New England’s Regional Defense Industry Collaboration

The new organization, funded with a $1.5-million grant from the department of defense, will coordinate the growth of defense-related business across the six-state region.

By the BF Staff
From the July/August 2018 Issue

Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts and Rhode Island have received a joint grant of $1.5 million from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Office of Economic Adjustment to create the New England Regional Defense Industry Collaboration.

New England region
(Photo: JOHN NAREWSKI / U.S. NAVY)

Over the next 18 months, the funding will be used by the organization to coordinate the growth of defense-related businesses across the six-state New England region. The primary goals will be to aid small and midsize businesses in meeting new cybersecurity requirements for businesses participating in the defense industry supply chain, as well as to create a trusted supplier network that will make it easier for large defense contractors to locate smaller suppliers that are able to meet their production, certification and process requirements.

“This new multistate collaboration will advance the New England defense industry and help Connecticut’s small and medium-sized companies continue to grow and compete,” said CT Gov. Dannel Malloy. “This complements the many steps my administration has taken to strengthen Connecticut’s defense industry—from our historic partnerships with United Technologies, Sikorsky, and Electric Boat, to our cutting-edge supply chain companies.”

“The New England region contains an important concentration of defense industry suppliers. And because of our geographical presence and history, our region is also uniquely positioned to form a working collaborative to significantly improve cross-border cooperation and assistance for the defense industry,” said VT Gov. Phil Scott. “Vermont is honored to have been appointed to manage this project, and we look forward to working through this collaboration to benefit Vermont and New England’s supply chain industries.”

RHODE ISLAND: ON THE MOVE

Rhode Island is clearly on the move. In May, the state’s job tally reached the highest count on record. This marks the sixth time in the last eight months the state has set a new all-time high record of jobs. Additionally, for the first time in a decade, the state’s labor force grew year-over-year in 2017. This is due in part to the state’s comprehensive and catalytic economic development strategy. This strategy includes:

  • Creating thousands of jobs for Rhode Islanders through the landing and expanding of businesses in the state.
  • RI’s Qualified Jobs Incentive Tax Credit has directly helped 27 companies land or expand in Rhode Island
  • Enabling Rhode Island students access to college tuition-free through the Rhode Island Promise Scholarship.
  • Increasing retention of our state’s “best and brightest” talent through the Wavemaker Fellowship program. To date more than 400 recent college graduates working in STEM fields at RI companies have received student loan payment assistance.
  • Training Rhode Islanders for good-paying jobs through the Real Jobs Rhode Island program. This program has trained 3,000 Rhode Islanders and on average, the new hires placed in jobs are earning $18,000 more in wages than they were before their Real Jobs RI experience.

This has led to Rhode Island having the Northeast’s fastest rate of economic growth (GDP) over the last three quarters of 2017.

New England region
The first operational offshore wind farm in coastal U.S. waters has been established off Block Island, RI. More ambitious plans for wind farms off the coast of other New England states were delayed when utilities withdrew from the projects. (Photo: Rhode Island Commerce)

One industry that is help carving the path to sustained economic success is the state’s biotech industry.

With optimal location on the Northeast Corridor, Rhode Island sits in the center of a 33-million-person megalopolis with $2.1 trillion in output. Each year, Providence-Boston universities produce more than 5,000 biology and biological sciences graduates, resulting in a region that’s home to 192,000 healthcare professionals, renowned hospitals, cutting-edge life sciences companies and world-class medical and design schools. And increasingly, world class institutions are planting flags in the state.

Biotechnology manufacturer Amgen recently announced a new $160-million state-of-the-art biomanufacturing plant, thanks in part to the Qualified Jobs Incentive Tax Credit. This will be the first of its kind in the U.S.

Of course, Amgen is just one of several major companies to plant a flag in the Ocean State. Johnson & Johnson, GE Digital, Virgin Pulse, Infosys, Priceline’s Agoda, and Finlays have all recently announced plans to grow or relocate their operations in Rhode Island because of sensible incentives, improving business climate, R&D opportunities, and the skilled talent pipeline they need. With CVS Health headquartered in Rhode Island, and new arrivals like Johnson & Johnson coming to the state, the biomedical innovation ecosystem continues to thrive.

Another key tool being leveraged by local companies is the Innovation Voucher, which funds up to $50,000 for small businesses to partner with local research institutions like colleges, universities, and hospitals to help fund R&D. For example, a company like EpiVax is partnering with Rhode Island Hospital to accelerate the development of personalized immunotherapies and precision medicine.

In total, the Rhode Island biotech industry is morphing into a vibrant ecosystem with a tremendous amount of untapped innovation capacity, generating approximately $500 million in revenue annually for the state. In the past 24 months, the state has invested $26 million in the life sciences industry and funded 34 R&D partnerships between companies and universities.

Elsewhere, infrastructure improvements are spurring investments.

In May, nuclear submarine manufacturer General Dynamics Electric Boat announced a massive expansion thanks in part to state investment at Quonset Business Park. This investment will allow Electric Boat to hire more than 1,300 new employees and spur the creation of more than 600 new construction jobs.

Also at Quonset Business Park, Infinity Meat Solutions LLC recently announced plans to create a state-of-the-art food processing plant in Rhode Island. The $100 million, 200,000 square-foot facility will create 700 new manufacturing and distribution jobs, and hundreds of construction jobs.

With a growing labor force and record jobs numbers, Rhode Island also recognizes the need for a sustainable energy source. To that end, Deepwater Wind recently announced it was doubling-down in Rhode Island, creating a new next-generation, 400-megawatt windfarm that will produce enough electricity to fuel 200,000 households, approximately half the homes in Rhode Island.

Deepwater Wind’s Revolution Wind project is also expected to create more than 800 direct construction jobs, 50 good-paying, permanent jobs for Rhode Islanders at every skill level and hundreds more indirect jobs. This investment will position Rhode Island to be a major factor in the growing American offshore wind industry.

FRANKLIN, MASSACHUSETTS: R&D HUB

The Town of Franklin Massachusetts is home to dozens of research & development and manufacturing companies, and has attracted innovative technology companies in a wide range of industries. The community’s current manufacturing sector includes food processing, measurement devices, fiber optics, nanotechnology, data storage equipment, electronic equipment, metal fabricators, specialty materials and life sciences. In recent years Franklin has been attracting companies within the medical device and biotechnology industries, including Hamilton Storage Technologies, Fisher Bio Services, Entegra, Thermo Fisher Scientific, ZeptoMetrix, Bio Active Peptides, Cold Chain Technologies, and Tegra Medical.

Franklin is a growth community with a pro-business environment, modernized infrastructure, and highly educated work force. The business community enjoys good transportation networks with two MBTA commuter rail stations, two exits off Interstate 495, and close proximity to I-90 and I-95. Franklin’s form of government makes for a streamlined permitting process that many other communities are not able to offer, allowing for quick project review and relatively easy permitting of commercial and industrial development. Another very important reason for Franklin’s success in attracting and retaining industrial development is its low stable single tax rate. Franklin’s economic health has been and will continue to be strongly correlated to its continuing commercial and industrial development.

On the flip side the Town of Franklin is a family-oriented quintessential New England town, and considered a top family community. Residents and the business community share a low single tax rate, excellent municipal services, top rated schools, open space, numerous community events, recreation opportunities for those of all levels of ability, and diverse housing opportunities. The Town has made steady progress implementing a wide range of economic development strategies and revitalization projects, resulting in consistent incremental positive changes in the Downtown area. The Town has carefully planned and managed projects that reflect the overall vision for Downtown, spur on private investment and promote the Downtown as a commercial district, as well as create a neighborhood identity that promotes pedestrian activity, human interactions, safety and livability.

Franklin is a great place to work and raise a family; its mix of large and small businesses, business friendly atmosphere, and great quality of life has gained the attention of many in recent years. Credited for its charming, historic atmosphere with diverse enterprises, Franklin is a growth town with a pro-business attitude. Franklin has a lot to offer. In 2013, Franklin was named Best Place to Raise Kids (Bloomberg Business Week), and the Safest City in America (2013, Neighborhood Scout).

Education has always been a focus and source of pride in the community. Horace Mann, considered to be the father of public education, was born in Franklin, and Benjamin Franklin donated 116 books to the Town of Franklin, forming the nucleus of “America’s First Public Library”. Franklin offers outstanding educational resources for families and the business community. Franklin’s new High School contains a media center with fully functioning radio and television stations, state of the art computer labs, and 13 science labs including biotech and forensic labs. Students take classes in forensics, physiology, anatomy, robotics, meteorology, green engineering and alternative energy. Franklin High School offers 19 Advanced Placement courses, and a student to teacher ratio of 1:13. 96% of the students opt to continue their education beyond high school. Next door Tri-County Vocational High School offers close to two dozen programs including metal fabrication, engineering technology, computer information systems, and electrical wiring technology. Downtown Franklin is home to Dean College, which offers 16 Bachelor’s degrees programs, 20 Associates degrees, and professional education credits and certificate programs. Located within a 30 mile radius of Franklin are Boston, Worcester and Providence, New England’s 3 largest cities and over 100 colleges and universities, including many of the best research and engineering universities in the country.

Franklin Massachusetts is the Solution for Businesses and Families, a place that many not only work in, but also are also happy to call home. Local officials strive to create a community where entrepreneurs will want to settle and raise their families. Franklin is truly the complete package.

Looking to expand or relocate? We want your business. Many opportunities await your business, employees and their families. Contact Bryan Taberner, Director of Planning and Community Development at (508) 520-4907 or btaberner@franklinma.gov.

STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT: CITY OF TOMORROW

Stamford is preparing to be the city of tomorrow through a repeating $2 million implementation grant for the next five year by CTNext, the state’s business development entity. The award is helping to develop the City’s “Innovation Playground” through investment into projects that support Stamford’s “Smart Cities” movement and in partnership with private companies such as Harman International Industries, Frontier Communications, Synchrony Financial, AT&T, Local Motors, Navya and public entities including UConn, CTDOT, the Stamford Partnership, Fairfield County Business Council, Downtown Special Services District, and BLT. These partners envision Stamford as an intensely collaborative, walkable, digitally enabled city, connected to NYC and to other major Connecticut cities through technology and support both small and large business in entrepreneurship and innovation pipeline.

The City is heavily investing into three main smart city projects as part of the Innovation Playground. The first project will enact Mayor David Martin’s goal of having ubiquitous GIG WIFI coverage throughout the city. Stamford and its corporate partners, Frontier Communication and the Stamford Partnership, are in the process of installing public GIG WIFI coverage at key locations in Stamford’s Innovation District. The pilot program has identified locations that can be activated by leveraging the City of Stamford infrastructure to deliver the fast GIG experience and will help develop a resource for the data intensive future needs of residents, visitors and the City itself. The ultrafast WiFi system will deliver the speed and latency needed for interactive Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Interactive, Live-Streaming and other data intensive applications that are the City’s fastest growing emerging technology sectors.

Another smart city initiatives is the City’s partnership with AT&T, GE and the Stamford Partnership in installing urban connectivity solution for the Internet of Things. Fifteen nodes will be deployed on light poles in Stamford Downtown which will collect traffic, pedestrian, and environmental data to help the city address current and future problems. Each node consist of four antennas acting as receivers and broadcasters of a high-speed wireless network, as well as an edge computing array of sensors that measure things like air quality, weather, on-street parking availability, car counts and traffic management and manage the street lighting itself. The City intend to examine these units in order to extend the GIG WIFI network beyond original deployment and incorporate the GIG WIFI access availability into the City’s Autonomous Vehicle Zone. Inventors, investors and companies exploring commercialization of IoT products and services will be able to tap into the network. Examples of potential projects include real-time traffic systems tied to street light systems, traffic light systems and parking spaces.

Lastly, the City of Stamford is currently working with CTDOT and UConn to bring an Autonomous Vehicle Pilot Program to Stamford as early as October 2019. The City began preliminary work in 2014, and has since accelerated the work under new state legislation allowing for autonomous vehicle testing sites in Connecticut. This project seeks to establish the nation’s first statewide model for deploying autonomous microtransit service. The proposed scalable approach will include microshuttle deployments in both urban and rural settings, and will serve as a model, which can be replicated in other cities, regions, and states. Working Local Motors and Navya, Stamford is currently developing a plan that will see autonomous microshuttles in full public operations potentially beginning in 2020.

The current work on the deployment of this first and last mile transit solutions consists of stakeholder outreach and the development of infrastructure improvement plans for the route. The Stamford Pilot intends to explore the challenges of moving passengers from a single point, the Stamford Transportation Center (STC) to multiple destinations along a fixed route. The high concentration of commuters in range proximity to the STC allows for several scenarios to be investigated. The initial operation of the microshuttle will operate on a fixed route going by the STC. In the final testing phase, the shuttle will become a dynamic route meaning that stops will only be made at locations that riders identify before entering the shuttle. This on-demand service will help eliminate some of the traffic conditions leading to congestion in the downtown area.

These projects are just one part of the city’s plan to develop Stamford as a smart city. These technology infrastructure projects will make the citizens and businesses of Stamford more connected and safer by identifying problems and using data to address them. These projects will work off one another to create an innovation playground in Stamford that is on the cutting edge of smart city technology.

If you would like to learn more about these projects in Stamford, please contact Thomas Madden, Director of Economic Development at tmadden@stamfordct.gov or give him a call at (203) 585-9611.

ROCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE HAS A PLAN

The Rochester community takes advanced manufacturing seriously, as it leads the Strafford Region in retaining and growing manufacturing employment. While recent projections are flat for manufacturing maintaining a steady 10% of workforce through 2026, a further breakdown anticipates an 11.3% growth in textile manufacturing sector—one of Rochester’s strengths and a founding tradition, as textile manufacturing was the primary business at Rochester’s inception.

Quarterly Seacoast Manufacturing Exchanges bring together C-level executives from the area’s largest employers to discuss challenges, finding top talent among them. The Spring session was well attending for guest speakers Will Arvelo of the NH Bureau of Economic Affairs and Jim Roche of the Business and Industry Association of NH. Topics of the discussion expanded beyond workforce challenges, delving into electricity rates and availability, US-Canada trade relations and strengthening supplier networks in the Northeast region.

Middle schools are a new frontline in the search for talent, where the Rochester NH Middle School has just hosted their first Career and Education Fair. The purpose of the event targeted at eighth graders and guidance staff to explore career options and interests, and maybe even land some summer employment for those old enough.

This event at the Middle School follows immediately on the heels of an announcement by the Creteau Technology Center at Spaulding High School and Great Bay Community College that the first cohort of high school students to get hands-on composites material training with dual high school and college credit has been named and will be starting this August 2018 at the Great Bay Community College Advanced Technology and Academic Center (ATAC) in Rochester. The courses offers tuition free through the generosity of sponsors and area employers providing scholarships as well. Other national models also include stipends as further incentive for students.

Even Rochester’s elementary schools have realized that the skills needed in high tech advanced manufacturing starts early and they are reinforcing the importance of STEM skills. In honor World Metrology Day grades 1 and 2 in Rochester are learning about magnets and magnetism, basic STEM and engineering concepts, through hands on experiments. These interactive lessons help student learn cognitive thinking skills that are necessary to have in the 21st century. With technological advancements expanding, it’s important to teach our students at a young age to participate and show them how exciting science, technology engineering and math can be. Teaching elementary kids these students and educational habits that will help become the next generation of future a work force we can rely on.

The strategic plan of Rochester NH was approved for the 10-year update in 2016/17. Key elements of the plan include:

The Granite Ridge Development District: The creation of the Granite Ridge Development District, a 913-acre commercial and entertainment zone, involved policy changes as well as active investment attraction. The city rezoned the acreage for maximum density and favorable construction conditions beneficial to commercial developers. One critical feature is the construction of Marketplace Boulevard, a city street interconnecting the developments and allowing double the development capacity. The NH Dept. of Transportation invested more than $135 million into the Spaulding Turnpike in Rochester, directly impacting and making improvements for this massive development zone in the Seacoast of New Hampshire. Waterstone Retail of Needham, MA has a 500,000-square-foot center underway with Phase 1 now open and Phase 2 approved by the city. Thousands of jobs will be created, serving area residents and visitors to the region with shopping, entertainment and restaurants.

Granite State Business Park: The Granite State Business Park, next to Skyhaven Airport in Rochester, is the largest of the city’s eight parks at 282 acres. Started in the late 80s by a private developer, the park was acquired by the city and expanded in 2010. Since then Albany International has expanded, employing more than 400 and moving their corporate headquarters from New York and R&D facilities from Massachusetts.

CLAREMONT, NEW HAMPSHIRE: HEART OF INNOVATION

Innovation and a creative spirit are alive and well in this thriving New England mill town. Claremont, New Hampshire, nestled along in the Connecticut River Valley between the Green Mountains of Vermont and the White Mountains of New Hampshire, is a bustling mill town full forward-thinking manufacturers and creative entrepreneurs. While the end-product has changed over the years, Claremont continues to be the center of creativity for professionals of all ages. The most recent example of this is the opening of the Claremont MakerSpace.

New England region
“Sawtooth Building,” home to Claremont MakerSpace. (Photo: City of Claremont)

The Claremont MakerSpace (CMS) is a major addition to downtown Claremont. CMS is a coworking space, education center, creative hub and business incubator. CMS offers affordable access to a variety of specialty equipment and educational resources to help members put shape to their ideas, develop new skills, learn new crafts and launch businesses. Technology, arts, machinery and classroom facilities are located on the premises. The MakerSpace will be used for personal development as well as the promotion of business and workforce development through educational offerings, hands-on classes and activities, and active collaboration across multiple crafts, trades and professions. The Space is also a home and incubator for local hobbyists, artisans and small businesses seeking to promote their efforts and those of their community.

Housed in the former Sullivan Machine Foundry, the MakerSpace is poised to enhance entrepreneurship, job development, community development, science and the arts in the Greater Claremont Region. The Foundry was one of many buildings in the downtown that composed Sullivan Machinery Co. According to the Historic American Engineering Record of the National Park Service (HAER No. NH-4) “As the largest industrial employer in the city…it would be difficult to walk around Tremont Square in Claremont and not talk with a man who worked at the Sullivan plant…As an employer of mostly skilled machinists, Sullivan had always been a good place to work.” Adding to the legacy of this building, already rich with history, is not lost on either the City of Claremont or Claremont MakerSpace founders Jeremy Katz and Steve Goldsmith.

According to Jeremy Katz, “with the ability to access by membership CNC machines, 3-D printers, electrical studio, wood shop, as well as textile and jewelry studios and equipment, production will once again occur at the Sawtooth Mill.” Steve Goldsmith continues “the Maker Movement is enhancing Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM) and arts education, providing a vehicle for younger generations to learn the skills to create new products and designs.”

Even before the building opened this summer, Claremont MakerSpace team has been building community via an array of educational events this past year. These included 3-D printing classes, CNC sewing, web development, entrepreneurship, bicycle maintenance, Arduino microcontrollers, as well as activities at the American Precision Museum’s model engineering show and STEM fest at a local Middle School. These events have drawn over 300 participants this year alone.

The Claremont MakerSpace is positioned to bolster quality employment in the Greater Claremont Area by offering hands-on training that is tailored to the specific needs of local employers. The Claremont MakerSpace is a major attraction that helps draw talented, young professionals to the area, and gives local businesses a place where their employees can develop their skills using the MakerSpace’s specialty tools, and network in their community. Efforts are already underway to coordinate with businesses in the region to provide training for employee some of the state-of-the art equipment.

The MakerSpace is not the only addition to the modern creative economy of Claremont. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. a privately held national retail chain of craft and home décor stores, is set to open a new store in Claremont this September. Construction is underway on this 52,000 square-foot building formerly occupied by Kmart. Harbor Freight Tools will be opening is slated for a late summer opening and will be another great resource for bolstering those creative juices. Claremont also supports several small businesses which offer everything from paints, circuits, model kits, clay – whatever a Maker of any age might need for their project.

Claremont, NH, as well as Sullivan and Grafton Counties, are federally designated HUBZones. For more information, visit http://www.claremontnh.com.

QUONSET, RHODE ISLAND: ENGINE OF GROWTH

Quonset Business Park is Rhode Island’s leading engine of job creation and economic development, with over 12,000 jobs and over 200 companies. A former naval base, we have adapted our facilities to provide businesses with what they need to succeed. Our goal is for Quonset to be a place for businesses to grow.

The continued demand for commercial and manufacturing space in Rhode Island has helped drive our success and growth at Quonset. This spring we were proud to announce the development of a new flex industrial campus that will offer businesses the opportunity to thrive at Quonset. We broke ground on the first 25,000 square foot building in the campus in 2017 and construction is nearly complete.

The new flex campus will help meet New England’s need for more modern industrial and warehouse space. The space is equipped with office spaces and high bay space for manufacturing, assembly or warehouse use, with ceilings up to 24 feet. Each building will provide will be designed to allow tenants to customize spaces based on their own unique needs.

Quonset is also home to the Port of Davisville, one of the Top 10 auto importers in North America. Port facilities are an important feature for many of our tenants who ship goods. We also have rail access at Quonset, which functions as a delivery service for tenants whose goods come in and out of the port or via rail.

Continued growth at Quonset can be seen in the achievements of our current tenants. Electric Boat recently announced an expansion of their operation at Quonset, which includes a new state of the art facility and 1,300 new jobs. This announcement, attended by Rhode Island’s Congressional delegation and Gov. Gina Raimondo, illustrates the impact that Quonset continues to have on economic development and job creation in Rhode Island.

Electric Boat builds the most capable and technically sound submarines for the United States Navy, and has done so since 1899. As our largest tenant, we are proud that EB is expanding here in Rhode Island and providing jobs to Rhode Islanders.

While Quonset Business Park is home to one out of every seven manufacturing jobs in Rhode Island, there is also an enormous opportunity to access available space. Quonset will play a unique role in the development of the wind energy industry here in Rhode Island, which is home to the first offshore wind farm in the country, off Block Island. Quonset will have a role in supporting larger projects in coming years. Recently, Gov. Raimondo announced that Deepwater Wind has been selected to build a 400-megawatt wind farm off the coast.

Quonset’s success is reflected in the continued growth of our tenants and additional job creation, as well as the expansion of economic development uses at the business park. We are proud to be a driving force in Rhode Island’s economic growth and momentum.

HARTFORD REGION: ALL THE ASSETS

The recent announcement that Seven Stars Cloud Group, Inc. will establish its global headquarters for technology and innovation, specializing in blockchain technology and artificial intelligence, in West Hartford, CT, reinforces that the Greater Hartford Region offers a culture of rich business development, diverse companies in various sectors known around the world, tremendous educational institutions and an extremely educated workforce. The region also offers a vibrant quality of life and a growing economy for those fortunate enough to call Hartford home, and business leaders expect more attention from companies around the globe that want to locate in the region.

“We have all the assets in place to make Greater Hartford one of the most economically-viable markets in the country,” says David Griggs, President and CEO, MetroHartford Alliance. “Economic development is a team sport and I look forward to telling our story not only locally, but with partners on a national and global level to promote long-term economic growth for generations.”

Connecticut ranks #1 in the U.S. in insurance employment per capita and has the highest concentration of actuaries in the nation, maintaining its reign as the Insurance Capital. The insurance and financial services industry is rapidly changing, and continues to play an integral role in the economic development of the Hartford Region. The insurance sector in Hartford continues to harness technology and data, recharging company culture and exploring new markets to refine, rethink and reinvigorate. Insurtech is now. Companies are innovating to more efficiently serve consumers and manage risk. The Insurance Capital’s global brands are leading the charge and are recognized world-wide as industry leaders in innovation.

The Hartford Region aligns with the state’s longstanding tradition of manufacturing, and it is becoming more innovative and cutting-edge than ever before. Manufacturers in Connecticut account for 10.7 percent of the total output in the state, employing 9.5 percent of the workforce. Nearly a third of CT’s employment stems from exports ($14.63 billion in manufactured goods were exported from in CT in 2015.).

As home to Sikorsky helicopters and Pratt & Whitney engines, United Technologies companies, Connecticut is also a hub for aerospace leadership. More than 1,000 aerospace manufacturers and components firms are located in the state, most within the Hartford Region. CT is third in the U.S. for the percentage of employees with advanced degrees (U.S. Census Bureau), and its aerospace worker productivity is nearly 20 percent higher than the national average.

Health and accessibility to world-class healthcare is one of the state’s biggest assets and a key reason to do business here. Connecticut’s citizens rank third in the nation in health (Doing Business in CT, 2017) which speaks to the access of quality care that exists in the state. In addition:

  • In January 2018, Connecticut employed more than 270,800 healthcare and social assistance professionals (Connecticut Department of Labor, March 2018).
  • Connecticut’s hospital health systems’ economic impact resulted in a payroll of $7.6 billion, 207,000 jobs, and $10.6 billion in spending with a total economic impact of $27.7 billion. (CT Hospital Health Systems: Bedrock of the Community, 2018 Economic Impact Report, Connecticut Hospital Association).
  • One new job in the insurance industry adds 1.92 jobs to the Connecticut economy through induced and indirect effects (Connecticut Economic Resource Center).

Hartford Young Professionals & Entrepreneurs (HYPE), formed in 2006, helps young professionals become better engaged in community life, expand professional and social opportunities, and become ambassadors for the Hartford Region—they help tell its story to the world. HYPE is one of the largest young professional networking organizations in the country, with more than 4,000 members, and plays a key role in retaining and attracting young talent to Hartford.

In the past 12 months, Hartford has launched the CTNext-sponsored Innovation Places initiative, which has launched the Hartford InsurTech Hub and accelerator. The Hub is managed by one of the most highly respected international accelerators, Startupbootcamp, located at Upward Hartford. Other Innovative and entrepreneurial highlights include:

  • Innovation Places will soon launch a MedTech Innovation District led by Hartford HealthCare, Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, and Trinity College to provide emerging biomedical and MedTech entrepreneurs with critical forms of support.
  • Stanley Black & Decker recently announced the creation of Manufactory 4.0, an Advanced Manufacturing Center of Excellence in downtown Hartford. It is also developing the Stanley+Techstars Additive Manufacturing accelerator, which will be managed by Techstars, one of the world’s most recognized accelerators.
  • This fall, 960 Main St. in Hartford will become home to MakerspaceCT, where prospective and students across the region will have access to tools, technology and learning opportunities.

For more information on the MetroHartford Alliance, please visit our website.