Hartford Business Journal

4 Hartford Business Journal • December 10, 2018 • www.HartfordBusiness.com Week in Review Briefs Target to debut scaled-down W. Hartford store in 2019 Retail giant Target has announced plans to launch its first-ever small storefront in West Hartford's Bishops Corner shopping center. Target says it's slated to open the 59,000-square-foot West Hartford store, its seventh in Greater Hartford and 21st in Connecticut, in 2019. The Minnesota-based retailer is leasing the 333 N. Main St. site from EDENS, a national retail real estate owner. Wal-Mart Neighborhood market previously operated a scaled-down version of its larger store at the site, but it closed in 2016. The rollout of smaller stores underscores Target's plans to reach new guests by opening more convenient locations in urban areas, dense suburban neighborhoods and near college campuses, the company said. Target says the West Hartford location will still offer the same products offered in its full-size stores, including food, beverages, apparel, home goods, electronics, accessories and health and beauty items, among others. It will also provide online-order pickups The store will employ about 75 people. Built in 1970, the shopping center houses Whole Foods Market, Marshalls, TD Bank and others. Ex-Suffield lender's merger complete Suffield's former First National Bank is now officially a unit of a western Massachusetts community lender. PeoplesBancorp MHC, parent of PeoplesBank, based in Holyoke, says it formally completed its previously announced $60 million cash buyout of First National. The deal was announced in July. PeoplesBank Chairman and CEO Tom Senecal said the Connecticut lender is now called First Suffield Bank, a division of PeoplesBank. The combined organization counts about $2.8 billion in assets and $1.9 billion in deposits. First Suffield has four branches in Suffield, West Suffield, East Granby and Windsor Locks. PeoplesBank, a mutual lender founded in 1885 and owned by its depositors, has 20 bank offices in Hampden and Hampshire Counties, Mass. Eversource union workers get wage increases under new labor pact Eversource Energy has promised annual wage increases and to add 20 additional positions under a new four- year labor agreement with its natural gas employees, the utility provider said. The agreement was struck between the Hartford-based utility and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Locals 420 and 457. The labor contract covers 280 Eversource employees, a utility spokesman said. Eversource, which has over 8,300 employees in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, says the new deal offers a "comprehensive" wage and benefits package, creating 20 new union positions in the next two years. The four-year labor pact also increases employee safety training allowances and increases wages by 3.25 percent for the first year and 3 percent for the remaining three years. TOP STORY Infosys bows Goodwin offices, pledges new digital era for CT T argeting the region's dense healthcare, insurance and manufacturing clusters, Infosys on Dec. 5 publicly unveiled its new downtown Hartford offices, with one of the India-based tech giant's top execs pledging to lead a new era of growth in the state's digital economy. Thus far, Infosys has hired 50-plus new employees in Hartford, President Ravi Kumar told a crowd of more than 150 people assembled in one of the company's Goodwin Square floors. "And there are a huge number in the pipeline, so we're really hoping we can fill these three floors," said Kumar, whose company is leasing 56,000 square feet and who was joined on stage by outgoing Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and his successor, Gov.-elect Ned Lamont. Both men played key roles, along with a group of area employers, in wooing Infosys to Connecticut. Infosys, which relies heavily on outsourced and visa labor, made waves last year when it announced it would hire 10,000 U.S. employees by 2019. It has since announced tech hubs in Indianapolis, Providence, Arizona and Hartford and hired approximately 7,000 new U.S. employees over the past 18 months, Kumar said. Infosys has pledged 1,000 new hires in Hartford in the next four years, for which it would receive up to $12 million in state grants and $2 million in training funds. "They are going to live here, they're going to spend here and they're going to build their families out here," Kumar said. Infosys' recent batch of new Hartford workers adds to approximately 700 existing Connecticut employees. The company is working with Trinity College to develop curriculum to teach tech skills to students there. BY THE NUMBERS 60,233 The number of insurance jobs in Con- necticut as of June 2018, which is the highest total since 2012, according to a new report. $245.7M The projected surplus through Octo- ber for Connecticut's $19 billion Gen- eral Fund budget, which runs through June 30, according to Comptroller Kevin Lembo. $10M The value of a state loan the Department of Economic and Community Develop- ment is providing to employment search giant Indeed, which has promised to hire another 500 workers and invest $66 million in Stamford. 331 The number of housing permits is- sued in Connecticut during the month of October, which was down 34.7 percent from a year earlier. TOP 5 MOST READ On HartfordBusiness.com • 1. PURA preliminarily denies $1.1B CT Water deal • 2. Simsbury life-policy fraudster gets 30 months in prison • 3. The Hartford acquires 'sharing economy' startup • 4. Target to debut scaled-down W. Hartford store in 2019 • 5. United Bank resets its mortgage desk STAY CONNECTED For breaking and daily Greater Hartford business news go to www.HartfordBusiness.com HBJ on Twitter: @HartfordBiz HBJ on Facebook: www.facebook.com/HartfordBiz HBJ on Linkedln: www.linkedin.com/company/ the-Hartford-Business-Journal Daily e-newsletters: HBJ Today, CT Morning Blend www.HartfordBusiness.com/ subscribe Weekly e-newsletters: CT Health Care Weekly Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Gov.-elect Ned Lamont listen as Infosys President Ravi Kumar discusses his company's growing Hartford presence. HBJ PHOTO | MATT PILON A rendering of Target's planned scaled-down store in West Hartford's Bishops Corner. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED

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