Hartford Business Journal

3 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | MAY 3, 2021 BIZ BRIEFS Carol Karney Carol Karney 860-761-6015 860-761-6015 ckarney@orlcommercial.com ckarney@orlcommercial.com www.orlcommercial.com www.orlcommercial.com 10 Reasons to move to 290 Roberts Street: 1. Compe ve Lease Rates 2. Bank vault available 3. Immediate occupancy available 4. Divisible space 5. Quick access to I-84 6. Great parking ra o 7. Bright space, lots of windows 8. 1st Floor Availability 9. Upgraded LED ligh ng 10. Basement Storage MULTIPLE OFFICE SUITES UP TO 7,476± SF AVAILABLE FOR LEASE AT 290 ROBERTS STREET, EAST HARTFORD, CT 53 Rockwell Road in Newington. Guests aboard the Boulder Dash roller coaster at Lake Compounce. PHOTO | COSTAR PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED Cigna to launch new small group health plan in CT Years after abandoning Connecticut's small group insurance market, Bloomfield-based Cigna announced it's officially launching a new health plan in the state targeted at employers with 50 or fewer workers. Cigna has received regulatory approval from the Connecticut Insurance Department to begin offering a new small group plan in partnership with New York-based Oscar, an insurance-technology company that launched in 2012. The two have joined forces to offer a new fully-insured health plan called "Cigna + Oscar." The insurance product is relatively new, officially debuting nationally last year in just a few markets. Lab equipment exec buys Newington industrial property The top executive at an Enfield- based life science products manufacturer has paid $710,000 for a property in a Newington industrial park. Property records show Kirti Patel and Ashok Patel bought 53 Rockwell Road in Newington on April 1. The 1.4-acre property houses a 13,200-square-foot building that's long been home to A&M Equipment, which was the seller. Kirti Patel is president and CEO of Eppendorf Manufacturing Corp. in Enfield, which is a division of global German life sciences company Eppendorf AG, a maker of pipettes, dispensers, centrifuges, spectrometers, ultra-low temperature freezers, bioreactors and various other laboratory and medical products. It wasn't immediately clear if the Patels' purchase was related to Eppendorf's business. Eppendorf is housed in a much larger property at 175 Freshwater Blvd. in Enfield. Lake Compounce boosts pay as it seeks 900 more workers this summer Anticipating a busy season, Bristol's Lake Compounce amusement park announced longer hours and higher pay for workers. The park said it wants to hire 900 additional workers to staff hours similar to its pre-pandemic schedule. Workers age 18 and up are guaranteed $15 an hour and will get free season passes. The wage hike comes amid a national debate over a $15 minimum wage, which some Democrats in Congress pushed for earlier this year, but failed to get it included in the Biden Administration's American Rescue Plan stimulus bill. It also comes as many low- wage businesses struggle to find workers, largely a result of generous unemployment benefits being provided by the state and federal governments. Connecticut's current minimum wage is $12 per hour and it's scheduled to hit $15 on June, 1, 2023. Carla's Pasta bought by Wisconsin specialty food company Tribe 9 Foods of Wisconsin announced it has bought Carla's Pasta of South Windsor for $26.3 million and plans to maintain local production while expanding volume and distribution. Tribe 9, a Madison-based maker of gluten-free pasta brand Taste Republic, said it bought Carla's through a bankruptcy auction in Hartford County. Carla's, a well-known local maker of fresh pasta, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February citing tens of millions of dollars in debt and the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its sales. The company has been in business for 43 years and had 140 employees as of February. Census: CT population up 0.9% since 2010 Connecticut's population increased by just less than 1% between 2010 and 2020, making it the fourth- slowest growing state in the country, according to newly-released data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The decennial population count, carried out last year amidst the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, shows Connecticut had 3,605,944 residents in 2020, up 0.9% from 3,574,097 10 years ago. Due to that negligible change, Connecticut will neither gain nor lose a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. The Census Bureau does not investigate the drivers of state population changes, but it is no secret that Connecticut has struggled to retain residents, including young college graduates and retirees, due to its high cost of living and generally stagnant economy. That trend may have reversed itself, however, after the pandemic prompted hundreds of thousands of people, including many young families, to leave New York City for the suburbs of the tri-state area.

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