BY MAGGIE GORDON
Hearst Connecticut Media
The Swiss banking giant UBS’ Stamford headquarters was listed on the open market recently, intensifying questions as to whether the bank plans to leave Stamford. On Friday evening, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy quashed those rumors with an announcement that UBS will stay in the state through 2021.
“This extended agreement clears up any doubt about the company’s intentions in Connecticut and makes sense for UBS, Stamford and the entire state, especially given how important the financial services sector is to the state and local economies,” Malloy said in a statement released late Friday afternoon.
He said the investment bank had been a good corporate citizen in the state for many years, making it worth keeping the company here. “Today’s announcement is about retaining quality jobs for Connecticut and reaffirming the state’s reputation as a leader in financial services.”
UBS has called the 12-acre campus, at 677 Washington Blvd., home since 1997. In 2011, the firm signed a long-term incentive plan offered by Malloy, offering the bank $20 million in forgivable loans to keep at least 2,000 jobs at the Stamford site through 2017. While eyebrows raised last week when the property made its way to the market, indicating UBS may decide to pay back the loan, plus $1.5 million in interest, Malloy’s spokesman Andrew Doba said Friday evening that the extension to 2021 comes at no extra cost to the state.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean all the of 2,000 jobs will remain in Stamford. Or that there will even be 2,000 jobs by 2021.
In the extended agreement, the $20 million has the potential to be fully forgivable in 2021 if UBS continues to retain 2,000 jobs in the state at that time. However, total loan forgiveness will be figured out on a sliding scale based on an annual audit of how many positions actually exist in the state.
“If they keep fewer jobs, then each year we have targets for them, and they would pay us back whatever is owed based on a loss of positions,” Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Catherine Smith explained Friday evening.
“Essentially, they earn the forgiveness based on the number of jobs in the state,” said Smith, noting that UBS is currently living up to its targets, with at least 2,000 jobs throughout Connecticut.
The agreement does not stipulate that the jobs have to remain in Stamford, but Smith and Doba said they understand the company is expecting to keep the lion’s share of jobs in The City That Works.
“It is my understanding that they expect to have a presence in Stamford on an ongoing basis,” Smith said, adding that when the current lease is up in 2017, her “expectation is that they figure out what space they need then to accommodate their staff.”
With only four days left until Election Day in a race that polls show has Malloy and his Republican challenger, Tom Foley, in a dead heat, there is still room for political squabble in what otherwise appears to be a boon to the city of Stamford and the state for the next several years.
“It says a lot about the governor’s economic policies that good news for Gov. Malloy is when a company that is getting $20 million from the state decides to keep it,” said Chris Cooper, campaign spokesman for Foley.
Calls for comment to the Stamford Chamber of Commerce and Business Council of Fairfield County were not immediately returned Friday evening.
Hearst Connecticut Media includes four daily newspapers: Connecticut Post, Greenwich Time, The Advocate (Stamford) and The News Times (Danbury). See greenwichtime.com for more from this reporter. Hearst staff writer Neil Vigdor contributed to this report.
