General Electric Corp. has shut down the rumor mill surrounding the possible relocation of the company’s global headquarters from Fairfield with an announcement that the city of Boston has been selected as the company’s new home.
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The $5 million innovation center was described by state and city officials as a place “to forge connections between GE and innovators from MA research institutions and the higher education community”. “MA spends more on research and development than any other region in the world, and Boston attracts a diverse, technologically-fluent workforce focused on solving challenges for the world”, he added.
Several states had been competing to lure GE from Fairfield since June, when the company announced that it might move because it was unhappy about tax proposals in the CT legislature.
Three years ago, the $130 billion high-tech global industrial company said it began considering a new composition and location for its headquarters.
In GE’s new Boston headquarters, the company will have roughly 800 people; 200 corporate staff and 600 digital industrial product managers, designers and developers split between GE Digital, Current, Robotics and Life Sciences.
GE already has almost 5,000 employees across the state in such business lines as Aviation, Oil & Gas and Energy Management.
The company plans to sell its offices in Fairfield as well as the iconic 30 Rockefeller Center building in New York City. Its new home will be built in Boston’s Seaport District, with the full move to be completed by 2018.
The move “will hurt the state of CT and Fairfield and the surrounding areas a lot more than it will hurt GE”, Sen.
The self-described “digital industrial company” is focusing on software and analytics based solutions and equipment that promotes connectivity with its heavy equipment and other products in its industrial sectors.
Malloy on Monday said he has not heard from GE since December, when the company reported it would take more time to make its decision known. “GE will no doubt continue to be successful as it continues to have a significant number of its employees in CT for years to come”. “Equally important, GE will continue to work with and support many smaller businesses throughout our state”.
“Of course I’m disappointed”. The truth is, Boston innovators will need to do much more to remain competitive.
Democratic Senate President Martin Looney said in a statement that GE’s decision has nothing to do with taxes or business costs. “Will any of these businesses be next to pack up and leave?”
Officials from GE said they wanted to relocate to a city that offered a better business environment than CT. “He said he’s uncertain how far that will go in getting Republicans elected, but he thinks they can get some traction from this for the upcoming legislative session”.
The silence was broken early this morning by the Boston Globe who released an article announcing that GE is relocating to Boston, MA.
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That wasn’t enough. As the Tax Foundation noted on Wednesday, “In the State Business Tax Climate Index, Connecticut ranks 44th”.
