The economic development loan to support the companys expansion is fully forgivable after 2 years if EB Meets certain employment benchmarks
Gov. Dan Malloy visited General Dynamics Electric Boat in Groton on Wednesday morning to announce a $10 million economic development loan that the governor said will help meet increased hiring and industry demands at the submarine base.
As part of the upcoming $31.5 million expansion project into an old Pfizer building on Kings Highway, Electric Boat expects to hire up to 200 employees to join its existing in-state work force of 8,700.
Electric Boat President Jeffrey Geiger, Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Rep. Joe Courtney joined Malloy at a press conference announcing the loan.
"I feel very good about," said Geiger, explaining that the loan is a critical subsidy toward the plan to make capital and technological improvements to the new building, which will support the engineering and design of new submarines.
Geiger said the loan will "support what we project to be pretty significant growth in our workload."
Malloy said the $10 million loan is fully forgivable if Electric Boat meets certain employment benchmarks.
"We know that submarines are the preferred platform going forward and we want those to be made here, we want them to be designed here, we want as much as possible to be assembled here," Malloy said.
Local
With Election Day less than a week away, some question the timing of the governor's announcement, suggesting that it may be more about securing his future as governor than the future of Electric Boat, but Geiger said he's grateful for the support no matter when it comes.
