Staff Entries

Groundhog Day for Housing 

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Six more weeks of winter? Today Punxsutawney Phil, a famous groundhog, saw his shadow, meaning that we are in store for another six weeks of winter.  We aren’t expected to see an early spring in terms of existing housing sales either, based on data released today.

The pending home sales index was developed by the National Association of Realtors as a leading indicator for housing activity focusing on existing home sales.  A pending sale means that a contract has been signed but the closing has not yet taken place. Last month’s report showed the index for November in the U.S. showed a 16.4 percent decrease to 95.6, and today’s new data showed that the December index was up 1.0 percent to 96.6. Since the second wave of home buyer tax credits are available through April, it is expected that the winter will remain slow in terms of pending housing sales but there will be a rush of activity before the credits expire.

So it looks like Punxsutawney Phil and the pending home sales index are indicating the same thing – that we still have to wait to see signs of spring.

- Alissa DeJonge, Assistant Director of Research, CERC

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2010 Calendar of Events 

Monday, January 25, 2010

Given the current economic situation and budget constraints faced by all economic development entities in Connecticut, CERC recently hosted a meeting attended by many of our state, regional and utility partners to compile a 2010 Master Calendar for marketing events. The calendar tracks in-state and out-of-state conferences, trade shows and other events, and indicates which organizations (if any) are planning to participate.

In these difficult times, it is more important than ever to be able to pool and leverage our scarce marketing and promotion budgets.  If you are interested in receiving a copy of this document, please contact me.

- Steve MacKenzie, Senior Vice President, CERC

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CT Materials Reuse Network 

Monday, January 18, 2010

In mid-January, I was invited to present a basic overview of developing a marketing plan and strategy to the Materials Reuse Network, a group of professionals interested in materials reuse and increasing building materials reuse and deconstruction activities in Connecticut. Their mission is focused on deconstruction that will increase reuse and recovery efforts of construction, renovation and demolition debris and surplus/salvaged goods in Connecticut.

I was pleased to see such various entities come together to promote such an important topic that could have a significant impact on Connecticut’s future health – environmentally as well as economically. The group meets periodically to discuss issues related to regulation, training and education, job development, economic development, and outreach and promotion.

For more information and to help promote this initiative, visit their website, download their brochure or even check out a reuse center near you.

- Kristi Sullivan, Director of Marketing, CERC

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UConn's Tech Incubation Program 

Monday, January 11, 2010

I recently had the pleasure of visiting the UConn Technology Incubation Program’s offices at the campus in Storrs. It is amazing to see the scientists in action, the labs they occupy and even the greenhouse where some of these experiments are being grown. Faculty of the university, graduates and others are able to take advantage of the lab set-ups and reasonable rent that the Incubation Program offers in order to get their businesses off the ground.  Some of these experimental products take years to even begin to turn a profit so they subsist on grants and loans, making it very important that the space they occupy not eat away at their budget too quickly.  Successful businesses that have started out in incubator space and gone on to occupy commercial space include LifePharms, a biotechnology company focusing on discovering novel lead compounds from natural products, Evergen developing products and services using in-vitro fertilization, transgenic animal production and cloning technologies, and Venomix developing the next generation of proprietary insecticide products based on spider-venom peptides, among others.  Amazing!
 
UConn’s incubator program has a new building coming online this year in Farmington with lab and office space.  They also have space in Groton and Mansfield.  To learn more about the program, visit their website. To get more information on incubator programs statewide, visit CERC's ProgramFinder Fact Sheet on Incubators.

- Melissa Pasquale, Director of Real Estate, CERC

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Where Will the Jobs Come From? 

Monday, January 04, 2010

While the states, regions and the country are facing tremendous challenges with respect to job creation, here in Connecticut the job losses are approaching 90,000, and according to some analysts, may top 100,000 before it is all over sometime mid-2010. If past is prologue, it will be several years before Connecticut recovers these jobs. The key to job growth is entrepreneurial growth, an area in which the state has not done particularly well over the past few decades. 

This past November, the Kauffman Foundation issued a report entitled “Where Will the Jobs Come From?”  Unlike similar studies this report focused on establishment age, not employment size. The results of their analysis show pretty clearly that more than one-half of all net new job creation occurs among those firms that have been in business five years or less.

- Jeff Blodgett, Vice President of Research, CERC

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