PROPOSED: United Illuminating HQ - Orange

[The Voice of Reason]

There was an article today in the New Haven Independent about United Illuminating looking for a new home.

http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archive...orange_move.php

UI announced last week that it

[MadVlad]

This is diametrically opposite to what is happening here in Hartford with NU. Maybe DeStefano really pissed them off somehow and they are using this to shove the pie in his face.

[HartfordTycoon]

Hey, New Haven can't have all the luck! j/k. But, seriously, there is much less incentive for UI to put up with some of added expenses of DT NH as opposed to wide open land in Orange. They don't need any special access to Yale or NH City Hall the way that NU can't wait to be near the Capitol everyday. Being the Capital is a huge advantage sometimes because there is no way NU would be moving to Hartford if we were just a large city instead of the State Capital. Well, I shouldn't say no way, but I doubt it. That being said, there are the obvious urban amenities in NH that make some workers love it, but I'm sure there are many, probably older employees who would love to drive to a subarban office and park in a surface lot and stroll on in the front door.

[Lowerdeck]

I was wondering what was going to happen to that plot in Orange. It's about time something was done with the old Showcase. Right off I-95 x41, pretty good location.

I was thinking that space should have been the Stew Leonards proposed in Orange instead of across the street. But SL's has spent so much time fighting to try and build on the land they already own, probably didn't want to bother scooping up the Showcase plot.

[The Voice of Reason]

I am wondering if locating in Hartford would/could benefit a company like UI.

improbable as it would be, moving would serve the same benefits that NU gets, but its outside the service area. I am not so sure the need to stay within the service area because most utilities are far frung national companies with HQ far from customers.

[HartfordTycoon]

New Haven Register

UI signs 40-year lease for Orange site

Thursday, January 15, 2009 6:35 AM EST

By Brian McCready, Milford Bureau Chief

ORANGE

[HartfordTycoon]

The big guns are out opposing this relocation. This should be interesting to say the least.

New Haven Register

NEW HAVEN

[HartfordTycoon]

Department of Public Utility Control rules that UI cannot count on being able to pass development and construction costs of the new HQ to rate payers.

New Haven Register

State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr. say a ruling issued Wednesday by state utility regulators is a victory in efforts to keep United Illuminating from relocating its headquarters from the Elm City to Orange.

But a spokesman for UI said the company is forging ahead with the planned move.

The 100-page ruling by the Department of Public Utility Control is mostly focused on efforts by UI to reopen a portion of a rate case that the state agency ruled on in February. But Beryl Lyons, a DPUC spokeswoman, said comments made by the commission members reiterate what the agency has said all along: That UI cannot count on the costs associated with the building to be reimbursed by rate payers.