GE delivered some big news this week with the announcement that the company will be moving its global headquarters to Boston from Fairfield, Conn.
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Other incentives offered include $1 million in workforce training grants, up to $5 million for an innovation center to connect GE with innovators from MA research institutions and universities, Seaport District transportation improvements, and employee relocation assistance.
Three years ago, the $130 billion high-tech global industrial company said it began considering a new composition and location for its headquarters.
Boston was chosen after a careful evaluation of the ecosystem for business, talent, long-term costs, quality of life for employees, connections with the world and proximity to other important activities, the CEO added.
The decision move means NY governor Mario Cuomo’s attempts to lure General Electric from shifting corporate headquarters – and 800 jobs – to NY from CT had failed.
On Wednesday, the company said that it is going to sell the 68-acre Fairfield campus and two floors of offices that were with it for executives at Rockefeller Center in New York City.
Gov. Charlie Baker is calling General Electric’s decision to move its corporate headquarters to Boston a “huge win” for the state and the city. “One only had to look to the city of Boston to see how the ability to recruit top-flight talent from local universities can affect the overall economic growth of a location”.
However, GE’s presence in the state had been shrinking because much of it was related to its finance arm, GE Capital.
And, Malloy said, “businesses care about how states budget, and now is the time to continue our bipartisan efforts to reform our budget, find new ways to pay our pensions, and create a more sustainable and predictable state budget”.
GE settled on Boston after being offered a massive package of tax breaks and incentives.
“Taken as a whole, there is no denying that CT has had more good days than days like today”, said Gov. Malloy.
But Murray said the move, when complete, should spell positive results for Worcester.
“We were very serious with them right away”, said Ash.
GE is moving from CT, which was once a low-tax haven but now has an increasingly hostile business climate over recent years. But state leaders say it’s a disappointing loss. But GE continued hearing pitches from other states as it said it was seeking a more business-friendly home. In 2014, GE moved its Life Sciences headquarters to Marlborough, and in 2015 GE announced its energy services start-up, Current, would also be headquartered in Boston. GE’s corporate slogan, “Imagination at Work”, might also apply to the thinking that went into crafting this deal. “There’s not a doubt in mind and I know this because I met with the CEOs at GE and they told me that”.
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“They were certainly impressed with the large number of innovation companies that we have here, the high-technology environment that we have here”, said Rick Lord, the CEO of Association Industries of MA. “Unfortunately most small businesses in our state do not have the resources that General Electric does and their only alternative is to close up their shops permanently”, NFIB Connecticut state director Andrew Markowski said in a statement on Wednesday.
