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10 n e w h a v e n B I Z | M a r c h 2 0 2 2 | n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m Amazon project part of effort to reshape Waterbury's image By Christopher Hoffman I t was at a U.S. Conference of Mayors convention a few years ago that Waterbury Mayor Neil O'Leary realized his city had a lingering problem. His fellow chief executives still associated the Brass City with a series of 20-year-old scandals that sent two mayors to federal prison and le the municipality all but broke. "It's unusual to have one mayor go to prison," O'Leary said from behind his desk on the second floor of Waterbury's magisterial City Hall. "It's really unusual to have two in such a close period of time. It's hard to recover from things like that." O'Leary decided his city, which has made major strides in recent years, needed to tell its story better while washing away the taint of its disgraced former leaders. In short, it needed a rebrand. e result was "e Waterbury" marketing campaign and website, a joint effort of the city and business community. Created by the local marketing and branding firm WORX, the project has proven successful in reshaping the city's image and attracting investment, even earning a recent graphic design award, O'Leary said. "e Waterbury brand showcases that the city is fiscally stable, open for investment discussions, is culturally vibrant and is full of visionary leaders," said O'Leary, mayor for the last 10 years. ere's substance behind the sizzle, city officials say. Over the last decade, the once maligned Brass City has undergone a quiet renaissance, attracting a strong line up of new businesses, shoring up its still important manufacturing sector, adding apartments downtown, improving housing stock and tearing down and cleaning up abandoned and contaminated factory buildings. A key element in the city's ongoing revival has been leveraging the city's location as a rail and road hub and its hosting of major educational and medical facilities, O'Leary said. Another important factor: Waterbury has gotten its fiscal house in order — O'Leary views the state oversight board of the early 2000s as key to that transformation. e city hasn't raised local taxes in six years, and its once moribund grand list is growing, officials said. e tax rate — at 60.21 mills, still the second highest in the state — remains a challenge, but officials have found creative ways to get around that, including tax abatements, inexpensive property and other forms of assistance and persuasion, O'Leary said. at includes the personal touch such as when O'Leary showed up unannounced at an Oxford hot water company looking to move and asked them to relocate to Waterbury. He succeeded, and the firm has since expanded thanks to its purchase by industry giant Rheem, he said. "at's what businesses need to make decisions," said Tommy Hyde, executive director of the Naugatuck Valley Regional Development Corporation. "ey want stable leadership and the tax rate not going up." Amazon opportunity Hyde's organization — another innovation that seeks to mimic the MetroHartford Alliance's regional approach to economic development — is undertaking the biggest and most ambitious of Waterbury's recent projects, bringing an Amazon fulfillment center to the city and neighboring Naugatuck. In January the city and Naugatuck announced a tentative deal to transform a 150-acre parcel located in both communities into an Amazon hub that could eventually employ as many as 1,000 people and bring in significant new local tax revenue. "Amazon is very exciting," Director of Economic Development Joseph McGrath said. "at parcel has been sitting there for years." ere was a time when Waterbury's economy rested overwhelmingly on manufacturing, especially giant foundries that produced much of the nation's brass. ose days are over and the city's biggest employers today are municipal government, St. Mary's and Waterbury hospitals, Post University and the University of Connecticut's Waterbury branch, McGrath said. But manufacturing remains a major employer and important part of the local economy that the city has sought to nurture, O'Leary said. e city, with state assistance, opened a high school, Waterbury Career Academy, and started a program at Naugatuck Community College to train young people for careers in manufacturing, he said. Both have been highly successful, he said. "Kids are going straight from high school to making $55,000 a year with full benefits and no student debt," O'Leary said. "Sometimes they're Tommy Hyde is the executive director of the Naugatuck Valley Regional Development Corp. Joseph McGrath is the director of economic development in the city of Waterbury. "The Waterbury brand showcases that the city is fiscally stable, open for investment discussions, is culturally vibrant and is full of visionary leaders," Neil O'Leary, Waterbury Mayor Waterbury officials have several economic development projects underway, including demolishing and cleaning up old industrial buildings in the Freight Street area (shown above) to create a 20- acre developable parcel. PHOTOS | CONTRIBUTED T O W N S P O T L I G H T : W a t e r b u r y

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