At the time, GE Chief Executive Officer Jeff Immelt said in an email to employees that he asked a team to examine the company’s options to relocate the headquarters to a state with a “more pro-business environment”.
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MA offered $120 million in grants and other incentives to help lure the company from CT, in addition to $25 million in property tax relief being offered by the city of Boston.
Then yesterday morning Klee called with the news – GE had picked Boston.
GE plans to move some of its 800 workers in Fairfield, Connecticut to a temporary location in Boston this summer.
The move will play out in several stages, culminating in 2018.
GE announced in November that it was selling its electricity meters business to Aclara in a deal that includes GE Meters global headquarters in Somersworth and more than 300 employees.
CT also has many corporate tax structures that are less favorable than other states’, such as rules that could put more of GE’s global sales within Connecticut’s grasp, and those probably also tipped the decision, Walczak said. Lawmakers responded by scaling back some increases, but still passed the second largest tax hike in state history.
The shares gained 14 cents to $28.78 at 11 a.m.in NY trading. The only obvious drawback to GE’s choice is that the top brass may need to leave their New York Yankees caps behind. It was not immediately clear how many employees will remain in CT.
The move “will hurt the state of CT and Fairfield and the surrounding areas a lot more than it will hurt GE”, Sen. GE employs about 5,000 workers elsewhere in CT.
There is no single easy answer why GE made their decision to move, Brennan said, but while it may have begun with a debate over the state’s fiscal policy it certainly did not end there.
This move means the relocation of hundreds of jobs out of the state and into MA.
Update: In response to a request for comment, a GE spokesperson said over email, “GE pays taxes in MA and everywhere we do business”.
The announcement was mourned in CT, but MA officials rejoiced.
The departure of GE’s headquarters is rattling town officials from Milford to Greenwich. “We have not provided that”, said Sen. “That’s why he left”.
“I think GE is a positive for Worcester”, Murray told Worcester Magazine.
Fasano says the Democratic-controlled legislature did not take GE’s tax concerns seriously and brushed off the idea of restructuring the state budget.
“We’re not going to win every challenge to keep (businesses) but we’ve won more than we’ve lost”, Malloy said. “We’re not doing it.’ And that’s why we couldn’t come to an agreement”. Founder Thomas Edison started New York City’s first central power station in 1882, the company was the exclusive provider of switches and switchboards for the Empire State Building, and its headquarters for much of the 20th Century was at 570 Lexington Avenue in Manhattan.
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Life sciences and tech companies already located in Boston, Cambridge, and beyond stand to benefit from the vast resources of GE – they will gain a potential new customer with money to spend, and an insatiable appetite for everything better.
