce advanced microelectronics design, assembly, packaging, testing and manufacturing to create cutting-edge solutions in service to the nation.
“Our expansion in Lowell is driven by the national imperative for secure, on-shore design and manufacturing and packaging of advanced microelectronics for national security,” Draper President and CEO Jerry Wohletz said in remarks before the ceremonial groundbreaking.
The capacity crowd featured dignitaries from all levels of government, academia and business, including Gov. Maura Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan, the state legislative delegation, city officials and educational leaders like UMass President Marty Meehan, Chancellor Julie Chen, UMass Building Authority Chair Mary Burns, Middlesex Community College President Phil Sisson, as well as John Grady, Wexford’s chief investment officer and senior vice president of technology, the real estate development company that will build the $105 million facility.
IMPACT Center for nation’s defense
In its welcome book for the ceremony, Draper said it is a “non-profit research, development, and manufacturing company that solves some of the nation’s most important challenges.”
Draper’s corporate headquarters are based in Cambridge, and it is the same company that operated the computer guidance system that helped land Apollo 11 on the moon.
“Advanced chip packaging, which bundles multiple chips into a single assembly for placement onto a circuit board, is a critical part of building complex, high-performance systems,” Draper Electronic Systems Program Director Colleen Anderson said. “But only 3 percent of chip packaging is performed in the United States today. The IMPACT Center will help to fill this void by providing a reliable domestic source for some of the most sophisticated systems our country produces.”
The IMPACT Center is slated to open in 2028.
Draper LINC’s up with UMass Lowell
Draper is an anchor tenant in the LINC vision, which was first announced in March 2024. Pulling together that ambitious project is Wexford, a company known for its mixed-use, amenity-rich, innovation-focused communities blending industry/university community models.
LINC envisions a corridor that stretches from LeLacheur Park on the Merrimack River across the Northern Canal to the Acre neighborhood, past City Hall, through the downtown area and into the HCID, where the university’s 110 Canal St. research and lab space is located.
The transformative public-private development project is projected to generate more than $3.7 billion in economic activity statewide during the next decade, 1,300 construction jobs, 2,000 permanent jobs from entry-level positions to CEO in multiple industry sectors, and $4 million to $6 million in potential new tax revenue for the city of Lowell.
Creating connections between industry, academia, government, the city and the state to is the basis of the founding model of the $800 million LINC project.
The company opened a corporate campus in the Wannalancit Business Center bringing scientists and engineers to work side-by-side with UML students, faculty, other industry partners and research facilities.
Draper’s customers will be in the defense, aerospace, businesses and government sectors, but it will also serve the Greater Lowell community and the commonwealth through its workforce and educational partnerships.
“Draper has committed to providing up to $10 million in programming, research and educational resources to UMass Lowell over the coming decade,” Chen said. “The Draper Scholars program is where graduate students are able to pursue their research at UMass Lowell while working with Draper scientists and engineers.”
State and federal support
Bringing semiconductor chip manufacturing back to the United States is due in part to the $280 billion CHIPS Act, which stands for Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors that passed in July 2022.
The state is supporting the construction of the IMPACT Center. The project received a $25 million investment from Healey’s SHIELD defense sector initiative.
Massachusetts has a history of defense leadership — it is the birthplace of the National Guard, the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Coast Guard. The region is also home to the Northeast Microelectronics Coalition Hub, the U.S. Army’s Natick Soldier Systems Center, and Hanscom Air Force Base.
National security focus
The IMPACT Center is being developed by Wexford, which has already appeared before the Historic Board, the Conservation Commission and various other boards for approval of its site plan.
Wohletz said to solve the nation’s security challenges, Draper has to “ramp up.”
“Microelectronics are a critical component in nearly every system used to safeguard our nation’s interests,” he said. “To ensure the integrity of these systems, we must build and maintain a domestic microelectronics supply chain — one that is free from foreign influence and disruption. We must scale and scale quickly to meet that mission.”
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