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Postmaster: Please send address changes to: Hartford Business Journal P.O Box 330 Congers, NY 10920-9894 BIZ BRIEFS • Eastern is the #1 Public Regional University in New England (2020, 2021, 2022) U. S. News & World Report • Eastern graduates have the ethics, problem- solving and communication skills, and ability to work in teams that you need in your organization. • 40 majors — including Accounting, Data Science, Economics, Business Information Systems, Finance, Health Sciences and more. Eastern Grads . . . www.easternct.edu Job Ready! HBJ Ad 22.indd 1 HBJ Ad 22.indd 1 6/22/22 10:33 AM 6/22/22 10:33 AM The new center will provide improved access to rental cars, more parking and future links to public transit. The 13.4-acre expansion includes a dedicated area that, in the future, will handle buses connecting the airport to the CTRail line, which runs from Hartford to New Haven, as well as regional bus services. New Britain finalizes sale of 22.5 acres to Polamer Precision The city of New Britain has finalized the $1 million sale of 22.5-acres in the Pinnacle Business Park to aerospace manufacturer Polamer Precision Inc. Polamer Precision – which is headquartered at 105 Alton Brooks Way – adds the 22.5-acres to its existing 8.26-acre parcel, which houses a 152,000-square- foot manufacturing facility. Polamer Precision plans to use the additional space to build a new facility over the next seven years and add about 400 new employees to its current workforce of about 175 workers. In 2019, Polamer Precision announced plans to leverage a new $80 million contract with Rolls Royce to add three buildings in New Britain spanning over 600,000 square feet. At the time, the company, which makes aerospace components, announced the new space would be built over seven years and add about 600 new employees to Polamer's workforce. Hartford-area workers exceed national average hourly wage Workers in the Hartford area had an average hourly wage of $32.28 in May 2021, 15% above the national average of $28.01, according to new data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Wages in the area were higher than the national average in 19 of the 22 major occupational groups, including management, healthcare and life, and physical and social science. There were 45,040 management workers with an average hourly wage of $65.51 per hour, higher A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new ground transportation center at Bradley International Airport. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED The former Ames headquarters in Rocky Hill. PHOTO | COSTAR than the national average wage of $59.31, according to the data. Ion Bank parent to buy Cheshire-based automobile lender Naugatuck-based Ion Financial announced that it has entered into an agreement to buy a Cheshire- based specialty automobile lender. The parent company of Ion Bank said it expects to acquire the assets of BCI Financial later this year, pending regulatory approval. Deal terms were not disclosed. BCI will continue to operate in its current Cheshire location under the same name BCI Financial, as a division of Ion Bank. There will be no layoffs as a result of the acquisition, the bank said This is Ion Bank's second significant deal in the past year. Last year, it announced plans to acquire New Jersey-based Lincoln 1st Bank in a deal valued at $7.5 million. Ion Bank has $1.8 billion in assets and 21 branches in Connecticut. Developer buys former Ames Rocky Hill HQ for $2.3M The Hamden developer who plans to covert the former Ames headquarters in Rocky Hill into a mixed-use residential community has purchased the property for $2.3 million, property records show. Michael Belfonti of Belfonti Cos. said an LLC he controls – Rocky Hill Gateway LLC – closed on the property last month and remediation on the 12.1-acre site has already begun. The property includes a 225,000-square-foot building that will be knocked down and replaced with 213 apartments in 11 buildings, 5,000 square feet of office space and 15,000 square feet of retail. Remediation and demolition will take about eight months, Belfonti said, and construction will start soon after. No completion date has been set, he said.