The company’s GE Aviation division employs about 250 workers at its Hooksett plant, which makes parts for airplane engines. MA spends more on research & development than any other region in the world, and Boston attracts a diverse, technologically-fluent workforce focused on solving challenges for the world.
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Fair to say this was a brilliant day for Boston.
Judging from the Boston-area reaction to GE’s announcement, Boston is now poised to become the next Silicon Valley. “I know many in CT share the disappointment and frustration”, he said. “Also, numerous employees that will be moving to MA will search for places to live and bring up their families, and Worcester, with excellent public schools, timely public transportation to Boston, and an affordable housing market, is perfectly positioned to house those families”. “We have not provided that”, said Sen.
Although GE has been scouting new locations for three years and Boston was rumored to be on the shortlist, Stewart told CPE the announcement still came as somewhat of a surprise to many in the industry, but that it seems to be welcome news.
GE ensures that the cost of the move will not have a significant financial impact on the company.
GE said that MA will deliver nearly $120 million in grants and other inducements and the city will offer property tax reserves of near $25 million. But GE continued hearing pitches from other states as it said it was seeking a more business-friendly home. In other words, GE execs were clear that they wouldn’t stand for a tax hike, and CT just didn’t take them seriously.
GE’s decision to shift its headquarters in a more digitally hi-tech environ reveals how big industries and businesses have been forced to plan their functioning according to the latest requirement of digital age and consider it not as an opportunity but also as a threat. “It has more to do with their transformation into a digital industrial company than a short-term tax issue that was never fully implemented…” A full transition to the city’s Seaport District is expected in 2018.
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A few General Electric officials met with Hub Mayor Martin J. Walsh as a courtesy when they were in town in 2014.
GE Healthcare said it would move its corporate headquarters and an unspecified number of jobs to Chicago, from the United Kingdom.
In December, the state legislature also approved reductions to business taxes such as the so-called unitary corporate tax that affects companies with headquarters in the state and restructured tax exemptions for firms that have revenue losses. “Businesses large and small are making investment decisions every day and they are paying close attention to what’s happening in Hartford”. Earlier on Wednesday, GE said it would cut up to 6,500 jobs in Europe over the next two years, including 765 in France and 1,300 in Switzerland, as it restructures and integrates its acquisition of Alstom’s energy business.
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In a gushing editorial, one Boston Globe writer called the news “better than hosting the Olympics”, and would help elevate Boston to Silicon Valley status when people thought of cities that were building the future.
