Panel weighs in on how Stamford and region can continue momentum

Stamford may have long since dumped “The City That Works” as its motto, but the panelists at the Southern CT BOMA”™s April 29 webinar about the city and the region insisted it still applies.

“I believe strongly that Stamford Downtown is incredibly well positioned,” said that group”™s president, David Kooris, touting the general pandemic-prompted shift away from “overheated gateway cities” like New York and San Francisco in favor of cities such as Stamford, which he said combines urban amenities with a suburban sensibility.

Kooris noted that the city showed an unusual ability to retain businesses throughout the worst of Covid-19, including “all of our 95 or so restaurants.”

In addition, he said, Stamford has grown its offerings in downtown by attracting several new retailers.

He further noted that the city and the region both depend on New York City, with 90% of the region”™s job growth over the last 20 years emanating from Manhattan and Brooklyn. “It doesn”™t take a whole lot to move the needle in a community of our scale,” he said, estimating that Stamford”™s residential units are now at 98% of occupancy.

Still to be determined, Kooris said, are whether companies will decamp from cities in a lasting way, as well as the still-evolving mindset about working from home in a post-Covid environment.

Stamford Partnership CEO Jon Winkel also said that the city, county and southwest Connecticut in general are “in the strongest position that its ever been in, at least in recent memory.”

The pandemic magnified such attractions as greenspace, good schools and parks, and overall quality of life, he said. “We have a duty to do our best to retain these industries and businesses.”

Creation of a strategy that encompasses branding, marketing and advertising and taking more ownership of the quality of life concept, are imperative, he said.

Noting the recent news that Webster Bank would be relocating its headquarters to Stamford after its merger with Sterling Bancorp, Winkel promised “two or three more” major announcements in the coming weeks.

Declining to identify the companies involved, he said, “There is some big news on the horizon.”

Nick Simmons, former director of Strategic Initiatives for Connecticut and a policy adviser to Gov. Ned Lamont, reflected that in January 2019, when Lamont took office, “the big issue on our minds” was why Connecticut”™s GDP had shrunk by 2% in the 2010s while New York”™s and Boston”™s had risen by about 30% and the nation”™s by about 15%.

The reason, the administration decided, was that areas such as Boston, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin and the Miami-Dade region had succeeded due to talent, the “vibrancy and culture” of those cities and social capital, infrastructure and capital long in place.

Organizations like Stamford Partnership and Stamford Downtown thus have enormous potential for building similar ecosystems to bring together disparate stakeholders, Simmons said.

Winkel said that roadblocks to continued progress include the poor state of Connecticut”™s highways (“Driving north and/or east on a Friday in this area ”” it”™s nightmarish”) and the relative unreliability of commuter trains.

The availability of talent and a workforce in some key areas are also limiting the state”™s growth, he said. “Computer science and data science ”¦ we need a lot more talent in that area in order to be more competitive long term.”

Ubiquitous, reliable and affordable high-speed internet throughout the state is also critical, Winkel said.

Notwithstanding the billions of dollars in economic relief coming from the federal government, Simmons said a focus of the Lamont administration has been supporting organic growth and local innovation when it comes to economic development.

“Instead of looking at somebody else”™s garden and trying to steal the fruit and bring it over, we need to be planting seeds here ”” seeds of talent and investment that will grow themselves.”

More locally, Kooris said that small-scale efforts like farmer”™s markets and arts and crafts fairs will continue and be joined by “The Piano Project,” where over two dozen pianos will be painted and scattered around town to encourage music-making, as well as small concerts during the summer, and a return of the “Wednesday Nite Live” and Alive@Five” concert series in the fall.

Regarding keeping the momentum going, “We”™ve got the pieces of the puzzle,” Winkel said. “We”™ve just gotta get it packaged up and in front of people.”