Hartford Business Journal

6 Hartford Business Journal • February 16, 2015 www.HartfordBusiness.com 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 LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/ the-Hartford-Business-Journal Daily e-newsletters: HBJ Today, CT Morning Blend www.HartfordBusiness.com/subscribe Weekly e-newsletters: CT Green Guide Weekly www.HartfordBusiness.com/subscribe By the numBerS 43% The percent of Connecticut workers who say their employers plan to shrink their workforce, according to polling and research firm Gallup Inc., which ranked the state dead last in its U.S. Job Creation Index. $5.3B The amount of additional state funding state Republicans want to invest in transportation over the next 10 years. 240,798 The number of gallons of paint collected under the state's new recycling program. 35% The ratio of Connecticut home sales that were transacted entirely in cash in November, up from 33 percent a year ago. $21.9B The annual amount of economic activity the state's 29 acute care hospitals say they generate. top 5 moSt read on HartfordBusiness.com ■ RadioShack closing 24 CT stores ■ Malloy to propose $1B residential solar program ■ Papers nearly inked, DoNo ballpark work imminent ■ CT urges speedy tax filing for Anthem data victims ■ Lighting maker to close Wallingford plant top Story With development deals signed, ballpark work breaks ground this week Weather permitting, turning of dirt will start Feb. 17 on site work related to construction of downtown Hartford's baseball stadium. Clearing the way for work to commence was last week's signing of some of the formal documents cementing ties between the city of Hartford and the Downtown North partnership for the $350 million development of the ballpark, housing, retail and office space and parking, said Yves-Georges Joseph II, vice president of Centerplan Development of Middletown. Last week, the city, Rock Cats and the project's developers reached a final agreement on several aspects of the Downtown North project. Terms of the agreement include 30 percent revenue sharing for all non-baseball events at the ballpark, a project labor agreement, a guarantee of a Double A Minor League team (that must have "Hartford" in its name) for the term of the 25 year lease, and hiring preference for Hartford residents and minority/women owned busi- nesses for all direct and indirect contract work. Also signed was a lease for the minor-league ballpark, which will be owned and financed by a municipal authority, constructed by the DoNo part- nership, which consists of Centerplan and Leyland Alliance, and leased to the Rock Cats. Last week, construction trailers, excavators and heavy equip- ment were en route to the DoNo parcel at the corner of Main and Trumbull streets, just east of Main Street, where the 6,056-seat, $56 million ballpark will be erected, Joseph said. "It's a big day for the city of Hartford, obviously,'' Joseph said. energy & utilitieS Malloy to propose $1B residential solar program Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said he will propose a residential solar credit program he hopes will attract $1 billion in private investment. As part of the legislative package he will introduce this week, Malloy will propose a Solar Home Energy Renewable Credit program where owners of solar arrays on residential properties can receive 15-year contracts from the state's utilities to sell the credits they receive by generating renewable power. The SHREC program is modeled after the state's Zero-emissions/Low-emis- sions Renewable Energy Credit program (ZREC/LREC), where electric utilities Eversource Energy and United Illuminating award 15-year contracts to large, medium, and small solar, fuel cell, and hydro projects to buy their renewable en- ergy credits. The ZREC/LREC program is entering its fourth year and will award $1.02 billion in contracts by the time the program is complete in its sixth year. The proposed SHREC program will build off the current Residential Solar In- vestment program, which provided government incentives to install solar ar- rays at homes. That 2011 program has led to more than 8,000 installations of residential solar in Connecticut and attracted $175 million in low-interest and long-term financing from banks and credit unions. Malloy estimated the SHREC program would attract closer to $1 billion in private investment in residential solar. laBor Home Depot wants 80K part-timers; 900 in CT Home Depot is going on a hiring spree. The home improvement retailer said last week that it has started hiring 80,000 part-time and seasonal workers ahead of its busiest time of the year. In Connecticut, the retailer says it needs 900 more associates for its 20 stores here. It may not feel like spring yet, but Home Depot says it expects a surge in store traffic as the weather warms and homeowners start new projects. Home Depot is hiring sales associates, cashiers and people to fill online or- ders. It says the openings are ideal for retirees and students looking for extra income, as well as veterans transitioning into civilian life. The jobs are part-time and seasonal. Home Depot said wages will vary depending on location and individual expe- rience, but a spokesman said the company pays above the average retail rate and minimum wage. Malloy pushes employee pay-disclosure bill Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has introduced a bill that would forbid employers from having pay secrecy policies. Malloy said such policies — under which employees can face disciplinary action or be fired for telling coworkers what they earn — make it difficult to pinpoint pay discrimination. "Pay secrecy practices ultimately encourage discrimination and perpetuate the gender wage gap," Malloy said in a statement. "Women deserve the same pay for the same work." Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman called pay secrecy policies insidious and harmful to women and minorities. Malloy and Wyman cited 2010 research that found approximately half of U.S. workers were governed by pay secrecy rules. As of last year, 10 states had enacted similar laws banning the practice. Banking & FinanCe Colt secures $33M loan facility West Hartford gun maker Colt Defense LLC said it has secured a $33 million loan that will help it repay outstanding debts, and provide liquidity and general working capital. The senior secured term loan facility is from Cortland Capital Market Services. In November, Colt warned that it was at risk of defaulting on its debt interest pay- ments, but soon thereafter secured a $70 million loan from Morgan Stanley Senior Funding. The Cortland loan carries 10 percent interest per year and will mature in 2018. Colt said it had to get amendments from its existing lenders in order to do the loan deal with Cortland. People's United cedes its S&L charter Bridgeport financial giant People's United Bank, one of the nation's oldest and larg- est savings and loans, is now a nationally chartered bank, it said in a filing last week. The U.S. Comptroller of the Currency recently approved People's application to convert from a federally chartered savings bank to a national banking association. People's United Bank N.A. is its new name. This follows approval last Dec. 16 from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for People's United Financial to become a bank holding company, in accordance with national-bank guidelines, once its charter conversion was completed, the filing said. "The company believes that the national bank charter is better aligned with the bank's commercial banking business model,'' People's said in the SEC filing. environment Paint recycling program collects 240,798 gallons in first year Connecticut's paint recycling program collected 240,798 gallons of oil-based and latex paint in its first year, according to a report filed by administrative organization PaintCare. In its first year that started July 1, 2013, the paint stewardship program es- tablished 127 collection sites in the state, providing at least one drop site within 15 miles for 99 percent of Connecticut's population. The program also estab- lished a pick-up program for larger generators of used paint like UConn and the state's correction facilities. Of the paint that was collected, 30 percent was oil-based and sent for fuel blending and burned for energy. Of the remaining latex paint, 81 percent was recycled back into marketable paint. real eState CT foreclosure inventory declined 39 percent last year As the number of completed foreclosures climbed, the state's inventory of mort- gaged homes in foreclosure fell to 2.2 percent in 2014, according to CoreLogic. That was down from 3.6 percent in Dec. 2013. The national average in December was 1.4 percent, down from 2.1 percent a year ago. Connecticut ended 2014 with the fifth-highest foreclosure inventory rate among the 25 so-called "judicial states," where lenders must prove the delinquency to courts to move a borrower into foreclosure. Over the past year, 5,719 foreclosures were completed in the state. That was up from 4,509 in the year-ago period — representing a nearly 27 percent increase. Week in review Public officials and developers are expected to break ground Feb. 17 on Hartford's proposed minor league ballpark, shown above in the rendering. P H O T O | H B J F i l e

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