HFD/Conn Economic development

[beerbeer]

A big part of the problem is that there is a tax incentive to rip down buildings. The owner of that lot will pay less in taxes on an empty lot than on keeping the building.

[nor'easter]

Looks Like someone else wants to create another parking lot.

a. 77 Wadsworth Street — Demolition of building for the purpose of repaving the property as a surface parking lot. Applicant– Jeffrey Dressler, Owner- 77 Wadsworth Street, LLC

http://www.realhartford.org/

With about 1000 DPH workers moving out of Hartford to Rocky Hill next year, the "Bushnell" parking lot is going to seem pretty empty. There are a few hundred DPH workers that use that lot and others nearby. So, I am wondering what need the developer is filling?

[The Voice of Reason]

With about 1000 DPH workers moving out of Hartford to Rocky Hill next year, the "Bushnell" parking lot is going to seem pretty empty. There are a few hundred DPH workers that use that lot and others nearby. So, I am wondering what need the developer is filling?

The only need is a lesser tax burden

hmmm, I was unaware that that rockyhill thing was taking jobs from downtown. anopther reason I hate that development!!!

well hopefully with the lower demand on parking in that lot, we can get Konover to develop it???

[The Voice of Reason]

A couple of news items.....

1: Gerber Scientific continues to move jobs away from S Windsor, and into Tolland.

2: Gerber sold its S Windsor building to TicketNetwork They are moving like 300 jobs from Vernon to the Gerber building over time and expect to grow to 500 positions in time

3: The US Post Office is consolidating some RI and SE Mass services into Hartford hub.

not sure how many bjobs will be moving to hartford, but it is nice that the Feds chose to Keep hartford

4: FDIC is selling itas warrents in Webster bank completely freeing the institution from govt oversight

[The Voice of Reason]

Gerber scientific is selling itself to a private equity company.

I hope this is a good thing. I hope they grow the business and we IPO in a few years and I hope it brings jobs to the area, but we will see.

In other news, Alliance world is buying a competitor effectively

http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/news18965.html

and in the MASSIVE rumor department, Aetna and Cigna to merge? its a rumor, but apparently it has some legs

http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/news18955.html

I think this would be bad for us, but not terrible as the HQ would surely remain in Hartford.

Id MUCH prefer that either company were to buy Humana, accomplishing almost the same thing and strengthening Hartford (at louisvilles expense)

[HartfordTycoon]

The Hartford Housing Authority continues to make good progress in remaking the city's public housing stock. They mention the upcoming redevelopment of Nelton Court and the very successful transformations already completed in Dutch Point, Charter Oak Terrace, and Stowe Village. I drove through Stowe Village the other day and it really is amazing what they have done to that area. Obviously the neighborhood still needs a lot of work but the area that used to be Stowe Village is now the clear bright spot when it used to be the worst of the worst. They also talk about getting back to work on getting the Capewell Site redeveloped into housing and the future potential for Westbrook Village. Good stuff.

Hartford Courant

The houses at Dutch Point, once as battered, bleak and dangerous as a development could get, are now some of the sharpest in the Sheldon-Charter Oak neighborhood near Colt Park. The development includes 127 rental apartments, all of which are occupied.

"Beautiful … we are glad we are living here,'' said David Rozario, a document specialist, who moved with his wife, Mukta, from Wethersfield to a home that the couple purchased a year ago on Osten Boulevard in Dutch Point.

"Yes, we heard something about what it was before,'' said Rozario. "But as you can see, it is fine now. A big park is right there for our grandchildren,'' he said, gesturing expansively to take in Colt Park. "Our church is nearby. We are happy.''

[The Voice of Reason]

The HBJ had another article about the HH bond offering and its expansion plans.

the Emergency room is growing by 20 something beds I think 24-26 that project will be finished by december

and the garage is very close to getting started apparently. final approval within the next 30 or so days with construction likely starting in September.

Also, some buildings are being rennovated on jefferson street to move some hospital admin offices into freeing up more room in the main buildings.

the bonding issue will be 350 million to consolidate the debt of all the hospitals they recently bought.

Also, Aetna baught a small benefits company from Omaha. this unit will be merged into another simular unit held by Aetna adding 600k customers bringing that units total to 2Million. they paid 200Million. direct sales I think they did.

and there is an article about Peoples bank and its opening of 3 more branches in boston associated with its recent merger with Danversbank. I guess danvers was allready planing these branches, so PBCT just finished em up.

so there ya go...

[The Voice of Reason]

Malloy is on the move....

I know he is meeting with tons of companies right now, including both mine and my wifes, so thats interesting....

Also, Malloy, TicketNetwork to unveil jobs plan

=LookupCode$0@113;ArticleType]http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/article_list.php?RF_ITEM[]=LookupCode$0@113;ArticleType

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has scheduled a 1:30 p.m. press conference Thursday at the headquarters of South Windsor-based TicketNetwork for a "major economic development announcement."

While no further details were provided, the news conference could be an indicator that TicketNetwork will be the second company to take advantage of Malloy's "First Five" initiative, which will provide a series of economic incentives and tax breaks for the first five companies that add 200 jobs in the state.

more the merrier in the jobs department. I think I posted something earlier that has ticketnwetwork planning on continuing to expand rapidly, we will see what this announcement is?

[HartfordTycoon]

Definitely interesting to see TicketNetwork in the mix. I hadn't even thought about them but hey, maybe they are still planning an outdoor concert venue in the S. Windsor/Manchester area. If so, that could be pretty cool and would certainly represent a sizable investment in the area. I have a feeling Vernon will regret letting them get away.

[The Voice of Reason]

Definitely interesting to see TicketNetwork in the mix. I hadn't even thought about them but hey, maybe they are still planning an outdoor concert venue in the S. Windsor/Manchester area. If so, that could be pretty cool and would certainly represent a sizable investment in the area. I have a feeling Vernon will regret letting them get away.

more info in the courant that basically re-hashes their plans that I mentioned in my last post and well are somewhere in this thread...

http://www.courant.com/business/hc-ticketnetwork-first-five-20110721,0,7918499.story

TicketNetwork, which had 325 employees in May, is an online marketplace for tickets to sports and entertainment events. The company is moving into the former Gerber Scientific headquarters from a 20,000-square-foot office in Vernon. Its relationship with Vernon deteriorated after town officials rejected the company's plans for an outdoor concert venue

At the time of the Gerber building purchase earlier this year, TicketNetwork CEO Donald Vaccaro said the company expected to have more than 400 workers in 2012 and more than 500 in 2013.

[MadVlad]

That doesn't add up to +200...

[The Voice of Reason]

That doesn't add up to +200...

that does not, but the actual announcement that came out later did add up.

I am not so sure how I feel about this one.

it seems they are paying off deals that were made on the assumption of this law passing. so like, this company and maybe cigna started to move people and stuff based on the idea that they were going to get the first five when it was law

[HartfordTycoon]

that does not, but the actual announcement that came out later did add up.

I am not so sure how I feel about this one.

it seems they are paying off deals that were made on the assumption of this law passing. so like, this company and maybe cigna started to move people and stuff based on the idea that they were going to get the first five when it was law

I agree. I'm not actually too thrilled about this one. I guess it's cool but seems like they didn't need to include a small company like this in the First Five initiative. Not that I would oppose the State working with TicketNetwork to grow but I just feel like the First Five should have been limited to major companies.

[The Voice of Reason]

Nice OP ed piece in the courant

http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/hc-op-carstensen-hartford-infrastruct20110807,0,2212267.story

its intelligent and stuff, because it came from a professor.

I have to agree 100% we need to really start pushing the airport, and do everything we can as a state/region to get high speed rail connections from the Airport to downtown, and extend as far as we can from there, be it NYC, Boston, Providence, Albany, I dont care.

these two transportation systems could absolutely change the region for the better.

Hell, Albany doesnt really have a good airport, we could easily steal their customers with a good rail network.

[The Voice of Reason]

http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/news20400.html

Stanley is buying another company, this one from Sweden. 1.2 Billion and it will drow the revenues by another billion/ year.

Great to see Stanley turning into more of a conglomerate

Stanley used to be a 4-5 billion company just 3 years ago, now its a 9-12 billion dollar company, and buying this sweedish firm is not really a major move when it once would have been transformative. Picking up B&D was a major coup!

Now I just hope they stay in CT and in Greater Harford

[The Voice of Reason]

Cigna is buying a Healthspring a medicare company. It announced today the 3.8 Billion deal.

this is about 25% of Cigna's market cap, so its a pretty big acquisition for them.

The target was from Nashville area, so with our new HQ status I am thinking this might lead to some jobs filtering up here.

Good stuff!

http://www.courant.com/business/connecticut-insurance/hc-cigna-health-spring-1025-20111024,0,2576172.story

[HartfordTycoon]

I read that Aetna is also primed to make a similar acquistion in order to boost their share of Medicare business. Definity good anytime Hartford businesses are acquiring and not being acquired.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-26/wellcare-joining-universal-as-bait-with-aging-boomers-real-m-a.html

[The Voice of Reason]

peoples united has leased 7000 SF in Manhattan as a flagship branch. @250 Park Ave in Manhattan on the corner of 47th St and Park Ave

http://newyorkreales...h-in-NYC.aspx

Looks like they are fully intending to move more aggressively into NYC and obviously have been aggressive in Boston. I think their hopes are to one day become the Fleet bank of today.

in other news, the boat building will start leasing space to outside companies because the phoenix does not need all of its space any more. this is pretty much all of the base of the building, but not so much any part of the tower from best I can tell. 65000 SF

in still other news... Rockville bank is leasing space in Glastonbury 22ksf. interesting news that, because glastonbury is on the Southern and Western edge of their territory, and glastonbury is becoming one of their largest back office operation as they continue to grow. (south Windsor is 35kSF) I wouldn't be surprised to read soon that they are expanding across the river and further south.

https://www.rockvill...r-locations.htm

EDIT: ok, Im dumb... they just filed paperwork to open a branch in West Hartford.

so, to me, that means Hartford downtown is not far away either as are branches N and S of Hartford likely all along the West of the river. they are gonna pop open a bunch of branches with that $171 million in IPO money. I suspect Farmington bank is ding the same kind of growth from the opposite side of Hartford. lets just hope that some hartford based banks can stick around and not get gobbled up, and maybe provide some jobs in the hartford area.

[Theophrastus Bombastus]

Potentially good news (but who can they get????)

http://www.hartfordb.../news21883.html

[The Voice of Reason]

yes, this is an interesting article. kind of an add in a way.

anyways, we know its a great building and location and they got it for a steal and it has great parking options... but what, is it 700,000SF

if they land a 700k sf tenant I will choke on my lunch!

they are however a legit REIT with resources and connections, and even some great tenants already in their other downtown towers.

So, the question is do they snag a tenant from NY, or from the burbs? I am sure they will get someone since they got such a deal they can negotiate aggressively.

any way it would be nice to have 2000+ people working in there again and add in 200 apartments to the clarion hotel.

[The Voice of Reason]

OK, so here is more Banking news since its just my thing...

Peoples bank has fared fairly well in the markets since they are stable and have tons of cash, so their stock is pretty strong. Other stock of regional banks have struggled, and even after the markets revovered ad all, they still are lagging

Peoples is in an amazing position to go shopping right now as they have for the last few years, and as far as targets in their near by territory there are some sweet looking options.

I have been tracking a few....

the dream buy is Hudson City... Based out of NJ, they are culturally alot like Peoples bank, did the huge stock raise and evn have some cash of their own on hand... but they tried to grow too quickly, so have has some sour loans especially on long island. this bank dominates NJ and parts of NYC/LI and has I think 8 branches in CT. they have 50 billion in assets (almost double what peoples has...28B) but their market value is still depressed and hovering just above 3.7 billion while peoples is at 4.5B A month or two ago it was 2.8B to 4.2B... I look at this as a dream buy because Hudson City is a much bigger bank, but according to an article in the courant its apparently a possibility.... who knew? (me I guess) But this ties into their terrotory and culture perfectly. If PBCT put 1B in Cash and the rest in stock, they would still likely have to give away 3.8B in shares giving significant ownership to HCBK shareholders (assuming 30% premium). But you never know because banks have been selling at lower levels lately, and its possible they could get a better price.

the resultant institution would have 78 Billion in assets and 500 or so branches making it one of the bigish boys in regional banking. Think Soverign, Citizens M&T. It still wouldnt be a powerhouse bank like Fleet was, but it would be well on its way and surely help Bridgeports employment base.

Astoria Federal is another bank I have been tracking and I see its acquisition is MUCH more likely.. so much so I think owning shares in it might be smart. (Just a personal feeling, I don't work in Banking or mergers or anything) AF has 14 billion in assets and its market value is a much more digestible 900 Million. PBCT could buy these guys comfortably and even hold cash for other acquisitions or what have you. AF is struggling worse than HCBK but has rallied recently.

the resultant bank would have a great NYC presence, Long Island would be much stronger, and the bank could reasonably say it had a decent market share in NY. 42 Billion in Assets and 450 Branches or so. Not too shabby, but also still able to likely make other moves to fill gaps and maintain flexibility. The recent article also mentioned this possibility making me feel smart...

Lastly Susquahanna Bank in PA to me seems a pretty damn good fit. It has 18 Billion in assets, but is mostly in PA MD and NJ, so there would be a small gap through NYC in territory. at $1.44 billion market cap its a hefty buy, but not too much bigger than AF. Its more stable than AF too, but ya get what you pay for. 230 branches would bring PBCT to almost 600 branches, and 46 Billion in Assets. A pretty significant bank, but one that would need to fill in the NYC gap as soon as possible.

Reference image

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SusquehannaBank_footprint.png

regardless, PBCT will make some moves, I am interested to see how that will help Bridgeport. and CT in General.

Here is the article.

http://www.courant.com/business/hc-peoples-united-acquisitions-20120124,0,5729416.story

So As an Also, Webster bank came out as being interested in Mergers, so it seems they are finally stabilized, healthy and have some cash... (remember they have private equity backers. It will be interesting to see where Webster tries to expand. they are however clearly in a different league than Peoples bank.

and lastly, Rockville bank, Farmington bank, and Savings Institute Financial are all cash rich after public offerings. each have about 20 branches and about 1-2 Billion in assets. I am sure they will all be looking to grow organically and through acquisitions. while at the same time Brookline bank from MA just bought Bank of Rhode island, and berkshire hills bank just bought CT Bank and Trust.

The little mergers rarely grow jobs much, just move them around, but all those companies are at the point where they are starting to affect the economies of their regions (like Rockville Bank renting 20K SF in Glastonbury and moving jobs there (Eventually that should hold almost 100 jobs)

Thats your banking update...Next one will likely be some merger headline. and if you think this doesn't matter, go look and see what PNC banks growth has done for downtown Pittsburg...

[The Voice of Reason]

as I thought there would be an acquisition announcement.

http://www.courant.com/business/hc-peoples-united-citizens-branches-20120228,0,3698923.story

nothing epic, but good to see them continuing to grow their territory. this one is good because it cost almost nothing in relative terms and totaled 56 branches. These grocery store branches average like 4-5 million in deposits, while peoples bank tends to average 35 million per grocery store branches.

so if they are able to replicate that kind of success at the citizens branches, this will be a nice pick up. I also suspect there will be more.. Valley national bank is a perfect fit for them.

also citizens is claerly selling branches, so you never know what they might do with them.

[The Voice of Reason]

As I thought, there would be an acquisition announcement.

http://www.courant.com/business/hc-peoples-united-citizens-branches-20120228,0,3698923.story

nothing epic, but good to see them continuing to grow their territory. this one is good because it cost almost nothing in relative terms and totaled 56 branches. These grocery store branches average like 4-5 million in deposits, while peoples bank tends to average 35 million per grocery store branches.

so if they are able to replicate that kind of success at the citizens branches, this will be a nice pick up. I also suspect there will be more.. Valley national bank is a perfect fit for them.

also citizens is clearly selling branches, so you never know what they might do with them.

[HartfordTycoon]

http://www.courant.com/business/hc-nu-nstar-merger-deal-20120313,0,4846301.story

NU and the State have finalized a deal for state approval of the merger with NStar. I'm glad they decided to review it since they have gotten concessions on rates, a credit for customers, and importantly the retention of Hartford as the primary headquarters for at least 7 years. It's no guarantee that we can keep the HQ forever but 7 years is a pretty long time and will give the state plenty of time to try to work with them to make sure they do decide to stay here. The deal with Mass didn't have any provision on HQ location so if they decide to drop the dual HQ plan within the next 7 years it won't be at Hartford's expense.

[The Voice of Reason]

yeah, that was a good move.

I am not sure it will matter in the end though, the new guy is like the posterboy for Boston.

It would be great however if during the 7 years Hartford somehow managed to beat out Boston as the eventual power center. I find this highly unlikely as Boston is simply a world class city, and Hartford has a long long ay to go.

but its a start!