Economist: Downtown North Project To Create 1,000 Jobs

HARTFORD A proposed $350 million development in the city's downtown north area that includes a minor league baseball stadium would create 1,000 to 1,300 permanent jobs throughout the state, most of those in Hartford County and more than a third in the city, a UConn economist told the city council Thursday.

At the peak of construction in 2018, the jobs total would reach 2,000, said Fred Carstensen, an economist hired by the city council.

The project would also raise overall personal incomes after taxes by $120 million in the peak year of 2018; the increase would fall, to about $100 million a year as construction winds down in 2020, before rising steadily for the next decade because of inflation.

Carstensen noted that the projections are for the equivalent of full-time jobs positions that are direct, indirect and induced.

The project would also generate $30 million to $40 million a year in added income tax revenue between 2018 and 2030.

The figures from the Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis, which Carstensen directs, are not simply an attempt to add up the direct jobs created by the project itself, of people employed in construction and other activities at the Hartford development. Rather, the study looks at both the direct employment such as 80 stadium jobs combined with the effects of the flow of $350 million through the region's economy.

The council hired Carstensen after he criticized the work of a previous city consultant hired to advise Mayor Pedro Segarra on the effects of the project and the baseball team in Hartford.

Carstensen was paid $7,500 for his consulting work, council President Shawn Wooden said Thursday.

Carstensen's job projections are strong for the city, reaching a peak of 592 to 676 added positions in 2018, in large part because the developer has promised to hire 35 percent of workers from within the city limits. He projects 380 to 439 permanent jobs for Hartford residents.

"The additional economic activity attracts migration into Hartford or at least stems emigration," Carstensen wrote in a report to the council. "The core point is that population is higher with the development than without it. The development attracts population that would not otherwise have moved into Hartford.

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Economist: Downtown North Project To Create 1,000 Jobs