If you read only the Crimson article, and not Bruce Houghton's subsequent clarifications, one could conclude they were leaving for Scranton PA.
Some of Houghton's Allston operations will move to Scranton, and Harvard will help finance the move. Houghton already has a plant in Scranton.
That sucks, because Houghton's a relatively significant operation despite the small acreage there. Those technicolor-painted tanks in the back help produce a pretty significant share of the wholesale car antifreeze and windshield wiper fluid market, that then get re-labeled under name-brand retail names. At some point we've all probably refilled our cars with coolant or wiper fluid that was mixed in Allston.
This really isn't a good omen for the City showing any applied learning about light industry's share of the local economy. If "GTFO, icky and unaesthetic industry" mentality chases these guys to Scranton, it's a senseless loss because simply giving a shit about accommodation could've very easily put them in a new location that had the highway and rail access they desired. Very disappointing.
They're already tone-deaf about the ports and have to keep getting reminded by Massport who controls the deepwater areas. They keep proposing utter mixed-use nonsense in the Readville hinterlands, stuff like their make-believe "tech lofts" that no light industrial firm worth any economic salt would ever consider. Basically, if it's not a state-steered economic development zone the City institutions are ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. (Which is maybe why Readville should get redesignated under a state Econ Dev umbrella program...and possibly a couple other small non-Massport land use districts suitable-to-task). You can't have am entirely net-zero industrial or shipping economy in City of Boston without the imbalance in distribution of economic sectors exerting its drag effect over time. It's small-potatoes, but still a necessary one requiring some semblance of a plan and place in the proceedings.
Only other thing to note is that if Houghton's signed-off on ending rail service CSX now has the all-clear to cut a haulage deal with Pan Am for its Everett Terminal customers and cut the daily freight job over the Grand Junction. Something it has probably wanted to do for awhile to trim crew costs out in Framingham, but couldn't do because Houghton had to be served couple times a week by them only. Under a haulage deal Pan Am can tack the refrigerator cars of fresh produce onto the back of its Everett daily, take them up the Lowell Line, hand off to one of their Ayer-Worcester trains, hand off in Worcester to the CSX Framingham-Worcester daily that handles local customers, and distribute the produce at Framingham Yard per usual. The funky routing ends up working for the task because it hides these carloads inside 100% preexisting freight schedules.
New England Produce Center still remains a CSX customer, CSX is still free to seek new customers in Everett, and CSX is free to take back that job for itself if it sees fit. But as long as Pan Am is punctual with its deliveries and lives up to the terms of the haulage agreement, they won't need to run that Grand Junction daily to hit their own customers and save money, while Pan Am pockets a little free money on the side. For the T, it ends all Worcester Line freight inbound of Framingham, all Grand Junction freight, and relieves the space crunch at BET (which GLX is crunching even further) with one fewer freight that has to lay over on the wrap-around tracks between commuter rail slots. Saves a few pennies on maintenance to not have freight beating up the rails, saves a little aggravation for northside dispatch to remove one third-party schedule stressor, and slightly widens future passenger considerations on the Grand Junction.
Watch for that deal to get inked some months or year-plus after Houghton's rail contract expires. Though it would've been a happier ending if Houghton got relocated across town instead of scared away.
