Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/881000
42 | HARTFORD BUSINESS JOURNAL • OCTOBER 2, 2017 2007 After overseeing 27 acquisitions in 15 years as chairman and CEO of the bank now known as TD Banknorth, Bill Ryan finally has to sit one out — the sale of TD Banknorth itself for $32 billion to its majority shareholder, Toronto-based TD Bank Financial Group. Northwest Air launches the first transatlantic flights to Amsterdam from Bradley International. Steven Spielberg films the latest Harrison Ford/Indiana Jones adventure in Connecticut to take advantage of the state's new 30 percent movie tax credit that makes the Nutmeg State the most generous in the nation to filmmakers. 2008 Dewey & LeBoeuf, an international law firm with 1,400 lawyers, closes its Hartford office at Goodwin Square. State nursing programs are facing a faculty shortage as they scramble to fill the statewide nursing shortage. An estimated 2,000 students who applied for nursing programs are turned away. ESPN, the 29 year-old sports media giant, is again expanding its 116-acre Bristol campus with the construction of a 130,000-square- foot office building for its mechanical support staff. This is ESPN's fourth major construction project since 2004. Crisis rocks financials and insurers as Congress approves a $700 billion economic bailout plan. The Hartford and Phoenix Cos. are hit especially hard, while Cigna, Aetna, MetLife and Travelers feel the pain too. Plans are announced to close the Goodwin Hotel. Robinson & Cole, Hartford's largest law firm, adds more than 30 attorneys, including nine partners from San Francisco-based Thelen LLP. 2009 The Hartford Financial Services Group begins its search for a new CEO, while it receives a $3.4-billion federal bailout. Conditions include restrictions on executive compensation and some serious federal oversight. Business closings reach a record 6,944 for the first half of 2009, after almost a year-long downward trend, while new business starts reach their lowest in nearly a decade. Pratt & Whitney announces plans to close two plants and move 1,000 jobs out of state. Connecticut's unemployment fund has gone broke and needs to borrow nearly $1 billion from the federal government to pay out jobless benefits. 2010 Wachovia disappears in Connecticut as 75 offices are rebranded as Wells Fargo branches two years after Wachovia was acquired. SS&C Technologies founder and CEO Bill Stone oversees a $161 million IPO. The Visa Championship gymnastics event comes to Hartford with top- level sponsors Basement Systems, Connecticut Children's Medical Center's Elite Sports Medicine, McCarter & English and Travelers. Double A Charter Inc. of Rocky Hill sells its assets. Peter Pan of Springfield has acquired the charter business and moves into the Rocky Hill facility. DATTCO of New Britain purchases the shuttle division assets and contracts, plus has hired most of the employees. Control of the state-owned Bradley International Airport will shift from the Connecticut Department of Transportation to an independent airport authority less bound by the constrictions of government. JetBlue begins flights from Bradley. Northeast Utilities breaks ground on its five-year, billion-dollar 345-kilowatt transmission project aimed at moving power around southwest New England cheaper and easier. United Illuminating completes the $1.3 billion acquisition of three natural gas distribution companies from Spanish energy company Iberdrola SA. 2011 The proposed $4.3-billion merger between Hartford's Northeast Utilities and Boston's NStar requires some creative deals to get approval from Massachusetts regulators. One of Hartford's largest architectural firms, Tecton Architects, and one of its most historic, Du Bose Associates, merge under the name Tecton Architects and become Hartford's second largest firm, third largest in the state. The developer of Hartford's Front Street Entertainment District swaps out the brokerage firm tasked with filling the vacant property, which finished construction less than a year before. William J. McGurk, the face and voice of Connecticut community banking for years, retires as CEO of Rockville Bank. As part of its 10-year master facilities plan, Hartford Hospital prepares for a $61-million investment that will expand and nearly double the beds in its emergency department.