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Friday, December 3, 2010

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST


ING is bailing on Hartford, read the Courant's report by clicking here
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7 comments:

peter brush said...

I've honestly lost track. Where do things stand; do we still have the revenue enhancing commercial property surtax? Not that businesses care about taxes when deciding where to do business.

December 4, 2010 at 11:42 AM
Bruce Rubenstein said...

where is the team of folks at city hall who were supposed to work with businesses so that they wouldnt leave?

December 4, 2010 at 5:35 PM
peter brush said...

where is the team of folks...?
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I guess that would be the (6) guys in the Economic Development Division of the Department of Development Services. They are dedicated to retaining corporate jobs "by identifying and delivering resources from a wide variety of Services providers, including banks, State of Connecticut development agencies, electric and gas utilities and various workforce development agencies."
I doubt ING needed their help identifying resources,etc. Just easier to get the hell out altogether.

December 5, 2010 at 8:59 AM
Rich Wareing said...

This is only news in the sense it is happening now. The actual decision to move when ING's lease in State House Square was made several years ago when ING built its facility out in Windsor instead of in Hartford. Think of this as an annuity on the Perez administration's terrible track record with major institutions (WFSB, ING, Mass Mutual, etc., etc., etc.) and its inability to create a better business environment.

December 5, 2010 at 9:30 AM
Anonymous said...

Rich, 100% correct in that this is old news. INGs own local layoffs created enough space for them at their home office that spending that $$ on the lease didn't make any sense.

But as to whom to blame, it's kinda easy to blame it all on one person. You can think of this as another example of the lack of a regional plan in the state. This pits the Windsor's of the world to compete with their neighbor's like Hartford. Hartford could never compete with the acres of FREE parking given to Windsor via their recent industrial park expansion, no matter how much tax credit is given.

The Perez administration screwed WFSBs attempt to remain in the City, but ING was fishing for the best deal possible with no desire/need to remain in Hartford. This made it easy for Windsor to step in with the offer they did.

December 5, 2010 at 2:27 PM
Rich Wareing said...

Yes, ING was looking for the best possible deal, but had our mill rate not been so high (and going higher each year) due to the wasteful spending of the Perez administration and its inability to address systemic cost-drivers like pension and health care benefits, Hartford could have presented a better candidacy. A better mill rate, coupled wtih some incentives (perhaps using TIF financing to support the construction of parking garages, abatements, outright donations of land, either city-owned or taken by ed etc.) might have been enough. Also, if Mr. Perez had had any kind relationship with the State, CDA tax credits on construction materials might have been available. If his administration had had good relationships with the rest of the corporate community, perhaps they could have been egaged, either to help identify considerations that might have swayed ING, or even to try to persuade ING to stay once an attractive package was put on the table.

I can't say for sure that any of this would have worked, but the prior administration's policies and attitudes made a hard sell that much harder.

December 6, 2010 at 11:27 AM
Anonymous said...

Except that one of the push/pull's effecting the decision to move to Windsor was the fact that the AEtna was in the process of taking back their space on Farmington Avenue where a bulk of ING in Hartford was located. AEtna's move out of their Middletown office coincided with the end of the lease of INGs space. And, yes, AEtna took advantage of some of the very things you mentioned to not only enlarge their parking lot on Sigourney but build a whole new one on Flower across the RR tracks from the Courant.

ING was going to start from scratch and Windsor presented them with an offer no one could refuse. Even the most PRO business Mayor you could imagine would have a hard time dealing with that.

December 6, 2010 at 12:15 PM

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