GE’s move to Boston: Who stands to win as corporation leaves CT?

“And the fact that MA, particularly the greater Boston area, has so many world-class higher education institutions makes MA attractive”.

To help “offset the costs” of the relocation, GE will sell its current headquarters offices in Fairfield, the CT suburb where it relocated from Manhattan in 1974; and at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City.

The move is expected to begin this summer from with some workers immediately relocating to a temporary home in Boston with the move expected to be completed before 2018 after the company chooses a location and gets to work building or renovating its new home. It now employs almost 5,000 people in MA.

MA offered GE incentives up to $120 million through grants and other programs, while the city of Boston offered up to $25 million in property tax relief, according to the mayor’s office.

By packing up from a sleepy CT suburb the company is also tapping into an urbanization trend taking root with younger Americans, enabling it to attract engineers and executives who might be considering jobs in New York City and San Francisco.

As a $130 billion global firm, GE is “leading the digital transformation of industry”, Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt said in a statement. “Losing an internationally renowned company like GE is a big hit to the state”.

Gov. Baker adds, “Our administration welcomes General Electric’s decision to take advantage of the unique resources that our state has to offer, ranging from our innovative economy to top universities.

Gov. Charlie Baker is calling General Electric’s decision to move its corporate headquarters to Boston a “huge win” for the state and the city. The state’s codes have become more complex and are particularly unfavorable for large corporations as CT has imposed a surtax on some businesses, said Jared Walczak, a policy analyst at the Washington-based research group.

Meanwhile, the Republican leader of the Connecticut Senate, Len Fasano, warned that other companies will follow GE’s lead unless major, structural changes are made to the state’s budget, which has been dogged by deficits since the recession nine years ago.

The move was mourned in CT, but MA officials rejoiced. “While GE’s headquarters may be leaving, I have been assured that the company will continue to have many employees working here in CT”. He said last year’s business tax increases, which prompted GE to threaten moving out and led state lawmakers and Malloy to scale back some hikes, was a “catalyst” to GE deciding to finally leave.

“I think they’re going to do what they’re going to do”.

With 800 employees, the Boston headquarters will be the same size as Fairfield, but its makeup will change, GE said.

Then yesterday morning Klee called with the news – GE had picked Boston.

GE’s move to Boston comes off the coat tails of the company’s announcement in September it plans on moving 500 jobs to Europe as a result of Congress’s inability to keep the Export-Import Bank, an exotic governmental financing tool businesses use when starting ventures overseas. GE’s corporate slogan, “Imagination at Work”, might also apply to the thinking that went into crafting this deal.