MTX Group Inc. picks Waterbury for regional office

August 12, 2021 | By Lisa Scagliotti

MTX Group Inc. founders Nipa and Das Nobel visit office space in Waterbury Center on Thursday. Photo by Gordon Miller

Waterbury’s small-town charm, four seasons, open spaces and vacant commercial real estate in close proximity to the state capital were a winning combination for national information technology corporation MTX Group Inc. that announced Thursday it will open a northeast regional office here. 

The company has chosen Vermont and Waterbury over several other larger urban locations in the region, according to company founders Das and Nipa Nobel who toured their new office space in Waterbury Center Thursday afternoon. Waterbury won out over Albany, New York, Providence, Rhode Island, and Manchester-Concord, New Hampshire. 

“I wanted to open an office in Vermont since before the pandemic,” company co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Das Nobel said. The couple visited their new space after meeting with Gov. Phil Scott and state economic development officials in Montpelier.

The company will lease about 18,000 square feet in a 34,000 square-foot facility on the 57-acre campus owned by Keurig Green Mountain Inc. on Suss Drive overlooking Cold Hollow Cider Mill and Vermont Route 100 in Waterbury Center. Formerly a manufacturing facility for Karl Suss America, the location most recently was used by Keurig Dr. Pepper but currently is vacant. 

MTX is a fast-growing firm doing business in 32 U.S. states, Canada, India and Australia. Much of its business is with state government agencies -- including in Vermont -- and large corporations. Its expertise is in creating online systems to handle dynamic functions and large quantities of data such as the work it did with the Vermont Department of Labor in 2020 to overhaul the online unemployment claims system to meet the demand wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, MTX has rolled out applications to manage contact tracing and vaccination tracking for multiple clients. 

The company just two weeks ago won approval from the Vermont Economic Progress Council for a $6.1 million award through the Vermont Employment Growth Incentive program. 

Administered through the state Agency for Commerce and Community Development, the program spreads out financial incentive awards over multiple years based on a formula that accounts for a company’s projected economic impact to the state through payroll and taxes. 

The first dozen or so employees could be on site in Waterbury as soon as next month as MTX ramps up with hiring and transferring staff with a goal of starting off with about 100 employees and growing to 250 within a few years “and maybe even more,” said Das Nobel. 

With about 1,100 employees at the company’s other offices in Frisco, Texas, and Albany, N.Y., Nobel said he envisions the Vermont operation serving multiple functions. Its close proximity to Montpelier will be convenient for overseeing work with state government agencies that also include the Secretary of State’s office, the Agencies of Human Services and Education and the Department of Motor Vehicles. 

The company will look to the University of Vermont and other universities and colleges in the state to establish internship relationships with a goal of hiring new graduates, he said. “We will incentivize them to stay,” he added.

But not all jobs here will be tech-focused. Other staff will likely include the company’s help desk workers and those who oversee company-wide operations. The Waterbury Center location can become the spot for regular company trainings and retreats, Nobel said. The spacious hilltop campus with plenty of nearby opportunities for outdoor recreation such as biking and canoeing and skiing offers a change of pace for MTX staffers to visit and connect with each other, Nobel said.

“The community here has enough to offer. We want to take our people out of the big city,” he said. “We have an orientation every month. We can bring people here from all over the country.”

Das and Nipa Nobel noted that although they live in Texas now, Albany was home for 23 years. Vermont was a ski destination and their young sons ages 5 and 6 were born in New York state. “They miss snow,” Das Nobel said of the children. “We’re thinking of getting a residence here.”

Both immigrants from Bangladesh, the Nobels said they are drawn to Vermont’s rural landscape and culture. “I used to have a cow and chickens,” Das Nobel said.  

MTX officials are aware of how popular Vermont has become during the pandemic as real estate has been snapped up by people moving to the state from more urban areas. While the Vermont housing market is tight, the company is also focused on working in a hybrid mode where employees can do a considerable amount of work remotely. Das Nobel noted that Vermont employees could live close enough to occasionally be in an office, but could easily work from home in Burlington, for example, or other cities and towns. 

MTX also prioritizes working in the communities where it is located to support nonprofit organizations and have an impact, Das Nobel said. As Chief Marketing Officer, Nipa Nobel oversees a program to dedicate 1% of company revenue along with service to communities. “We want to have an impact,” Das Nobel said, adding that he would like to get to know about local nonprofit organizations that the company can support. 

Local officials were pleased to hear the news of the MTX decision. Karen Nevin, executive director of the local economic development nonprofit Revitalizing Waterbury said her staff lobbied for Waterbury to be the choice. 

Waterbury Municipal Manager Bill Shepeluk said, “We’re thrilled to have them.” 

Company representatives looked at several office locations in the community including vacant office space in Pilgrim Park in downtown Waterbury. Shepeluk said he had hoped MTX would pick the village space to bring more daily activity to the downtown.

“Wherever they go [in town], we’ll be happy,” he said, pointing out that the Waterbury Center site  has plenty of room to grow and will be a boon for the community regardless. “It’s much better than Albany,” he said.