|
|
|
Technology Transfer
High tech's migration up the coast and up the Housatonic
|
Business New Haven
4/17/2000
By: Michele Beck
|
Priceline.com recently moved up the Connecticut coast from Stamford to Norwalk. The chief reasons cited for the move were the comparatively lower cost of doing business in Norwalk and the greater availability of labor there.
As the Norwalk labor market becomes saturated - which some are already hinting may happen soon - will the logic behind Priceline's move inexorably spin itself out into a march of the dot.coms up the coast to Bridgeport and the Valley region? To what degree is this happening already?
The answer is mixed. While attractive prices and the availability of labor are among the factors that drive high-tech business, they are not the only ones. There are a number of other major considerations that come into play as high tech companies assess potential locations.
A prime one among these is the availability of state-of-the-art data and power lines. Another is the easy accessibility of the site by commuting employees. Yet others include the quality of life in the area and the proximity of other high-tech companies. Finally, the availability of space in a targeted area must be considered.
Each town in the Valley and the greater Bridgeport region has its own distinctive mix of desirable and not-so-desirable qualities, with the end result that, while the dot.coms are coming to this region, they are doing so in a rather uneven manner.
In some communities there has been a veritable high-tech boom, while others have been largely untouched. Still others, most notably the region's central city, Bridgeport, have been scrambling to position themselves so that they will be better positioned to surf the region's high tech high tide.
The availability of space has been perhaps the key factor in determining which towns are experiencing an influx of high-tech firms. A number of Valley towns have been bypassed largely because they are already almost completely developed.
“We're landlocked,” says Claude L. Perry, Ansonia's executive director of economic development. “I got a call from someone in Waterbury the other day who needed 250,000 square feet. I had to tell him we don't have it. There's only one parcel of land left here - and that's not for sale.”
As a result, Ansonia has just a smattering of high-tech firms, despite the fact that the town has an enterprise corridor to encourage precisely such businesses. Perry notes, however, that Ansonia is home to a number of businesses that are ancillary to the high-tech industry.
Next door to Ansonia, Derby also has little undeveloped space left. The town is doing its utmost, though, to make its remaining space attractive to high-tech tenants. Rick Dunne, the town's executive director of community and economic development notes that Derby recently re-zoned four parcels of land totaling about 300 acres at the intersection of the Merritt Parkway and Route 34 as an industrial campus. Because fiber-optic lines run along Route 34, they will be available to developers.
“We are trying to encourage high-tech use,” says Dunne. “The availability of fiber optics is a key piece, but that's in place now.” The real push to attract high-tech companies will begin, Dunne estimates, some time after the summer. In the meantime, like Ansonia, Derby is home to a lot of companies that do assembly for the high-tech firms headquartered nearby.
Stratford is another town that has been largely developed for some time. “We are limited in Class B and A office space.” says Bruce Alessie, special projects coordinator for the town's Office of Community & Economic Development. “We had already grown, as a defense-oriented community.”
Alessie notes that there will be several areas with the potential soon to attract high-tech tenants. One of these is the 72-acre Stratford section of the Lake Success Business Park (the remainder of the park is in Bridgeport). Currently being developed by North American Realty of New York, its buildings should be up within the year, Alessie says.
Another area ready for conversion is a section of the former Allied Signal plant. The large buildings with high bays found at Allied Signal, Alessie says, will help to give Stratford special appeal for the fulfillment houses that are an integral part of the e-commerce boom. These are precisely the types of spaces they seek to occupy.
Trumbull, although it is currently about 96-percent developed, has had some success in attracting technology companies. The town has about 2.2 million square feet of industrial space, much of which is home to high-tech firms.
First Selectman Ken Halaby cites several reasons for Trumbull's success in attracting these firms. Prime among these, he says, is the fact that Trumbull is a very attractive community in which to reside. The town has 1,400 acres of park land and a builders' beautification program which has insured that industrial development is esthetically pleasing. The NASDAQ building, for example, is graced with rock gardens and ferns.
Halaby says the town's excellent school system and wide array of youth programs has also been key in attracting employees, and thus businesses.
Other draws of Trumbull have been its location - easily accessible via the Merritt Parkway, I-95 and Route 25 - and the fact that businesses in town can still claim the cachet of a Fairfield County address.
Shelton shares with Trumbull its enviable, easily accessible location (in this case, the juncture of the Merritt, I-95 and Route 8) and its Fairfield County status. In addition, Shelton has had the good fortune of having ample land available for development - and a savvy developer who foresaw the migration of business up into the eastern- and northern-most reaches of Fairfield County. As a result, Shelton has become something of a high-tech boom town.
Shelton's boom can be traced back to 1966, when a planning commission prepared the Route 8 Corridor Study and recommended both the completion of the Route 8 expressway and the establishment of large-lot industrial zones in that area, rather than retail shopping centers. By the late 1970s, following the completion of Route 8, companies from Manhattan and lower Fairfield County began moving in. Since that time, 34 Planned Development Districts have been approved in the town.
A key figure in Shelton's growth has been developer Robert D. Scinto, chairman of R.D. Scinto Inc. Scinto recognized Shelton's advantages early on.
“The Merritt Parkway and 95 are parking lots,” he said recently. “From Shelton you can get to 85 percent of the state in one hour. You can hire at opposite ends of the labor market.”
Also among Shelton's trump cards, Scinto says, are the fact that the town is still in Fairfield County, yet has relatively low housing and labor costs. Scinto currently owns about 1.5 million square feet of industrial space in Shelton, and has plans to do several more developments there. He says he has designed his office parks so that they include the kinds of amenities - health clubs, for Instance - that are attractive to high-tech people who tend to work later into evening hours.
Shelton Planning & Zoning Administrator Richard Schultz underscores the importance of his town's location.
“A lot of companies like Fairfield County status,” he says. He adds that Shelton has affordable property and affordable homes and the lowest mil rate of surrounding communities. He also asserts that the town's rural feel, as in Trumbull, is a draw.
Shelton has more than 2,000 acres of agricultural land and has made a point of preserving open spaces. “Companies actually like that - areas of natural beauty,” says Schultz.
To date, only 65 percent of the Route 8 Corridor area has been developed, leaving ample room for more high tech. And since the presence of other technology-based firms tends to make an area more appealing for similar companies, Shelton's growth pattern is likely to continue.
What will happen when Shelton is full? “Seymour and Oxford still have land,” says Schultz. “When Shelton becomes saturated, they are going to go that route.”
Paul Grimmer, executive director of the Oxford Economic Development Corp., says his community is getting ready for exactly this to happen. Currently 90 percent of Oxford's industrial zone is available for development.
At this point, the town is still working with the utility companies to bring in three-phase electric, fiber optics, and other key infrastructure components. The kinds of companies Grimmer feels will be particularly drawn to Oxford, and in fact are already coming, are those smaller firms “working out of basements, looking for that first corporate presence.”
Except for the rural setting, Bridgeport shares with Shelton several of the key attractions for high-tech industry: easy access, the Fairfield County address. So what are the prospects of this former manufacturing center being transformed into a technology hub?
The city fathers years ago actually targeted information technology (along with four other industries) as likely candidates for playing a key role in Bridgeport's economic future. Mike Freimuth, head of the city's Office of Economic Development, sees the city as ideally poised to take over the niche of e-commerce.
Kevin Reed, general manager of the Bridgeport Trade & Technology Center, agrees. “Bridgeport has everything it needs to become a real e-commerce enclave,” he says, pointing to the large pool of low-priced labor (which is needed when companies start actually handling goods), the city's transportation links and the relatively low cost of space. “The question is more whether Bridgeport will be able to accommodate these businesses.”
“We have very limited space,” says Paul Timpanelli, president of the Bridgeport Regional Business Council. Timpanelli points out that much Bridgeport real estate is too costly to develop - buildings must be knocked down, or pollution must be cleared up.
However, Timpanelli also notes that the city is “working feverishly” to address the situation and to attract high-tech firms. It is currently in the process of putting together a new package of incentives. These will be in addition to the already existing Enterprise Zone.
Freimuth notes that several old multi-story buildings have been repossessed and are being rehabilitated. These include the old Warnaco Complex, and another on the city's West Side.
Much of the Trade & Technology Center - the old Singer Manufacturing Building - has also recently been converted into a “smart building.” Reed points out that the building now has fiber-optic cable which will be up and running imminently. It is the first building north of Stamford to have Intellispace, an “intelligent Internet connection.” It also abuts the Metro North right-of-way, where communication lines run in the railbed will provide redundancy.
While the building is currently 85-percent occupied, Reed adds that plans are underway to build a new building on the vacant lot adjacent to the center, which could be used to house present-day warehousing tenants, in order to create more room for dot.coms.
Bridgeport may not be able to provide workers with grassy vistas, but Reed feels buildings such as the Trade & Technology Center have a special appeal all their own for high tech workers. With its 13-foot ceilings, and nine-foot windows that open, it is a “cool, funky, loft-looking space - a perfect space for creative types.”
Movement in the dynamic high-tech industry happens very quickly. It will be exciting to see, over the next months or year, just what course this industry does carve out for itself in the region.
|
Go FirstGo PreviousGo
NextGo LastGo
to Index
|
|
