Hartford Business Journal

6 Hartford Business Journal • August 28, 2017 www.HartfordBusiness.com TOP STORY Hartford welcomes UConn back downtown UConn school officials, city and state leaders and others gathered last Wednes- day at the steps of the Hartford Times building to commemorate the long-awaited opening of the University of Connecticut's downtown Hartford campus. The $140 million campus at 38 Prospect St., showcased in its complete form for the first time Aug. 23, is considered a game-changer for downtown Hart- ford as it plays home to thousands of students, faculty and staff, adding much needed vibrancy to the center city and Front Street entertainment district. It also marks the return of UConn to Hartford, where the school long-ago had an outpost until 1970 when it decided to move its satellite campus to West Hartford. "This is a historic day. UConn has come home to Hartford,'' UConn President Susan Herbst told a cheering crowd of several hundred. UConn Hartford, she said, "is a living, breathing institution at the core of this city. It will be a backbone of this city.'' Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said that for years urban areas like Hartford were shunned and the subjects of wishful thinking that somehow their problems would disappear. "Those days are over,'' the governor said, noting the state's investment in relocat- ing UConn to downtown, which will assist Hartford in its recovery and transformation. Classes start Aug. 28 at the downtown campus, home to about 2,300 under- graduate and graduate students and almost 300 full- and part-time employees. When combined with others enrolled in classes at the nearby Graduate Business Learning Center, UConn now will be bringing more than 3,100 students to down- town Hartford businesses, cultural destinations and community organizations. UConn's decision to relocate its West Hartford campus to Hartford was an- nounced in 2012, and the school took the last few years to completely reno- vate the historic Hartford Times building, which had stood vacant for years. The new campus comprises about 160,000 square feet in the Times anchor building; a nearby 34,500-square-foot building that UConn purchased at 38 Prospect St. to house the School of Social Work; and about 19,200 square feet in the Hartford Public Library in partnership with that organization. In all, the campus includes more than 232,000 square feet of learning and community space, not counting the additional space that UConn already uses nearby for its Graduate Business Learning Center. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Henkel relocates consumer goods HQ to CT German consumer products giant Henkel has officially moved 425 employees into its new North American consumer goods headquarters in Stamford. In 2016, Arizona-based Henkel Consumer Goods Inc. announced its reloca- tion to Stamford, where it is combining operations with newly acquired Sun Products Corp. in Wilton. Employees from Arizona and Wilton have relocated to the new facilities, Spokesman Daniel Carpenter said. Operating globally from a base in Germany, the company's brands and tech- nologies cover the business areas of laundry and home care, beauty care and adhesive technologies. The company's overall North American headquarters re- mains in Rocky Hill. In downtown Stamford, Henkel, which has received state aid under Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's First Five Plus incentives program, now occupies more than 155,000 square feet on three floors of the building at 200 Elm St. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS House Democrats offer modest town aid shift in new budget Majority House Democrats unveiled a new budget last week that matches the town aid proposed by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy while redistributing education funds more modestly from wealthy and middle-income towns and into poorer communities. But the House Democratic plan, which still features a sales tax increase (to 6.85 percent from 6.35 percent) and surcharges on restaurant and hotel trans- actions, avoids taxing hospitals and billing cities and towns for teacher pension costs as proposed by the governor. Meantime, GOP leaders in the House and Senate, who were unable to block a labor concessions deal they still argue will hurt Connecticut in the long run, said they're also developing a new budget that accepts the labor savings. But after a nearly two-hour, closed-door meeting, top lawmakers said that while they still were working with the goal of adopting a new, two-year budget during the week of Sept. 11, they didn't express any optimism this would happen. – Keith Phaneuf | CT Mirror TECHNOLOGY Eight Hartford area firms make Marcum Tech Top 40 Hartford County is home to eight companies listed in the 2017 Marcum Tech Top 40, while Fairfield County came away with 20. The Connecticut Technology Council (CTC) and accounting firm Marcum LLP recognized the 40 firms in its 2017 Marcum Tech Top 40, an annual acknowl- edgement of the fastest-growing technology companies in Connecticut. New Haven County has 10 firms on the list, while New London County has two. The awards recognize technology leaders in six sectors: advanced manu- facturing, energy/environment, life sciences, new media/internet/telecom, IT services and software. The list includes both privately and publicly held companies that have at least $3 million in annual revenue and a demonstrated record of revenue growth in each of the preceding four years. Harford County firms that made the list include: ADNET Technologies, IT ser- vices, Farmington; Evariant, Inc., software, Farmington; F3 Technology Partners, IT services, West Hartford; Insurity, Inc, software, Hartford; IT Direct, IT services, West Hartford; Metrum Research Group, life sciences, Tariffville; SS&C Tech- nologies Holdings Inc, software, Windsor and TRC Companies Inc. energy/envi- ronmental/green technology, Windsor. MANUFACTURING UTC researchers win $3.5M in grant funding East Hartford's United Technology Research Center is receiving more than $3.5 million in two separate federal grants involving early-stage power projects, the U.S. Department of Energy announced. The DOE's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) awarded the grants. One grant totaling nearly $1.9 million will be used by a UTRC re- search team to build a device that weighs about half as much as available con- verters but can handle a broad power range and achieve a high rate of efficiency when converting the power. If successful, the device could be used in aircraft power systems, electric locomotives and ship propulsion, according to ARPA-E. The second grant for just under $1.6 million will be used by researchers to develop an extremely efficient power converter capable of handling kilowatts of electricity at ultra-high power densities. BY THE NUMBERS 1,274 The number of single-family homes sold in Greater Hartford in July, up 1.5 percent from 1,255 units sold in July 2016, according to the Greater Hartford Association of Realtors. 6.85% The sales tax rate state House Democrats are lobbying for to close the budget deficit. The current sales tax rate is 6.35 percent. 49 The number of craft breweries in Connecticut at the end of 2016, up from 16 in 2011, according to the Brewers Association. 232,000 The total square footage of learning and community space occupied by UConn's new downtown Hartford campus. TOP 5 MOST READ on HartfordBusiness.com ■ Hartford welcomes UConn back downtown ■ CT's craft brewers stoke state economy ■ Eight Hartford area firms make Marcum Tech Top 40 ■ Four Hartford area fast-growing firms make Inc. 5000 list ■ CT's July job count backslides 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, CT Health Care Weekly www.HartfordBusiness.com/subscribe WEEK IN REVIEW After years of construction, UConn's downtown Hartford campus debuted last week in the former Hartford Times building. Above are some before and after photos of the con- struction. The top left photo shows the building before its renovation. Bottom left is a photo of construction in progress. The completed campus building is shown to the far right. H B J P H O T O S | G R E G B O R D O N A R O A N D H B J F I L E

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