The Hartford Business Journal offered each broker one wave of a magic wand, to be granted the one action each was certain would benefit them, their clients and the Greater Hartford community.
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The Hartford Business Journal offered each broker one wave of a magic wand, to be granted the one action each was certain would benefit them, their clients and the Greater Hartford community. (See the corresponding story Hartford's realty ambassadors relay their short, long views.)
Jay Wamester, Colliers:
“To make Connecticut more pro-business. This is a very difficult state to do business in. We hear it all the time. This is not a state businesses are looking to come to grow.”
John McCormick, CBRE:
“If there was some way to control our higher cost of doing business, that would pay dividends to our employment sector.’’
Mike Puzzo, CBRE:
“Creation of a world-class rapid-transit system that would connect us to New York City and Boston. What if you were able to get on a train and get to Boston? You’d potentially have companies in Boston that would consider locating to Hartford. That would be a potential game changer.”
Tom York, Goman+York:
“Right now, [economic] growth is anemic at best. I’d change the dynamic that’s creating that anemic growth.”
Singling out the high cost of state and local taxes, utilities and other energy sources, and regulatory red tape, York said, “You put that all together, what do you expect the result to be?
Chris Ostop, Jones Lang Lasalle:
“High-speed rail, connecting Hartford to New York City. Overnight, New York City-based companies can compare the dramatically lower real estate costs in Greater Hartford as a truly viable option for some or all of their operations.”
Joel Grieco, Cushman & Wakefield:
“I would cut the size of Connecticut government in half. The rest would happen on its own.”
Andy Filler, Avison Young:
“It would be to have our state government be more pro-business and/or business friendly.’’
Larry Levere, Sentry:
“Bring back the Whalers. First of all, I love hockey. Second, Hartford in the late ‘80s was absolutely booming. You’d go out to eat after work and go to the [Whalers] game. There’s something about major-league sports in Hartford that was a lot of fun.”
Sentry’s impending relocation of its downtown office into space above Mckinnon’s Irish Bar on Trumbull Street, closer to the new ballpark, is appealing, he said.
“I could see going down [to Mckinnon’s] for a beer and a burger, then walking over to the ballgame; inviting a client over.’’
– GREGORY SEAY
