Cape Ann's $32M in federal contracts: why 88% goes to outside firms

Federal agencies paid contractors $32.1 million for work done on Cape Ann over the last six federal budget years, from October 2020 to September 2026, federal contract records show. Cape Ann companies and groups received about $3.7 million of it, or 12%. The other 88% went to companies based elsewhere, including $20.6 million to companies outside Massachusetts.

Most of the money, $26.6 million, paid for work in Gloucester, and almost all of that came from one agency: the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA Fisheries runs its Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office in Gloucester. The office manages federal fishing rules in waters from Maine to Cape Hatteras, N.C.

The biggest piece is computer support for that office. NOAA just gave the work to a small business in Maryland, under a contract that could run to 2030 and total $9.6 million. Cape Ann has 15 computer services businesses with employees, and none has held a federal computer support contract in the last six years.

Official records: These numbers are the Cape Ann Current's own analysis of federal contract records. For the official record of any federal award, visit the federal government's spending site, USAspending.gov. A federal budget year runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.

Town by town

Essex: $3.4 million, all of it the Army Corps of Engineers dredging the Essex River. The work went to Atlantic Coast Tug & Marine of Derry, N.H., and ended in September 2025.

Rockport: $1.5 million, nearly all from the Department of Veterans Affairs paying two Rockport nursing homes to care for veterans.

Manchester-by-the-Sea: about $535,000, mostly chemical protective gloves sold to the Defense Logistics Agency by Renco Corp., a Manchester company.

Counting work done anywhere, Renco is also the biggest federal contractor among companies listed at Cape Ann addresses in these six years. During the pandemic, the Air Force, buying for the Department of Health and Human Services, awarded Renco a $70.4 million contract in 2020 to expand nitrile glove production and packaging in Colebrook, N.H. About $48 million of it was paid in the 2021 budget year.

Two of Cape Ann's biggest employers show little federal business today. Gorton's, owned by Japan's Nippon Suisan Kaisha, known as Nissui, sold about $40 million of frozen seafood to military commissaries from 2008 to 2012. Federal records show almost no contract dollars to Gorton's since, and none under Nissui's name.

Applied Materials, which runs a large plant in Gloucester, does very little federal contracting. Federal records show about $1.6 million in contracts to the company since 2008, less than $100,000 a year on average, most of it a single $880,000 Defense Department contract in 2023. Its Gloucester business did receive about $11 million in Energy Department research grants for solar cell technology in 2009 and 2011. Applied Materials' federal awards are recorded at its California headquarters, so any federal work tied to the Gloucester plant would not show up as Cape Ann's.

Gloucester: who is spending the money

NOAA's regional office is the biggest federal buyer in Gloucester by far. The Coast Guard is a distant second, with about $660,000 for work at Station Gloucester and the lighthouses it keeps, like new fuel tanks, heaters, a gate and landscaping.

Several federal law enforcement agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Marshals Service, buy leather badge and credential cases from Strong Group, a Gloucester company. Because the cases are made here, the records list Gloucester as the place of work.

Contracts only. Dollars agencies committed in each federal budget year, including changes and cancellations. Source: USAspending.gov.

Gloucester: what the money buys

Nearly half, $13.1 million, paid for computer, software and data support. Lynker Corp. of Leesburg, Va., received about $9 million to run computer and data systems for the regional fisheries office, one yearly order after another. In August, NOAA gave Propel Solutions of Rockville, Md., about $3 million for the office's help desk and software work.

Another $7.8 million paid for fisheries science and environmental review. That includes sampling fish catches at the docks, reviews of offshore wind and hydropower projects, and work on protected species and fish habitat. NOAA also chartered two fishing boats, the Mary Elizabeth of Scituate and a boat from Tenacious Marine of Barnstable, for its Gulf of Maine longline survey.

About $3.5 million paid for fisheries law enforcement. Most of that went to a Hull fishing boat operator for trips to inspect lobster gear at sea. The rest bought mobile marine monitors, computer forensics software and steering upgrades on two NOAA enforcement boats.

Kinds of work are our plain words for what each contract paid for, based on the contract descriptions in the federal records. Source: USAspending.gov.

The biggest contract: NOAA's computers

For six years, Lynker Corp. of Leesburg, Va., a large company, ran computer and data support for NOAA's Gloucester office through yearly orders worth about $9 million in all.

In August, NOAA moved the work to Propel Solutions of Rockville, Md. The contract was open only to women-owned small businesses that already hold a General Services Administration schedule contract, a list of companies approved to sell to federal agencies. Five companies bid. NOAA has committed about $3 million so far. If it uses every option, the contract runs to September 2030 and could total $9.6 million.

Could a Cape Ann company do work like this? Census counts show 15 computer systems design businesses with employees on Cape Ann in 2023: seven in Gloucester, five in Manchester-by-the-Sea and three in Rockport. Thirteen of them had fewer than five employees. In six years, none of them held a federal computer support contract. One Gloucester company's federal work carries a computer services code, but that company, HireClix, is a recruitment firm, and the work was LinkedIn hiring and training subscriptions for the Peace Corps.

A second support contract for the office, for protected species and habitat work, went to Azura Consulting of Garland, Texas, in September. It was set aside for small businesses, drew nine bids and could total $6.8 million by August 2030.

Business counts: U.S. Census Bureau, ZIP Code Business Patterns, 2023, businesses with paid employees in computer systems design and related services. Contract details: USAspending.gov.

When the contracts end

These federal contracts for work on Cape Ann are still running. "Ends" is the current end date. "Could run to" is the last date if the agency uses every option it wrote into the contract. A contract that ends is often bid again, which is when a new company can compete. Tap a column to sort, or use the filters.

Contracts of $10,000 or more for work on Cape Ann with an end date of Nov. 6, 2026 or later, based on federal records as of Oct. 16. Strong Group's two badge case orders are combined, with the earlier end date. NAICS is the federal industry code the agency assigned to the purchase. Source: USAspending.gov.

How the biggest purchase was made

NOAA did not hold an open bid for its new Gloucester computer contract. It placed an order through the General Services Administration's Multiple Award Schedule, often called the GSA schedule. The schedule is a set of long term contracts GSA signs with thousands of companies, with prices and terms already approved. Any federal agency can then buy from those companies with a quicker competition among them.

For this order, NOAA limited the competition to women-owned small businesses on the schedule. Five bid, and Propel Solutions won (order 1305M326F0109, under its schedule contract 47QTCA23D006D). A company that is not on the schedule could not have bid. Lynker's earlier orders also ran through the schedule, under a blanket purchase agreement, a standing account NOAA set up with Lynker.

The second largest new contract, Azura Consulting's protected species and habitat work (order 1305M326F0159), went through a different route: NOAA's own multiple award contract (1305M424D0004), a pool of companies NOAA picked in advance. Only companies in that pool could bid.

For a Cape Ann business, the lesson is the same: much federal work goes through these preapproved lists, so getting on one comes first. The free Massachusetts APEX Accelerator helps small businesses apply for a GSA schedule.

It used to be bigger

Federal contract work in Gloucester was much larger 15 years ago. From 2008 to 2012 it averaged about $14.7 million a year. More than half came from the Defense Commissary Agency, which runs grocery stores on military bases. It paid Gorton's about $8 million a year for work recorded in Gloucester. Those payments stop after 2012 in the records, which do not say why.

Since then, yearly totals have mostly been $4 million to $7 million, nearly all from NOAA. The jump in 2020 is the Army Corps of Engineers dredging the Annisquam River. NOAA's contract spending in Gloucester fell to $2.3 million in 2025, then rose to $5.1 million in 2026 as new computer support and protected species contracts began.

Federal budget years 2008 to 2026. Defense Department contracts post about 90 days late, so 2026 may still rise. Source: USAspending.gov.

Where the contractors are based

Two of every three dollars went to companies based outside Massachusetts, many of them in the Washington, D.C., area. Most of the rest went to companies elsewhere in Massachusetts, like A.I.S. Inc. of Marion and Integrated Statistics of Woods Hole, which both do fisheries science work for NOAA.

Based on each contractor's business address in the federal records. Source: USAspending.gov.

Who got the work

Contractors with at least $50,000 for work in Gloucester, 2021 to 2026. People paid as individuals are not named. Tap a column to sort. Source: USAspending.gov.

Gloucester companies in the mix

Six Gloucester companies and groups each received more than $75,000 for federal work done in the city:

• Strong Group, about $700,000 for leather badge and credential cases for the DEA, Customs and Border Protection, the Marshals Service and other agencies.
• HireClix, a recruitment company, about $258,000 for LinkedIn hiring and training subscriptions for the Peace Corps.
• Hefring, about $231,000 for underwater gliders NOAA bought for ocean research.
• Trilogic Systems, about $161,000 for computer servers for NASA.
• Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute, about $140,000 for DNA sequencing and fish aging research for NOAA.
• Cape Ann Marina, about $77,000 for steering upgrades on two NOAA enforcement boats.

Counting federal contracts anywhere, not just in Gloucester, Gloucester companies received about $3.3 million over the same six years, before cancellations and refunds. Our story on the federal HUBZone program looks at why downtown Gloucester businesses have an edge on some of that work.

The opening for local businesses

Much of what NOAA buys in Gloucester is the kind of work local businesses also do: computer support, security guards, building repairs, boat charters, printing and training. Federal buyers post many of these jobs online, and some are set aside for small businesses.

The Greater Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce and the city's Economic Development Division can also point local businesses to help. Our story on state spending on Cape Ann lists more local resources.

Who owns NOAA's building

NOAA's regional office is at 55 Great Republic Drive in the Blackburn Industrial Park. The city's Economic Development and Industrial Corp. sold the empty lot in 2006 for $496,375 to JDL-Gloucester LLC. The office was finished in 2008, and in 2010 JDL-Gloucester sold the building for $14 million to NGP V Gloucester MA LLC of McLean, Va., part of a group of funds that own buildings rented to federal agencies, Southern Essex Registry of Deeds records show.

The city assesses the 100,000 square foot building at $16.6 million this year. NOAA leases the building directly, not through the General Services Administration, so the lease does not appear in GSA's list of federal leases, and the rent is not in the federal contract records. The $341,000 from the General Services Administration shown above paid for an office design project, not rent.

The VA clinic on Main Street

The other federal office in downtown Gloucester is the Gloucester VA Clinic at 199 Main St., part of the VA Bedford Healthcare System. It offers primary care, mental health care, lab work, physical therapy, nutrition help and telehealth on weekdays, and a VA shuttle runs to the Bedford hospital.

The clinic is in a storefront at the Main Street plaza owned by 1907 LLC, which has a Gloucester mailing address, registry of deeds and city assessor records show. The city assesses the plaza, listed at 201 Main St., at $5.6 million. VA purchase records show the clinic was reopened there in 2016, when VA bought furniture, exam equipment and artwork for it.

Like NOAA, the VA rents its clinics directly, so the lease is not in GSA's list of federal leases and the rent is not public. Few federal contracts are tied to the clinic itself: the setup purchases in 2016, about $142,000, and a $49,000 alarm upgrade in 2025 shared with the VA clinics in Lynn and Haverhill.

A note on the records

Agencies file these records themselves. A few small purchases list Gloucester as the place of work even though the work appears to have been done somewhere else, like laptops for a NOAA office in Alaska. We counted the records as the agencies filed them. A business that works in Gloucester as a subcontractor to a bigger company is not counted, because these records show only the main contractor.

Earlier in this series: Commonwealth of Massachusetts spending with diverse and small businesses (Oct. 16), what state agencies and departments pay Cape Ann vendors (Oct. 23) and the federal HUBZone market (Oct. 30).

About the data

These figures come from federal contract records on USAspending.gov for contracts where the work was done in Gloucester. Dollars are what agencies committed in each federal budget year. For official records, visit USAspending.gov.