Gov. Dannel Malloy’s named his second “First Five” recipient on Thursday afternoon, South Windsor-based TicketNetwork, which will receive $7.75 million to stay in the state and add jobs.
The “First Five” program was envisioned by Malloy as a way to kickstart economic development in the state by offering the full amount of state incentives and tax breaks to businesses willing to add up to 200 jobs in the next two years. The first announcement in the program was Cigna Corp., which agreed in July to move its headquarters to Connecticut and add 200 jobs in exchange for $50 million in incentives.
TicketNetwork, the second “First Five” recipient, already planned to relocate its headquarters from Vernon to South Windsor and bring 325 employees into the new facility. Previous to Thursday’s announcement, TicketNetwork CEO Donald Vaccaro had said he planned to grow his workforce by more than 200 people in the next two years.
As part of the “First Five” agreement announced by Malloy on Thursday, TicketNetwork must retain 292 jobs in Connecticut and meet its previously announced goals of adding 200 jobs in the next two years.
In exchange, TicketNetwork will receive a 10-year, $4.5 million loan from the Department of Economic and Community Development; a five-year, $1.8 million loan from the Connecticut Development Authority; a $1 million grant for the alternative energy installation of a fuel cell, wind or solar-powered system; and a software engineer training grant ranging from $250,000-$450,000 depending on the number of jobs created.
“TicketNetwork has been recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in the country. I want to make sure that these types of innovative enterprises establish roots here in Connecticut, and continue to create jobs and make capital investments that will directly benefit the local and state economies,” Malloy said following the announcement.
