GE today announced that it has selected Boston for its corporate headquarters location.
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The maker of aircraft engines, locomotives, power turbines and household appliances will move to temporary quarters by next summer, and permanently settle about 800 workers in the Seaport district by 2018, GE said. Greater Boston is home to 55 colleges and universities.
However, GE ultimately chose Boston due to the fact that MA spends more on research and development compared with any other region worldwide, and because Boston attracts a diverse and technologically-fluent workforce which is focused on solving the many challenges of the world.
“We are excited to bring our headquarters to this dynamic and vibrant city”, Immelt said. In 2015, the company opened a new U.S. headquarters in Marlborough for its Healthcare Life Sciences unit. Working with GE, Massachusetts and the City of Boston structured a package of incentives that provides benefits to the State and City, while also helping offset the costs of the relocation to GE. The state funds must be spent on public infrastructure, including site preparation, building acquisition costs and road and building improvements, GE said.
Baker said senior managers at GE seemed impressed when he and Walsh spoke with them together for the first time last fall.
“This is a huge win for the city of Boston, a huge win for MA and the indirect, direct spillover from this will be felt by this economy and this community for years to come”, Baker said after a separate event at the State House. CT ranked 44th, near the bottom.
Connecticut’s General Assembly later passed a revised budget that scaled back some of the business-related tax increases after other companies including Aetna Inc. and the Travelers Companies Inc. criticized changes included in the state budget.
“I think they’re going to do what they’re going to do, that’s what I think”, he said Monday.
Massachusetts, which offered GE $120 million in financial incentives for the move, is sometimes derided as Taxachusetts, but the state has more favorable taxes than CT for personal income, sales, corporate and property, according to the Tax Foundation.
But talent also was a draw. “For two decades, we’ve had companies move out of our city”.
Recent years had seen GE steadily build up its software business.
“GE aspires to be the most competitive company in the world”, said GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt.
It’s still not clear where GE will settle in the city. The remainder of administration will be placed in shared service operations throughout the Company.
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The Fairfield-based company has been considering moving from CT over taxes. However many are concerned about the potential consequences of this move for the residents of CT. “They’re high-paying jobs”, said John Frey, “We’re not talking about an Amazon distribution center”. The company is selling off the bulk of GE Capital as part of its restructuring.
