The Fort's sitting was due primarily to its location at a major hub of the rail network in New England.

The process for distribution of surplus land parcels on the former Fort Devens allowed the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Shriver Job Corps, Massachusetts National Guard, Massachusetts Veterans and MassDevelopment[5] to acquire the land.

MassDevelopment is a quasi-public development authority that has been given the task of turning Devens into a residential and business community.

Veterans of the Army Security Agency have also expressed interest in building a museum there, as Fort Devens was their principal training facility for more than two decades.

[citation needed] A comprehensive disposition process has been ongoing since 2003, charged with determining the future political governance of Devens.

On October 24, 2006, a vote to confirm the disposition recommendation for future governance was voted down by two of the six stakeholders, the adjoining towns of Harvard and Ayer (residents of Shirley, the Devens residents, MassDevelopment and the Devens Enterprise Commission supported the resolution).

MassDevelopment maintains the utilities (such as gas, electricity and water) and contracts out public safety services such as firefighting and police.

[citation needed] Devens is home to, among other enterprises, New England Studios, a film studio opened in 2014 [6] and Commonwealth Fusion Systems, a spinoff of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology which raised $1.8 billion in December 2021 to build a tokamak fusion device.