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Meriden: At the center of it all
Silver City takes a shine to new business
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Business New Haven
7/10/2000
By: Michael Gomez
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Does location really matter in the New Economy?
With the Internet a borderless e-bazaar for trading billions of dollars of goods and services, what value still exists in a prime real estate location?
While clicks of computer mice may ring cash registers throughout cyberspace, the precision electronics and fiber-optic pathways that make those Web transactions work have to be designed and manufactured somewhere.
Economic development officials and business leaders in the city of Meriden believe their community can stake a convincing claim to be that somewhere. And they think there's gold to be mined from a fortuitous physical location that they call “the crossroads of Connecticut.”
Situated 90 miles from Manhattan to the south and 120 miles from Boston to the Northeast, Meriden became an important respite stop on old stagecoach routes between the two colonial cities. Though founded by farmers - like most Connecticut towns - Meriden in the 1700s began to tap the power of the Quinnipiac River that courses through the city to power itself into becoming an industrial center.
Mills and foundries and factories flourished. And Meriden gained a reputation as a diverse manufacturing center that produced not mass merchandise but such precision goods as electrical appliances, printers' supplies, industrial filters, medical equipment, military hardware and commercial-lighting fixtures.
Of course, one company's expertise in silver and pewterware soon earned Meriden's prominence in the 1800s as the Silver City. The International Silver Co., at one time the world's largest producer of silverware, came to tower over the city and make it a quasi-company town
Silver City to Cyber City?
But with Insilco long swallowed up by Syratech Corp., a New England conglomerate that manages a roster of silver brands, and moved to the Boston area, Meriden stands anew at a crossroads as it attempts to reinvent its commercial identity.
And like many communities eyeing the riches that flow out of Silicon Valley, Meriden hopes it can peddle itself as a base for high-tech companies.
“The New Economy is going to be very important to Connecticut and southern New England,” explains Randall Kamerbeek, Meriden's head of economic development. “And Meriden will be a big part of it,” offering a well-educated workforce, a pleasing quality of life and, of course, its location.
Kamerbeek sights Meriden at the end of the so-called “Silicon Parkway” - the area originating at the New York-Connecticut border that hugs the Merritt/Wilbur Cross Parkway to its conclusion in Meriden - home to dozens of start-up and established technology companies.
Kamerbeek and other business leaders believe that Meriden's proximity to New Haven and the new technology idea factory that Yale University is becoming will be beneficial in attracting businesses that need room to grow.
The biotechnology cluster that is growing centered around Yale and emanating out from New Haven also carries broader information technology companies in its wake.
“While we want to be part of the ideas sector of the information-technology industry,” says Kamerbeek, “much of Meriden's purpose is still involved in the process of producing a product.” He points to Meriden manufacturers that make products for telecommunications companies and alloys for technology firms.
“These are products where failure is unacceptable, where quality control and timing are critical,” explains Kamerbeek. “They must be manufactured in facilities that require a highly skilled workforce. And that's always been Meriden's history,” where precision is the purpose.
Many of Meriden's recent high-tech companies have clustered in and around Research Parkway. This complex encompasses about 1,000 acres of land (half in Meriden and half in Wallingford) along a three-mile stretch of I-91. The complex is nearly full, so Meriden is focusing on retaining the businesses operating in the park.
Meriden Markets its Location
Meriden sitting smack dab in the center of Connecticut, and at the intersection of several highways, is the obvious reason why the city has developed a “location, location, location” marketing theme to lure business.
The city's economic experts and business leaders are searching out and recruiting economy-based businesses - manufacturers, distribution centers, research and development companies, and corporate headquarters - that need room to plant roots and grow.
“We're not spending effort on commercial or retail,” Kamerbeek says. “They'll do fine” on their own, and will tend to follow to serve the bigger companies and their workers.
“We're an old factory town,” explains Sean Moore, president of the Greater Meriden Chamber of Commerce. “Urban and town planning didn't happen in the 1600s and 1700s. What happened, happened by accident. Now we need to plan.”
Businesses looking to relocate to grow their operations need land, utilities (including water and sewers) and fair zoning regulations before they examine other development factors, such as attracting and retaining skilled workers.
Meriden feels its has that infrastructure in place, and now just needs to take its story to the masses for renewed economic vibrancy. BNH
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