GTECH

[ctman987]

Ok so I was in Providence about two months ago and I know all about GTECH constructing their headquarters downtown/downcity across from the mall. I also know that the company is relocating from the suburbs into the city. What I want to know is how the city and the state worked with the company to get them to build downtown, what was the oppositon, what were the selling points of downtown, all that stuff.

I am writing because recently in the Hartford area Hartford Life (based in Simsbury currently) which is part of The Hartford (based in Hartford) has outgrown there office space in Simsbury and is looking for new spaces in the area. They are looking at some of the usual suburban office areas such as Windsor and Enfield but even though it is a long shot I think it would be great if the city and the state worked together to try and draw Hartford Life into the city.

The Hartford is based in an office tower on Asylum Hill just west of Downtown and Hartford Life is housed in a 600,000 square foot facility in suburban Simsbury. I beleive there are about 4,000-4,500 Hartford Life employees - a majority of them are housed in Simsbury. I think this is an opportunity the city shouldnt pass up and I know Providence worked hard and was successfull which is why I am asking for how it worked out there

Thanks

[runawayjim]

Ok so I was in Providence about two months ago and I know all about GTECH constructing their headquarters downtown/downcity across from the mall. I also know that the company is relocating from the suburbs into the city. What I want to know is how the city and the state worked with the company to get them to build downtown, what was the oppositon, what were the selling points of downtown, all that stuff.

I am writing because recently in the Hartford area Hartford Life (based in Simsbury currently) which is part of The Hartford (based in Hartford) has outgrown there office space in Simsbury and is looking for new spaces in the area. They are looking at some of the usual suburban office areas such as Windsor and Enfield but even though it is a long shot I think it would be great if the city and the state worked together to try and draw Hartford Life into the city.

The Hartford is based in an office tower on Asylum Hill just west of Downtown and Hartford Life is housed in a 600,000 square foot facility in suburban Simsbury. I beleive there are about 4,000-4,500 Hartford Life employees - a majority of them are housed in Simsbury. I think this is an opportunity the city shouldnt pass up and I know Providence worked hard and was successfull which is why I am asking for how it worked out there

Thanks

i don't know much about the deal, but i think it went something like this...

gtech was planning on moving their headquarters anyways (they're currently in west warwick or west greenwich or coventry or something like that). they were planning to move to MA because of taxes i think (RI taxes are bad for corporations). so in response, RI, wanting to keep those jobs in the state, gave them some serious tax incentives to relocate to downtown providence.

that's a very general idea of how it went, but i'm sure someone with more knowledge could fill in the rest.

might be more difficult for those 2 insurance companies, unless they're planning on moving anyways. fidelity investments has a huge campus in north smithfield and it would be awesome for them to move downtown, but it's much cheaper in north smithfield. so since they're not planning on moving anytime soon, there's no real way to get them to move to providence (although they are temporarily taking over a vacant building downtown while they add on to their campus in north smithfield... they're moving something like 1500 employees from boston to RI).

[Frankie811]

The GTECH deal was unique because they run the RI state lottery which was key towards closing the deal because the state signed an agreement that GTECH would run the lot for so many years (20)? and they may have some dealing with the slots at Lincoln & Newport. In exchange, GTECH will provide Providence schools with computers and open up a service call center in a low income neighborhood. And I'm sure that they got tax breaks also.

[ctman987]

Thanks for this information....It is really quite early to ponder the move of Hartford Life because the only news that has been given is that Hartford Life has outgrown there current facility and are looking at other communities in the area for facilties.

If they do decide to move Simsbury will surely try to lure the company to stay in Simsbury but I think the state and city of Hartford should step up like in RI. It does make sense for Hartford Life to be in Hartford becase they are part of The Hartford which is headquartered right in Hartford so why have offices all the way out in Simsbury.

I know GTECH is building a new building...which is quite nice if I may say so myself and that is something Prudential Retirement has said they might life to do in Hartford even though there is a lot of vacant office space but there is room to build around the headquarters of The Hartford which is located on Asylum Hill just west of downtown and not far from there headqaurters is a massive complex that was recently vacated by MassMutual when they moved those jobs to Enfield, CT....this complex is not a high rise but is full of very nice historic buildings with lots of parking

Hopefully Hartford will at least try because look Providence tried and they got a new office building and new employees downtown.