A decade of highs and lows - Westfair Communications

Something funny happened on the way to 2010; after seeing major corporations decamp elsewhere for much of the decade and others limit their local presence, Fairfield County became a hot destination once more on the cusp of a new business cycle.

There was no shortage of worthy candidates as the business story of the 2000s in Fairfield County, beginning with the human tragedy of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that claimed the lives of 52 local residents and impacted thousands more who work daily in Manhattan; and ending with the Great Recession that threatened the livelihoods of many who depend on Wall Street”™s might to make ends meet.

After those stories, the big-bang formation of a major hedge-fund industry cluster in lower Fairfield County may have been the biggest business story of the decade. The industry”™s development in Fairfield County was the result of the region”™s proximity to New York City, a profusion of capital in the most recent expansion and the wish of some hedge fund founders to eliminate commutes into the city.

If a byproduct of happenstance, it also had major economic ramifications for the state of Connecticut, perhaps trailing only the formation of the insurance and aerospace industries long ago.

Led by deep-pocketed luminaries such as Bridgewater Associates, Tudor Investment Corp. and SAC Capital Advisors, a constellation of hedge fund companies bid up the prevailing wages for office staff, as well as the sums landlords could command for the best office space in the area.

That in turn helped push up residential real estate prices, sharply increasing the household worth of existing homeowners throughout the area. While residential construction remained a difficult proposition in Fairfield County due to tight zoning requirements in many areas, Stamford and Danbury both saw major projects go through, including Trump Parc Stamford and the Villages at Timber Oak on the Danbury-Bethel line.

For small-business owners, the sharply escalating cost of running a business in Fairfield County may have been the most vexing question of the decade, with businesses confronting skyrocketing inflation at varying points for salaries, rent, health care benefits and energy.

Add to that taxes, as the decade came to a close. After grabbing a veto-proof majority in 2008, Democrats in the Connecticut General Assembly pushed through tax increases on individuals earning at least $500,000, which critics said would also affect business owners who file their income taxes using individual forms rather than business forms.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell announced last month she would not seek re-election, after stepping into the shoes of former Gov. John Rowland following his conviction on fraud charges, perhaps the biggest overall news story in Connecticut this decade.

Rell”™s pro-business policies may have helped stem a steady stream of departing companies in the middle part of the decade, including International Paper Co. and Meadwestvaco Inc.; and more recently Applera Corp., Time Warner Cable and UST Inc., following the latter company”™s acquisition by Altria Group Inc.

Others would take their place, however, including Royal Bank of Scotland PLC and Harman International Industries Inc.; Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. and Hubbell Inc. also have committed to moving their headquarters to the state.
Rekindled interest in Fairfield County helped Antares Investment Partners line up the backing of Stamford officials and Philadelphia-based Lubert Adler Partners L.P. for a major redevelopment of the city”™s South End. Antares envisioned office buildings and some 4,000 units of housing at Harbor Point, but after the credit markets collapsed was largely replaced on the project by Building & Land Technology L.L.C. BLT had built the Towers complex in Norwalk where it is based, while drawing major tenants out of Stamford such as Xerox Corp., GE Capital and Diageo PLC.

In eastern Fairfield County, R.D. Scinto Inc. demonstrated equal prowess, designing and building multiple office buildings that readily secured tenants.

If Harbor Point, the Towers and the Scinto projects demonstrated the vitality of commercial development in Fairfield County, several others showcased the risks inherent in any major development. Stamford”™s “hole in the ground” on Tresser Boulevard remained undeveloped; in Bridgeport, Norwalk, Fairfield and Redding, major mixed-use projects won approval then stalled in the collapse of the credit markets.

One would be hard pressed to come up with a company that experienced more highs and lows than Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., which suffered a debilitating strike and lost multiple, multibillion-dollar helicopter contracts, yet which could stake claim to being one of the few unqualified recession success stories in Connecticut as the decade came to a close.

With Sikorsky helicopters long used by the White House, in 2005 the U.S. government awarded a contract for a new helicopter fleet to Lockheed Martin Corp. and AgusaWestland, though the program is now threatened amid cost overruns.

Later, Sikorsky lost out to Boeing Co. on a bid to supply the U.S. Air Force with more than 100 search-and-rescue helicopters, a decision it is disputing.

For six weeks in 2006, workers walked off the job in Stratford, among the largest strikes in the United States that year, and one that subsequently cost Sikorsky a reprimand from Pentagon auditors who said the company”™s quality oversight had grown too lax.

It did not take the company long to recover, however, and even as Sikorsky established new facilities in other parts of the United States and in Europe, it kept investing in its local work force, adding some 2,000 jobs in Fairfield County in the latter half of the decade amid government demand for its Black Hawk helicopters for the war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sikorsky is the lone division of Hartford-based United Technologies Corp. to record steady increases in profits and revenue throughout the recession, and is closing the decade with tests of a next-generation helicopter designed to achieve cruising speeds up to a third faster than existing models. Sikorsky designed and built the X-2 prototype on its own dime, but is counting on the aircraft to help it dominate the industry a decade from now when it hopes to be in full production.

How quickly Fairfield County will recover full velocity, of course, will depend on how quickly confidence is restored to a financial system heavily dependent on ready access to affordable credit. If the recession was lighter in Fairfield County than in many other parts of the Northeast and nation, so too it exposed chinks in the armor of one of the richest counties in the country, and by proxy the moneyed elite that control most the nation”™s wealth.