Hartford Business Journal

4 Hartford Business Journal • September 16, 2019 • www.HartfordBusiness.com Briefs Pratt offering retirement packages amid hiring effort East Hartford jet-engine builder Pratt & Whitney, underway with its biggest hiring ramp-up in a generation, says it's offering financial packages to urge its longest- tenured workers to either retire or leave. Pratt spokesman John J. Thomas confirmed the company's voluntary early- retirement/separation offer, but declined to specify terms of the separation package, or the number of workers or job categories being targeted. Pratt's Connecticut headcount numbers around 12,000 at its East Hartford and Middletown campuses, and its separation offer also applies to qualified employees globally, Thomas said. He added that the buyouts are part of an effort to reduce costs and improve profit margins. Employers often deploy voluntary separation incentives to encourage staff departures ahead of layoffs. Pratt did not say whether its voluntary-separation plan involves layoffs. The staff-reduction incentives come just as Pratt is hiring thousands of engineers, technicians, quality inspectors and other technical and professional expertise amid the greatest staffing ramp up since right after World War II. Chase debuts in downtown Hartford JPMorgan Chase Bank has planted a flag in downtown Hartford. The New York-based multinational investment bank opened Sept. 10, its first Hartford branch in downtown's CityPlace II skyscraper. The Chase location, which employs 11 people, is open on weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m and features open, collaborative spaces for meetings and so-called "Chase Chats." The branch — equipped with bank associates (formerly known as bank tellers) and "relationship" and private client bankers — will provide home and commercial lending. Chase's new Hartford site is part of its larger expansion across Connecticut. Chase has said it will open an Avon branch and has received federal approval to operate locations in South Windsor, Cheshire and Ridgefield. Sardilli Produce & Dairy Co. to expand in Windsor instead of East Windsor Hartford's Sardilli Produce & Dairy Co. has shed plans to expand its manufacturing and warehouse operations in East Windsor, and is now looking to relocate to a recently vacated facility in Windsor, according to town officials. The family operated food distributor, which has called Hartford's South End home for four decades, had planned to acquire vacant farmland in East Windsor and build a 202,400-square-foot distribution center there after receiving site approvals and a tax abatement from the town. The facility was expected to be significantly larger than its current 22,500-square-foot footprint in Hartford on Locust Street. But the company has since moved its way through a similar approval process just south in the town of Windsor, where it also received a tax abatement in July and plans to purchase, renovate and expand in a former Konica Minolta distribution and training center at 550 Marshall Phelps Road, Windsor officials say. According to plans, Sardilli expects to invest $15.4 million into the 217,496-square-foot facility to create refrigerated processing and storage areas, expand existing loading docks and build a vehicle-maintenance building. The company will spend another $600,000 on improvements to the nearly 30-acre parcel. Hartford's $23M Arch Street apartments leasing quickly after Aug. debut The fourth and final phase of Hartford's Front Street District is now complete with the recent debut of a new $23 million apartment complex. Residents of the 53-unit, 81 Arch St. apartments overlooking UConn's Week in Review TOP STORY Hartford Hospital's Seymour St. campus slated for 50,000 sq. ft. addition H artford Hospital, whose parent company CEO recently hinted at a significant multimillion-dollar expansion, is planning to erect a new building on its sprawling South Green neighborhood campus, city records show. Hartford's Planning and Zoning Commission has approved the hospital's plan to build a 49,550-square-foot addition to the north façade of its existing Bliss Building at 80 Seymour St. The hospital is sharing few details about the planned expansion, but a brief project outline filed with the Planning and Zoning Commission says the five-story building will house "clinical functions to support the existing Bliss Building," which is accessible from Hartford Hospital's main entrance and provides access to its intensive-care unit and other services. The building will support high-tech functions, including advanced MRI imaging and clinical studies. It's unknown how much the project will cost, but newly appointed Hartford HealthCare CEO Jeff Flaks told Hartford Business Journal in August that a "multimillion-dollar construction project" will be announced this fall that will expand Hartford Hospital's intensive-care capabilities and add more private rooms. BY THE NUMBERS 58% The percentage of votes captured by Mayor Luke Bronin during Hartford's Sept. 10 Democratic primary election, giving him an easy victory over two other candidates. 24 UConn's ranking in U.S. News and World Report's Best Public Colleges list for 2020, which is two spots below its No. 22 ranking last year. 70% The percentage of the 350 executives recently polled by the Connecticut Busi- ness & Industry Association who said their companies reported a profit last year, marking a post-recession high. 11% The percentage of executives polled in that same CBIA survey who think Connecticut's economy will grow in the next year, underscoring a pessi- mistic economic outlook. TOP 5 MOST READ On HartfordBusiness.com • 1. Global IT firm opens in downtown Hartford; plans to hire hundreds • 2. State takes $25M loss on key downtown Hartford apartment redevelopment • 3. Hartford's $23M Arch Street apartments leasing quickly after Aug. debut • 3. Pratt offering retirement packages amid hiring effort • 4. Hartford attorney charged with tax fraud 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 Northeast façade of Hartford Hospital's Bliss Building, site of a planned expansion. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED

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