Months After Layoffs, South Windsor Company Gets State Aid to Create Jobs

Months after mass layoffs, Gov. Dannel Malloy moved to give ClearEdge Power Corp. $1.5 million to ensure the company stays in South Windsor and adds jobs.

The money, a $1.4 million loan, plus $650,000 that would be forgiven if the company meets conditions of the deal, was approved by the State Bond Commission Thursday.

ClearEdge is a fuel cell manufacturer, based in Oregon, that last year bought United Technologies Corporation’s South Windsor fuel cell plant and laid off more than 100 of the plant’s 400 workers.

The company laid off the workers as it shifted out of the production of one type of fuel cells, though it then geared up for an expansion. Economic Development Commissioner Catherine Smith said in the expansion, some of those workers would be eligible for rehire, according to CTNewsJunkie. According to a Hartford Business Journal article on the purchase, the UTC plant had never turned a profit.

Terms of the deal obligate ClearEdge to retain 170 jobs and add 80 more in the next three years. The company will also receive $103,000 for staff training.

The ClearEdge funding is part of a $229.3 million package, including school aid and job creation, among other projects. To read more, see the CTNewsJunkie article here.