Sadie spoke about AdvanceCT (formerly CERC).
AdvanceCT is a nonprofit organization that works to engage, retain and recruit businesses and advance overall economic competitiveness in Connecticut.
In collaboration with the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD), AdvanceCT strives to build a place where business, government, higher education, and nonprofits come together to implement high impact and inclusive economic development solutions for the state.
Originally established in 1993 as the Connecticut Economic Resource Center, Inc., the economic development entity changed its name to AdvanceCT in 2020.
Sadie shared the mission and the impact of AdvanceCT.
Sadie opened up the presentation to questions.
Larry Sullivan commented some of this work must feel like shoveling sand against the tide when it comes to business growth in CT, and asked if there were any recent successes?
Sadie answered that they are currently working on a projects that total 2 million dollar investment and has three major company commitments that can bring the state around 4,000 jobs. The projects are in food and beverage and medical devices.
Gary Roman asked how does the state of CT support AdvanceCT and how is it staffed?
Sadie answered that 50% of the company is funded through the state and the remainder is funded through the members of the organization. After reorganizing, they currently have 10 employees and hope to gain a total of 25-30 employees.
Kerswhin Singh asked what kind of problems does AdvanceCT see? How many outside states do you see moving in?
Sadie answered there are examples of CT companies recruiting globally and that there is a company from NYC that is looking to make CT their secondary location due to the pandemic causing over 20,000 NYC residents to move into CT.