San Francisco was ruled out partly because of its high living costs, and the longer time difference – by three hours, compared with the East Coast – in communicating with GE’s units in Europe, where the company has a sizable business.
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The company has been based in Fairfield for four decades with many of its executives and employees living in Westport over the years.
Last year, GE along with other companies like Aetna and Travelers balked at proposed corporate tax hikes in CT. About 200 will be making the move to Boston, the company indicated.
MA Governor Charlie Baker and Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh have worked in tandem throughout the summer to help convince GE officials to make the move to the city.
According to the paper, a formal announcement is due on Thursday.
Since April, GE has sold more than $100 billion of finance assets and closed one of its largest-ever acquisitions as Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt reshapes the company around industrial equipment and data analytics.
Various states competed for the company’s headquarters in Fairfield.
According to Immelt, Boston ecosystem shares the aspirations of his company. MA spends more on research and development than any other region, and Boston attracts a workforce that is knowledgeable about technology and focused on solving world’s problems, he added.
GE’s selection of its next headquarters city comes the same week that Chicago received a consolation prize of sorts from the company.
The subsidiary plans to move into office space already leased by GE Transportation at 500 W. Monroe St., in the first half of this year.
My take is that GE’s move to Boston is a much bigger victory for MA than it is a loss for NY. The company is selling its Fairfield campus and its offices at Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan.
The content of GE’s headquarters will also change, with more emphasis on innovation.
City and state officials on Wednesday voiced dismay and disappointment with General Electric’s decision to relocate its corporate headquarters from Fairfield County to the waterfront of Boston, MA. Additionally, a GE Digital Foundry will be created for co-creation, incubation and product development with customers, startups and partners. The remainder of administration will be placed in shared service operations throughout the Company. Up to $25 million in property tax relief was also offered to the company, which employs almost 5,000 across the state.
GE has said it will be in a temporary location in Boston by this summer, so the blow will fall swiftly.
Of course, General Electric didn’t pick Boston without getting something in return. Over the same period, in comparison, CT has increased its corporate rate from 7.5 percent to 9 percent and its top income tax rate from 5 percent to 6.99 percent. In that sense, GE is hitching its brand to the innovation that emanates from their labs and classrooms, and eventually supplies it more new recruits. We will make them as carefully and consistently as we can. Its leaders expressed anger over, among other issues, a new state law requiring corporations to be more honest in accounting for where they do work-and therefore where they should pay taxes.
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State Rep. William Tong (D-Stamford, Darien) said in a statement, the conglomerate’s decision “it’s not about taxation, it’s not about business taxes, it’s not about unitary/combined reporting, and it’s not about going to a lower tax jurisdiction”.
