“This company is bringing jobs back to America,” Jitender Makkar, who purchased and restored the abandoned mill building in 2017, said at an opening celebration yesterday. 

Bigbelly’s corporate teams will remain at 150 A Street in Needham, just across from another Needham success story, SharkNinja.

But the company is now shipping 400-500 of their bins monthly from the new site, instead of Mexico.  The assembly plant can scale up to 1,000 units monthly, with room to expand.

Of course, Bigbelly isn’t just looking to make it in Massachusetts. 

They’re looking to change how cities, campuses, airports and others deal with trash.

They’ve created products that makes our streets cleaner and less pongy. Their wi-fi enabled compactors reduces the frequency of municipal trash pickup and decreases carbon footprints due to fewer truck trips. 

Their latest product line is Bigbelly Smart Compost, lockable, rat-proof, food waste-collection bins.

“If you want to go to war on trash, we’re your army,” said Jeff Satwicz, Bigbelly's founder and VP of business development yesterday.

Bomb threat fails to disrupt Pride event

Some insecure jerk called in a bomb threat to the New Art Center in Newtonville on Sunday.

“The threat indicated that bombs were placed on our roof at 61 Washington Park and that the building would ‘go boom’ at 11 a.m.,”  said New Art Executive Director Emily O’Neil in an email.   “Although the threat did not specifically reference our free, public Drag Queen Story Hour event that was at 11 a.m., we believe that was the catalyst.” 

Newton police and fire departments searched the facility, found nothing. The event went on, as scheduled, with about 30 families participating.

The Drag Queen Story Hour program was part of New Art’s Cultural Access Program, in conjunction with Pride Month.

“We state unequivocally that hate has no home at New Art,” said O’Neil.

Needham biotech’s stock up nearly 700%

After seeing its shares sitting around $1 each for much of last year, Needham-based Candel Therapeutics’ stock has gone up nearly 700% over the past six months. 

The 117 Kendrick Street-based immuno-oncology company’s CEO, Paul Peter Tak, recently spoke to Hannah Green at the BBJ about Candel’s turnaround.

Today’s grab bag

• Package store owners in Newton are likely watching a legal challenge in New Bedford to a ban on tiny liquor bottles, or “nips.” A Bristol County Superior Court judge temporarily barred the city from enforcing that city’s ban, reports the New Bedford Light. Newton banned the sale of nips in 2022.
  
  
• It’s the end of an era: Tomorrow (June 12) is “You-do-it” Electronics Center’s last day of business. (Needham Local)
  
  
• Three boutique mixed-use buildings located at 34-50 Central Street Wellesley Square have been purchased by Taymil Partners. The properties are home to Lululemon, Faherty and health/fitness retailer Figurella. (Boston Real Estate Times)
  
  
• The Watertown City Council and Planning Board’s joint hearing on the Watertown Square Area Plan is this Thursday (June 13), 6 p.m. at Watertown Middle School and via Zoom. Here’s an interesting take from some southside residents about the plan as it relates to Galen Street.
  
  
• The MBTA will be filming an advertisement in the Chapel Street parking lot in Needham tomorrow (June 12) and on part of Chapel Street, across from Town Hall. Expect limited parking from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m.
  
  
• The Watertown Farmers' Market opens for the season tomorrow (June 12), 2:30 to 6:30 p.m. This year’s vendors are here.
  
  
• RIP to the Swellesley’s Reports’ Sony ICD-PX333 digital recorder. Support the town’s only authentic news site — and perhaps a new recorder — here.
  
  
• Find more news from our members here. Log into your member portal to share your company’s or nonprofit’s news.

Newtonville rail station left at the alter …again

There were many politicians sharing well-deserved high-fives last month when the state leaders celebrated receiving a $67 million federal grant to improve accessibility for 14 ground-level T stations along the Green Line.

Unsaid was the disappointment that another critical accessibility project — upgrading the Newtonville Commuter Rail station — once again failed to win a grant under the same program.

Poor access to the city’s three commuter rail stations and a lack of two-way service has held back Newton for decades.

And with Mass DOT gearing up to straighten the Mass Pike at Allston-Brighton, having a least one stop completed first could help mitigate a decade of backups along I-90.

“This will be a ten-year project with serious implications when it comes to traffic entering and exiting Boston from the Greater Boston suburbs,” notes state Rep. Kay Khan, who has devoted decades to moving the commuter rail project forward.

Speaking at our chamber event last month, state Transportation Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt sought to assure us that the station, now in its design phase, will be built. 

“We’re not going to do the design and not actually finish it,” Tibbits-Nut told us.

“Yes, it’s going to get built.” 

Fig City News has more.

A thanks and five how-do-you-dos

Finally this morning, a great big thanks to everyone who attended and made our Spring Business Breakfast, presented by Eastern Bank, last Friday at the Needham Sheraton a success. It was great to be among so many friends.

We’ll post the video from the event on our home page, thanks to NewTV, as soon as its available.

Also: A belated welcome to five new members of the chamber’s board of directors: Ryan Barrett from Oram Cybersecurity Advisors; Dante Capasso from Capasso Realty; Darren Farrington from the Mosesian Center for the Arts; Arpit Patel from Baramor and Oak n' Barrel; and Glenn Rosengard from Eastern Bank.

Each brings unique knowledge, experience, and a commitment to the chamber’s mission of supporting our region’s economic and cultural vitality. More about them here.