After devoting some of his first year in office working behind the scenes to entice New York companies to relocate to Stamford, Mayor Michael Pavia revealed an advertising campaign to do the same ”“ under the banner “where companies thrive.”
The city is planning to run ads beginning in late summer, without saying whether the campaign would be focused on New York exclusively and without specifying an ad budget.
In his “state of the city” address in early April, Pavia said business groups approached him with the idea of a public marketing campaign touting Stamford, and that brokers with Newmark Knight Frank pushed the project forward.
A year earlier and just a few months into his current term, Pavia intimated that Stamford was a possible destination for as many as four major corporate relocations and dispatched his economic chief Laure Aubuchon to New York City to recruit.
A year later, while Stamford has had some spectacular successes poaching companies in nearby Connecticut towns ”“ notably Nestle Waters and Affinion Group to replace the departed Oracle Corp. and UST, respectively ”“ no New York company has announced a major relocation to Stamford, despite several large blocks of office space being available and in a few cases entire buildings.
While the still-stagnant economy has few tristate area companies contemplating a hiring binge, there has been major movement afoot ”“ New Jersey this month won a bidding war to retain Bayer Corp.”™s world headquarters and 1,000 jobs, with Westchester County, N.Y., reportedly having been a longshot alternate candidate for the facility. Citigroup is relocating a check-processing operation from New Jersey to Long Island. And of course Manhattan”™s market remains fluid, with Conde Nast”™s planned relocation into 1 million square feet of space dominating discussions in early April.
Asked at his “state of the city” address the status of negotiations with New York companies, Pavia deflected the question to Aubuchon who responded, “I could tell you, but I would have to kill you.”
Some see it as just a matter of time before Pavia will bag his big score ”“ and perhaps sooner than he is letting on. In the Harbor Point development in Stamford”™s South End, Building & Land Technology is readying the foundation for the Gateway office complex. BLT is also building four more apartment buildings, including two adjacent to the new Fairway Market that represents the development”™s biggest draw to date.
“Pavia was elected in a ”¦ trying time,” said Jim Fagan, senior managing director of Cushman & Wakefield in Stamford. “He is probably still making the migration in his head that he has to go from playing defense to offense ”¦ When you have to plug a budget gap, it”™s hard to remember that the best way to do it is to add jobs.”
If Stamford has the available space, ambiance and transportation hub to accommodate New York City employers, it is Gov. Dannel P. Malloy who wields the most important assets ”“ tax credits. After Malloy proposed a “First Five” program intended to shower with incentives the first five corporations to establish new Connecticut facilities with at least 200 employees, some legislators are balking at Malloy”™s request to bypass legislative review for the largest projects ”“ which they liken to handing Malloy a blank check.
“We have a governor who”™s well engaged with the CEO community, and they want to know that they”™re talking to the decision-makers,” said Ronald Angelo, deputy commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, testifying in Hartford last month. “If ”¦ a CEO from out of state is looking to locate here with a substantial project, obviously we”™re talking about tens or sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars of capital investment. They want to know that the individuals they”™re talking to are actually going to be able to make that decision and move that project for them and make sure that commitment is there ”¦ The commissioner of DECD and the governor ”¦Â are going to be leading the economic development effort here in the state and having direct communications with CEOs and encouraging this type of investment and job creation in the state, and I think it is crucial for them, based on my conversations also with the business community, that they are able to act accordingly and respond accordingly to CEOs to be able to make commitments to these projects.”
