Submarine builder General Dynamics Electric Boat could receive up to $25 million in state funding to support its redevelopment of Crystal Mall in Waterford, CT Insider has learned. The new funding for the Groton-headquartered Electric Boat consists of up to $20 million in tax credits for urban and industrial re-investment from the state Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) and a sales-tax exemption potentially worth $5 million from the state-chartered venture-capital organization Connecticut Innovations, according to officials with those agencies. DECD and Connecticut Innovations disclosed their agreements with Electric Boat in response to inquiries from CT Insider. Electric Boat acquired the languishing mall last year, and it plans to open a company campus there next year. While Electric Boat recently secured federal contracts for 14 new ships that are worth a record-breaking total of about $77 billion, state officials said that the company’s expansion to Waterford also deserves public funding. “We’re growing jobs significantly, and we’re putting a failed commercial property back onto the town’s tax rolls as a really strong, robust asset. That’s good for the local community,” DECD Deputy Commissioner Matthew Pugliese said in an interview. “And then we’re creating that activation. We’re adding thousands of workers into the area that are going to take part in going to restaurants, running errands at lunch and going shopping.”
Why Electric Boat could get $25 million from Connecticut to redevelop mall in Waterford
