HARTFORD — United Technologies Corp. intends to create 380 jobs and build a state-of-the-art facility in South Florida for its building and industrial systems unit after receiving incentives from the state and from county and local governments.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican who visited Hartford 11 days ago on a business recruiting tour, announced Monday that the corporation will spend $115 million on the UTC Center for Intelligent Buildings. Reports about the endeavor emerged in March, long before Scott’s trip to Hartford.
The deal involves buying 30 acres on the I-95 corridor in Palm Beach Gardens near major international airports.
UTC Building and Industrial Systems, which includes Carrier air conditioners and Otis elevators, is focusing on new technologies that reduce energy consumption. UTC has long had a major presence in Palm Beach County, including engine and test facilities in West Palm Beach for Pratt & Whitney. Otis elevators has offices in nearby Jupiter.
Geraud Darnis, president and CEO of UTC Building and Industrial Systems, said the new facility will be “a first-of-its-kind, intelligent and sustainable customer center.”
“This living showplace will serve as a destination for the global building community, offering truly integrated, whole-building solutions,” he said in a statement released by the Florida governor’s office. “We chose Florida among other potential locations in the Southeast for its ideal climate for year-round demonstration of advanced, energy-efficient cooling technologies, as well as its proximity to existing UTC facilities and neighboring international airports.”
The company had downplayed a news report in March that said UTC would construct a new office building in South Florida for $115 million — the amount released Monday by Scott. In March, a spokeswoman for Otis and Carrier dismissed the idea as “speculation.”
The threat of Connecticut corporations moving operations to other states, or even leaving the state entirely, had been raised repeatedly during the closing weeks of the legislative session as Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and legislators negotiated a budget agreement. The budget package included new business taxes that caused corporations such as Fairfield-based General Electric and Hartford-based insurers Travelers and Aetna to complain publicly.
The legislature ultimately changed some provisions in the two-year, $40 billion budget that lowered some of the business tax increases, but kept some at their existing levels.
“Can you really blame UTC?” asked Sen. Rob Kane, R-Watertown, and the ranking member on the budget-writing committee. “Gov. Malloy just raised taxes again after promising not to … Does anyone really think taxes will go down in the near future under this governor and this Democrat-controlled legislature? Potential job creators see that we have headed down a dangerous path. Unfortunately, we should expect more news like this.”
Malloy’s office declined to comment Monday on the UTC announcement.
Scott visited Hartford June 25 to meet with business executives on a two-day recruiting tour. Standing outside the Hilton hotel in downtown Hartford, Scott said that Malloy and the legislature had made it easier for him by raising taxes.
“Pratt and Whitney is adding more jobs in Florida,” Scott said. “Most of these companies already do a lot of business in Florida. We’re already the second-biggest state for aerospace and aviation establishments and the third-biggest state for the number of technology jobs. … I just want them to move all their corporate offices, their regional offices and all their back offices.”
