FAIRFIELD COUNTY
BUSINESS JOURNAL April 4, 2016 | VOL. 52, No. 14
8 | BATTLE FOR STARWOOD
15 | TOP CHEF westfaironline.com
YOUR ONLY SOURCE FOR REGIONAL BUSINESS NEWS
Kleban, Fairfield University have big plans for GE property BY KEVIN ZIMMERMAN kzimmerman@westfairinc.com
Talking G Smart Growth
Parris Glendening, former Maryland governer, speaks at Pace Law School in White Plains. SEE PAGE 3
ood things may not be brought to life in Fairfield in the immediate wake of General Electric’s announced exit from the town. But if Fairfield real estate developer Kleban Properties and Fairfield University have their way, much greater things may well be on the horizon for the Easton Turnpike property. On March 28, Kleban made good on its earlier promise to explore purchasing the 68-acre GE campus, which the company announced in January it would vacate to move its corporate headquarters to Boston. In an exclusive agreement, Kleban and Fairfield University will work
together to renovate and develop the property as a high-tech hub that will encompass health carerelated technology, an executive education center, and additional features aimed at drawing additional big-name corporations to Fairfield. “[GE’s decision] was devastating to me as a lifetime resident of Fairfield,” Albert Kleban, the 85-year-old chairman of the company, said. “I could see an immediate downfall in real estate values, employment, and the tax base.” However, he added, “Whenever I find myself with a negative in this world, I enjoy turning it into a positive.” With that in mind, he met within hours of GE’s » GE, page 6
From optimism to pessimism
BUSINESS GROUPS WARY OF ECONOMY AFTER JOB-GROWTH STATS HALVED BY REECE ALVAREZ ralvarez@westfairinc.com
F
ollowing the Connecticut Department of Labor’s drastically lowered revision of job gains throughout the state last year, some heads of lead-
ing business organizations are calling for increased caution as the state pushes forward in dealing with its current and impending budget deficits totaling more than $200 million this fiscal year and more than $900 million in the next.
In March, the Labor Department released its annual benchmark revision of job growth estimates and reported what the director of the Office of Research Andrew Condon called a “severe” revision of the numbers for 2015 with original estimates of 22,600 jobs gained in 2015 revised by nearly half to 11,600 jobs gained. “Are we surprised by it? Somewhat,” said Paul Timpanelli, president and CEO of the Bridgeport Regional Business Council, Fairfield County’s largest business association. “You can see the writing on
the wall when you look at the degree to which the state needs to come to grips with how it spends money and what it does to invest in its economy,” he said. Peter Gioia, an economist with the state’s largest business organization, the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, said in 26 years of tracking job growth in the state this is the largest revisions he has seen. But more concerning than the implications for the economy is the cause behind the revision, he said. Gioia said he believes the relatively poor resurgence of high-
paying, long-lasting jobs such as in finance and manufacturing throughout the post-recession period has been coupled with gains in low-wage, high-turnover jobs. “Leisure, hospitality, health care and education have more than exceeded the number we had prior to the recession,” he said. “Some of those low-wage jobs have turnover rates that exceed 100 percent a year.” He said it may be possible that the employer surveys, on which preliminary job growth numbers » BUSINESS, page 6