With LCC, Bentley Students Will Explore Lexington Center's Future

The following information was provided on behalf of the Lexington Center Committee.

As part of the Lexington Center Committee’s role in advising the Lexington Board of Selectmen, LCC chair Jerry Michelson has engaged Bentley University’s undergraduate students who focus on business improvement in their hands-on Integrated Business Project course.

Michelson and the LCC are actively engaged in providing a clear vision for Lexington’s downtown central business district (CBD) to the Board of Selectmen. And Peter Siy, a member of the Center Committee is a teaching executive in residence at Bentley, and one of the professors responsible for the business core course Integrated Business Project(s).The committee and class come together this semester.

"This course provides for interaction between local businesses and Bentley juniors and seniors," said Siy. "These students undertake business plan and business improvement projects with real-world business clients as part of their curriculum.”

The semester-long course will examine national and local trends and best practices in suburban downtown development and study issues in operations, marketing and finance.

“Bentley University has provided us an opportunity to get objective research and views from these very motivated business students and we welcome their input," said Michelson. "We hope students will come to appreciate the key development issues in a small but culturally-rich downtown suburban environment.”

Students will perform secondary research and then proceed to primary research via a focus group and email survey. Michelson and his committee will be seeking Lexington residents for such a focus group.

The Bentley students will create a tailored web-based survey which will consequently be sent via email to as many residents as possible. Seeking residents input on the future of the downtown CBD will help shape the students’ final reports. Results from students working in teams will be presented at the end of the Spring 2013 semester, during the first week of May.

THE LEXINGTON CENTER COMMITTEE is appointed by the Lexington Board of Selectmen and charged to advise the board on all matters relating to Lexington’s thriving downtown central business district. Jerry Michelson, chairman of the committee, he can be contacted at (781) 862-1034. Peter Siy is a member of the center committee and a Teaching Executive in Residence in the Hughey Center for Financial Services at Bentley University.