Telegraph photo by DEAN SHALHOUP Mayor Jim Donchess, second from right, joins John J. Flatley Company officials in symbolically breaking ground for the company's newest project, a building to be called Nashua Micro-Tech Center at 23-43 Innovative Way. From left are Kevin Walker, company civil engineer; Charles "Chuck" Tatarian, project manager and vice president of the company's builder, Ambrose Development; Tom Maregni, leasing and marketing director; Brian Pietz, vice president of operations; Donchess; and company president John J. Flatley. (Telegraph photo by DEAN SHALHOUP)

NASHUA – Mayor Jim Donchess joined John Flatley, president of the John J. Flatley Company, and several top company officials on Tuesday to conduct the symbolic groundbreaking of the company’s newest project.

When completed next year, the new building, to be called the Nashua Micro-Tech Center, will be one of three research and development buildings with spaces ranging from 10,000 to 17,000 square feet located high atop Innovative Way, the circuituous access road off Spit Brook Road that leads to both existing and future buildings.

The project was planned and has gotten underway “in spite of COVID,” Flatley said in brief remarks, referring to the pandemic.

The development of the area, which includes tens of thousands of acres of land from Spit Brook Road north to Dozer Road and from Everett Turnpike Exit 1 west to East Dunstable Road, was begun by Flatley’s father, Thomas J. Flatley, in the early 1970s.

Upon Flatley’s death in 2008, John Flatley, one of Thomas’s five children, continued developing the area, which over the past dozen or so years has experienced monumental growth in industrial, commercial, retail and residential development.

Flatley said Tuesday that the Micro-Tech center and other buildings in the planning stage will feature “incubator spaces” for the “start-up companies” that he and his company hope to attract.

A full story will appear in The Sunday Telegraph.

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.