Hartford Business Journal

HartfordBusiness.com | March 22, 2021 | Hartford Business Journal 3 higher costs of doing business and an aging population. Green pest control startup Enko moves HQ from Greater Boston to Mystic Enko, a startup that makes environmentally-friendly pest control products, has opened its new headquarters in Mystic, from its prior location in Woburn, Mass. Last summer, the company, which says it's backed by investors including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, purchased its new headquarters at 62 Maritime Drive in Mystic for $6 million, town records show. Enko will now run its operations out of the 91,000-square- foot building, which was built in 1992 for Dekalb Genetics Corp. Metro Realty also recently proposed a 146-unit apartment development in the heart of Farmington's medical district, a project that has the support of major area employers, but is getting pushback from some local residents. Farmington's WellSpark announces expansion, 287 new jobs by 2026 Farmington-based WellSpark Health announced that it will expand its headquarters and add 287 jobs over the next seven years. The provider of corporate wellness programs currently employs 70 people at its offices at 195 Scott Swamp Rd. State incentives are funding the expansion, with WellSpark eligible for up to $1.5 million in grants if it meets the 287-job target by 2026, according to the Department of Economic and Community Development. BIZ BRIEFS 285 Broad St., Hartford. 90 Elm St., Enfield. Wellspark's Farmington headquarters at 195 Scott Swamp Road. PHOTO | COSTAR Our flexible lending solutions and experienced team may be just what your business needs. Visit chelseagroton.com/growthatbusiness or call 860-448-4295 You can count on us! Bradley Airport adds a pair of flights Bradley International Airport announced two new flights that will begin flying out of Windsor Locks. Southwest Airlines has begun its new nonstop service to Nashville, Tennessee, while JetBlue said it will launch a new route to Miami International Airport starting June 24. The new routes are a bright spot for Bradley, which has experienced heavy revenue losses as passenger traffic cratered amid the COVID-19 pandemic. As program deadline nears, CT's PPP haul grows to over $2.2B Connecticut companies have until the end of this month to apply for a potentially forgivable loan under the federal government's Paycheck Protection Program, but plenty of cash from the program has already made its way to our borders. The Small Business Administration, which oversees the program working with private and other lenders, said as of mid-March it granted 27,295 loan approvals for companies and nonprofits in Connecticut totaling over $2.2 billion. The deadline to apply for a PPP loan is March 31, althought Congress is considering extending the deadline. Klepper-Smith: CT 2008 employment peak may not return for at least a decade Connecticut struggled for the past decade to recover all of the jobs it lost during the Great Recession, and now facing a much deeper hole and structural shifts, it may not get back there for at least another decade. That's according to DataCore Partners economist Don Klepper- Smith, who wrote in a recent note to clients that Connecticut is likely to have a relatively strong economy in 2021, but the rest of the 2020s could be weaker. "Going forward, I expect that 2021 will probably represent the best year in the next 10 as the state's economy rebounds and finds equilibrium," Klepper-Smith wrote. "However, it is highly unlikely that Connecticut will return to its long- term growth rate of about 1% for the balance of the decade." As of January, Connecticut had recovered 166,800 nonfarm jobs of the 292,400 lost in March and April 2020, according to the Department of Labor. That leaves roughly 125,000 more jobs to get back to Feb. 2020 pre-pandemic levels, and more to get back to early 2008 levels. Klepper-Smith said adding that many jobs will be a "formidable challenge," due to longer-term structural trends like outmigration, Hartford Courant's former Broad St. HQ for sale Late last year the Hartford Courant lost its longtime leased headquarters space on Broad Street. Now the nation's oldest continuously-published newspaper's former home is for sale. The 289,392-square-foot office and industrial property at 285 Broad St. has been listed for sale for $6 million, according to CoStar. It's also available for lease, according to listing broker CBRE. The Courant is currently majority owned by Tribune Publishing but is in the middle of being fully owned by Alden Global Capital, a New York hedge fund known for its aggressive cost cutting. Enfield Square mall anchor property sold for $8.9M The owner of Enfield Square has sold one of the mall's anchor properties, a 136,000-square-foot store leased by Target, for $8.9 million, according to town records. Namdar Realty Group, Mason Asset Management and Hakimi Global sold the property at 90 Elm St. to a fellow New York entity called 90 Enfield Square Holdings LLC, which is controlled by Steven Dubler, who has invested in commercial properties in other states, such as Florida and New York. He is also president of New York City-based Scott Adam Designs, a consumer goods design, development, sourcing and logistics provider for retailers and brands. Metro Realty Group buys Farmington office building near UConn Health for $1.1M Prolific Farmington developer Metro Realty Group has purchased an office building near UConn Health for $1.1 million. The 14,384-square-foot property at 111 South Road sold earlier this month, according to town records. The property was built in 1981 and has been used by the United Auto Workers (UAW) labor union. It wasn't immediately clear what Metro Realty's plans are for the property. The company, which has been a major builder of medical office space in town, didn't respond to a request for comment. PHOTO | COSTAR PHOTO | HBJ FILE

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