🔒Reimagining Hartford: Corporate leaders join forces to help shape the city’s future

Some of the Hartford region’s most influential corporate leaders have been meeting regularly to see how they can leverage their vision and influence to help reshape Hartford and its surrounding communities. The group — which, according to sources familiar with it, includes senior executives from The Hartford, Travelers Cos., Stanley Black & Decker, Aetna, Hartford HealthCare and others — aims to help examine, prioritize and facilitate projects crucial to Hartford’s future. Initiatives under review range from a planned multibillion-dollar overhaul of highways and transportation networks cutting through Hartford, to reimagining the struggling Constitution Plaza office park, to efforts aimed at revitalizing the historic Pratt Street retail corridor. “You have engaged corporate leadership that have come together who are trying to put some definition to all of this, a plan to all of this, and to make things better,” said Andy Bessette, executive vice president and chief administrative officer at Travelers.

Bessette said he’s a member of the corporate leadership group, which isn’t keen on publicity. He and others declined to reveal details, including who convened the group, or which executives are involved. Even so, its very existence offers a hopeful sign for a city whose corporate base has shrunk over the decades due to economic downturns, mergers, relocations or downsizing. The COVID-19 pandemic dealt the most recent setback by ushering in an era of increased remote work, which has reduced downtown foot traffic and caused the office vacancy rate to spike. That has heightened the urgency of efforts to revive Hartford’s vitality, fill vacant office space and retain major employers. State financial support — from the Capital Region Development Authority and other agencies — is central to those revival efforts. Significant funding has gone toward subsidizing new downtown housing, part of the city’s shift to a more residential, less office-dependent core. Corporate buy-in is equally important, Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam said. The Democratic mayor said he meets regularly with the city’s top corporate executives to update them on economic development efforts and challenges. In turn, they offer guidance, resources and support — including donations to local initiatives. For example, a group of corporate leaders “with deep ties to Hartford” is involved in the bid to bring the Connecticut Sun professional women’s basketball team to the Capital City, the mayor said. “We tend to define ourselves in terms of the decline we might have felt over the last 50 years, but we forget for a city this size, there is an incredible corporate presence,” Arulampalam said. “And, I think some executives of those corporations have really bought into the future of the city of Hartford, and view their future here and are really enthusiastic about the potential here in Hartford.”

Corporate drift

Hartford has weathered a series of corporate exits and consolidations in recent decades. United Technologies relocated its downtown Hartford headquarters to Farmington in 2015, and later, following a merger with Raytheon, out of state. Aetna was acquired by Rhode Island-based CVS Health in 2018. While the insurer maintains its Hartford presence, it has shed hundreds of local jobs over the past year, and there is uncertainty about the future of Aetna’s sprawling Asylum Hill headquarters campus, which has lost significant value. Many companies that remain have pulled back on their downtown office footprints in the pandemic’s wake.

David Fagone, who helped manage many of Hartford’s Class A office buildings during a 40-year career with real estate management firm RM Bradley, said there was “something magical” when corporate leaders would get together decades ago to discuss and carry out plans that gave the city a “shot in the arm.” The real estate arms of companies like Aetna and Travelers, for example, drove large-scale developments in Hartford, Fagone noted. “I lament the loss of the headquarters because I think we’ve lost identity, if you will, because the contributions those headquarters gave the city in two, three, five different ways — pride of ownership, sponsorships of major family events downtown, all of the above,” Fagone said. To maintain its existing corporate headquarters long term, Hartford should leverage its strengths — notably a high quality of life and relative affordability that appeal to adults starting families, Fagone said. Hartford-based companies offer an easy commute to relatively affordable, family-friendly towns with good schools. “The opportunity, I think, that gets lost with the workforce is we aren’t attractive to the 22-year-old, but, boy, what an opportunity for the 35-year-old with two kids on the way,” Fagone said. John Carusone, president of the Hartford-based Bank Analysis Center, began his career with Connecticut Bank & Trust in 1977 and has spent almost his entire career working in Hartford. He watched the city go through many economic cycles, including the Savings & Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early ’90s, the 2008-2009 financial crisis and COVID-19 pandemic. The loss of bank headquarters late last century — including Connecticut Bank and Trust and Connecticut National Bank — drained important sources of investment in the city, he said. “When those banks went out of business, a great deal of economic progress came to a near standstill,” Carusone said. “Decisions about large corporate lending are made where the boss’s office is, and the boss’s office is no longer in Hartford.” Carusone says revitalizing Hartford will take more than new apartments and upgraded entertainment venues, the cornerstone of current efforts. It will also require retaining existing corporations and attracting new ones with workforces of 1,500 or more. “In my view, all rejuvenation of metropolitan areas comes down to two factors: money and jobs,” Carusone said. “Everything else is a derivative. Housing isn’t going to do it by itself, even with a lot of governmental largess. Entertainment venues aren’t going to do it. It’s money and jobs. And that comes from enlightened public policy.”

Easier said than done

Recruiting new corporations to Hartford is a tall order.

Connecticut and Hartford quickly fall off the radar of midsize and large companies because of the state’s stagnant population growth, said Chris Ostop, managing director of real estate services firm JLL. Connecticut’s population grew by 47,032, or 1.3%, to 3.6 million between 2010 and 2022, according to USAFacts. In the same time frame, Florida’s population grew by nearly 3.4 million, or 18%. Virginia’s population grew by 659,615, or 8.2%, according to USAFacts. “It’s not that we don’t have talent,” Ostop said. “Companies just look at growth in population. That’s why the sunbelt areas are booming, that’s where people are migrating to, and therefore companies are following suit.” Even so, Ostop said, Hartford’s push to enliven its restaurant, retail, cultural and entertainment scene is right-minded. “Right now, it’s an office park in a very sleepy city,” Ostop said of Hartford. “It just doesn’t have the attractions needed to get young professionals to stay in the city. You look five miles away in West Hartford Center and every night of the week it’s packed. That’s why companies and corporations and even nontraditional, suburban companies are looking at office space there, because that’s the vibe that employees want.”

Still attractive

Despite its challenges, Hartford in recent years has had some success in recruiting new companies. Many — including engineering firm Fuss & O’Neill and insurers Global Atlantic Financial Group, Sun Life Financial and Talcott Financial Group — have relocated from the suburbs, rather than out of state. Hartford HealthCare relocated its downtown headquarters to 100 Pearl St. in 2022, and pledged to add hundreds of jobs in the center city, including by consolidating offices outside Hartford. Many agree that corporate support and engagement are key to Hartford’s revitalization efforts. The city has a long history of companies and CEOs that have taken an active hand in its economic development efforts. Notably, in the mid-20th-century, a group of insurance and bank executives nicknamed “the bishops” influenced city policy and development. In the 1960s, Travelers rescued and completed Constitution Plaza, then occupied much of the massive office complex for decades, dressing it up for the holidays and flying in Santa by helicopter each year. In the 1970s, Aetna helped finance the Hartford Civic Center (now the PeoplesBank Arena) property. Later, Aetna renovated an office tower at 242 Trumbull St., while also refurbishing buildings along the Pratt Street retail corridor. Travelers remains one of Hartford’s most active investors and proponents. Bessette said the property and casualty insurer — which is the city’s second-highest taxpayer, owning $145 million in real estate and personal property, including two major office buildings — has added hundreds of employees over the last two decades. It was also a founding partner of the Dunkin’ Park minor league baseball stadium, a sponsor of PeoplesBank Arena, and the title sponsor of the PGA Tour’s Travelers Championship, held annually at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell. Last year, Travelers donated $8.2 million in Connecticut, $6.8 million of which landed in Hartford. Bessette said he’s bullish about the city’s future prospects, given its strong foundation of arts, cultural and entertainment venues, including Hartford Stage, TheaterWorks, The Bushnell, Wadsworth Atheneum, Mark Twain House, Connecticut Science Center and more. “You can go on and on here, whether it’s cultural, entertainment or sports, there is a lot here that is just really terrific,” he said. “If you want companies to come in here, you have to have that for them to see and experience, and for their employees to experience as well.” Bessette himself has been one of Hartford’s most civically engaged corporate executives. He chairs the Capital Region Development Authority’s venue committee, helping to steer major facilities like Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, as well as the Connecticut Convention Center and PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford. He’s on the board of trustees of UConn, which has significantly grown its downtown Hartford presence, including opening a more than $115 million satellite campus on Front Street in 2017. UConn next year will also begin to offer student housing downtown — Travelers has committed $500,000 over five years to offset some of the room and board costs. Bessette is also on the board of AdvanceCT, a nonprofit focused on recruiting businesses to Connecticut. Other top executives and Hartford boosters — including Stanley Black & Decker CEO Donald Allan and Hartford HealthCare President and CEO Jeffrey Flaks — also sit on AdvanceCT’s board.

AI hub

Arulampalam stressed corporate interest in Hartford’s future is strong. Hartford HealthCare, The Hartford and Travelers, for example, are working with the city to establish a centralized employment recruitment center for Hartford residents, the mayor said. In the spring, when a $1.5 million gap appeared in Hartford’s school budget proposal, anonymous corporate donors pledged to close it if the state did not. Meanwhile, Arulampalam — with support from corporate leaders — is championing a plan to put Hartford on the map as a hub for artificial intelligence innovation. The city is one of three Connecticut municipalities competing for a slice of the state’s $100 million “Innovation Clusters” grant pool. Its pitch — the Center for Applied AI — would provide space for companies to test AI-powered business applications, collaborate with startups and train a local workforce. The initiative aims to make Hartford more attractive to its existing corporate base — particularly data-rich insurers and healthcare organizations — so they aren’t tempted to grow their innovation presence elsewhere, Arulampalam said. “I think that the concept behind the AI center was exactly that: How do we ensure the corporate footprint we have now chooses to innovate in the city,” he said.