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If You Build It, They Will Stay
A new Bridgeport industrial park is designed
to keep manufacturers from seeking greener pastures
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Business New Haven
4/17/2000
By: Michael C. Bingham
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A new $12 million industrial park will retain three manufacturers in Bridgeport as well as more than 400 jobs and $8 million in annual payroll.
Pending local and state approval, the Seaview Industrial Park will encompass more than 100,000 square feet of new industrial space. Construction of the project is expected to create about 100 new jobs and some $2 million in yearly payroll.
The new development will anchor the Seaview Avenue industrial corridor in Bridgeport's East End, and provide a new home to three manufacturing companies: Magnetek Inc., the Syntex Rubber Corp., which makes rubber gaskets and components, and Rotaire, which rebuilds helicopters.
The project will conglomerate 33 properties into a single industrial facility. A new 100,000-square-foot building will be privately financed to the tune of about $6 million raised through the sale of industrial revenue bonds (IRBs). Another $5.7 million in public-sector financing will come from state environmental clean-up funds as well as money allocated by the Manufacturers Assistance Act.
Planning began about 30 months ago when Magnetek, which makes capacitors and resisters for electric motors, pumps and fixtures, told Bridgeport city officials it had outgrown its Crescent Avenue facility and would require larger quarters if it was to remain in the Park City.
“Magnetek started the ball rolling,” explains William Finch, who heads the Bridgeport Economic Development Corp. (BEDCO).
Magnetek “has banked on Bridgeport workers,” explains Finch, “when many of their Connecticut competitors have opted for low-wage, offshore means of production. Magnetek is beating them at that game by banking on high-wage, capital-intensive means of production. There are maybe 2,000 workers in a plant in Mexico able to do what 450 workers in Connecticut can accomplish.”
To help accommodate Magnetek's need, BEDCO and the city's Office of Policy & Economic Development two years ago began to draft a municipal development plan (MDP) and asked New Haven's TPA Design Group to create a concept for a new East End industrial facility. The MDP, which grants local authority to seize targeted properties, if necessary, by eminent domain, extends nearly from Boston Avenue to the harbor, and encompasses the former Father Panik Village site, the Remington Arms site as well as the present-day Magnetek, Syntex and Rotaire facilities.
To officials at BEDCO, “The jobs are key,” Finch says. “I think there's a universal understanding that if we are to keep the major manufacturers we have here - and there are still quite a few - we're going to have to be creative at finding ways for them to have the same sorts of things that they can more easily have in the suburbs.
“It's a lot easier to go to Newtown or Shelton and plow under a cornfield because there are no environmental problems and there's usually one owner to deal with,” Finch says. “[For the Seaview project] we have 33 property-owners that have to be assembled and approached. That's why you need a BEDCO, because the private market is just not going to do this. They're going to go somewhere where it's easier - and cheaper.”
To become reality, the Seaview project must pass muster with the state's Department of Economic & Community Development (DECD) as well as with the local legislative delegation. It has already been approved by the Bridgeport City Council and the regional planning agency, says Finch.
The public investment in the project is justified, says Bridgeport Regional Business Council President Paul S. Timpanelli, to prime the pump for private investment in the city's future.
“Public dollars must be spent first in order to create the environment to attract the necessary private investment,” he says.
He cites the $200 million in public funding set aside for the proposed Harbour Place retail-entertainment center for which developer Alex Conroy is seeking a new financial partner. Bridgeport officials are now in the process of deciding whether to give Conroy another chance or issue a new request for proposals on the project.
In all, Bridgeport's ten-year strategic plan for economic redevelopment, unveiled in 1995, is on track, and the Seaview project is an important piece of the puzzle, Timpanelli says. “We are ahead of the curve for the first five years of our plan when compared to cities like Baltimore, Cleveland and Pittsburgh at this stage,” he says.
To Finch, Seaview's place in the strategic plan “is like a hand in a glove.” In Bridgeport, he explains, precision and metal manufacturing is one of the industry “clusters” Gov. John G. Rowland has targeted for retention and growth.
“Magnetek, Syntex and Rotaire are all precision manufacturers,” Finch says. “With one industrial park we can save all three for the long term.”
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