In 1900 the newly-formed United Shoe Machinery Corporation (USM) selected Beverly, Massachusetts as its worldwide headquarters. Five years later, "The Shoe," the affectionate nickname for this venerable building, opened as the world`s largest factory. Over the ensuing decades, it quadrupled in size, eventually totaling over 1.4 million square feet of floor space, on nearly 100 acres. Pulitzer Prize winning architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable described the building in the October 2, 1997 issue of The Wall Street Journal, as "the single most important, and generally unrecognized concrete landmark in this country."

USM`s ascension sparked unprecedented local prosperity. Successive Beverly generations staffed the plant`s thousands of management and skilled labor openings. USM`s research division earned over 9,000 U.S. patents, spinning off entirely new enterprises en route. While the Great Depression devastated most Americans, The Shoe`s workers suffered only reduced hours, but never a single layoff.

Prosperity finally ended, however, in 1979 with the last of 50 years` anti-trust suits. In its aftermath USM withered to a fraction of its former size, its meticulously groomed facility sinking into tragic disrepair. USM eventually left town altogether, and by 1985 the mammoth complex was a mostly vacant shabby hulk of sprawling concrete, with thousands of broken windows and housing far more pigeons than people.

Several thousand retired USM workers sadly witnessed the decay of the once-thriving complex. Their children left town seeking jobs that were once a virtual birthright at The Shoe. For almost 20 years, the decline continued, as one re-use proposal after another raised hopes, only to be dashed on the shoals of economic reality. The complex was too massive to demolish, too polluted for a school, and even too expensive to convert into a prison.

In 1994 former USM president William Scanlon ,was elected Beverly`s mayor on a platform of economic reform, in a city awash in red ink and threatened with state receivership. A key plank in Scanlon`s campaign was rejuvenation of "The Shoe."

With New England`s economy still struggling to shake off a sharp recession, no banks would fund such a speculative redevelopment project. Undeterred, Scanlon sought a real estate developer willing and able to take on "The Shoe" without a bank`s backing. At the mayor`s urging, Cummings Properties purchased and began renovating the property in 1996.

Fewer than five years later, The Shoe, now Cummings Center, thrives again. The multi-use office and research campus houses more than 4,000 skilled workers. USM`s machinists have been replaced by doctors, bankers, lawyers, biotech researchers, software developers, information technology professionals, acupuncturists, and yoga instructors. Beverly once again enjoys the prosperity of USM`s banner days.

Downtown Beverly`s previously vacant storefronts, a half-mile from Cummings Center, are bustling again, many undergoing substantial renovations themselves. Residential real estate values have soared to all-time highs, while Moody`s has boosted Beverly`s municipal bond rating four levels from its previous junk bond status. This, in turn, helped fund a $40 million school building program, and a host of other citywide improvements.

Beverly`s first new elementary school in 40 years was built on a seven-acre parcel donated by Cummings Properties. It is named after James L. McKeown, the firm`s late president, who negotiated The Shoe`s purchase shortly before his sudden death from heart failure at age 41.

Enormous community support fueled this massive project, officially designated by the commonwealth as the "Cummings Center Economic Opportunity Area." The site is also the first in Massachusetts to be cleaned up under the state`s Brownfields Initiative legislation. Working with city and state officials under a "Covenant Not To Sue," Cummings Properties entirely self-financed the $60 million cleanup and renovation.

Cummings Center was an enormous undertaking that employed 300-400 construction workers daily, for more than two years straight. It has been described as the country`s largest single-building restoration. While no single company dominates the local economy any longer, collectively, Cummings Center`s 430 separate businesses once again fuel the economic engine of Boston`s entire North Shore.

A recent survey of Cummings Center tenant firms reported an overall average annual weighted salary of $45,480 per person. With more than 4,000 workers on-site, total salaries paid by Cummings Center firms in 2000 exceeded $180 million! Allowing for inflation and growth, more than $2 billion will have been paid at Cummings Center in salaries alone by the restoration`s tenth anniversary.

"The Shoe`s" renaissance has catapulted Beverly, transcending typical real estate resurrections. This profound effect was best summed up by Huxtable, who pronounced Cummings Center "...more than a success story; it is a dream come true."