State Keeps 800 Jobs In Stamford With $9 Million Relocation Loan To General Reinsurance

The state will lend a Berkshire Hathaway reinsurance subsidiary $9 million to help it move to another building in Stamford, Gov. M. Jodi Rell announced this week, fulfilling a pledge made more than a year ago.

The governor's office said the loan, contingent on State Bond Commission action on Oct. 30, would keep 800 General Reinsurance Corp. jobs in the state. Under the terms of the 20-year, 2 percent interest loan, the company must maintain an average of 820 employees in the state through 2013, according to the state Department of Economic and Community Development.

The company also must maintain operations in the state for 10 years.

"Gen Re had to make a decision -- stay in Stamford or relocate to Westchester County, New York -- and we were not going to lose those dependable jobs and their [insurance and financial services] expertise without a fight," Rell said in a statement Tuesday. "This funding, which goes toward fixtures and equipment in the new facility, ensures that a company based in our state since 1974 is not lost to a neighboring state."

Gen Re is a longtime Connecticut company that was independent and publicly traded before it was acquired in 1968 by Berkshire Hathaway, which is headed by Warren Buffett.

The company has been in a larger space than it needs, the governor's statement said. It has negotiated a new lease for almost 300,000 square feet on Long Ridge Road. Rell's statement noted that the company's new space is also larger than Gen Re's present need, but that "future expansion is possible."

A spokesman for Gen Re did not respond to requests for information Wednesday, but Stamford Mayor Dan Malloy said the company had already undertaken extensive renovations at its new site and was moving in.

He said the company had been unable to negotiate a new lease for its old space, which was under a master lease to Lehman Brothers, the failed investment bank.

"They absolutely could not get Lehman involved in negotiating a long-term lease on acceptable terms," he said, adding that Gen Re pursued a new lease long before Lehman's collapse, in September 2008. "As a result, they were actively pursuing opportunities in Connecticut and Westchester."