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Millennials moving into Connecticut as older generation is moving out

HARTFORD —  Isabelle Miner and her boyfriend Kevin Turko, both millennials, said they enjoy living  in The Grand on Ann in downtown Hartford. “I wou...

HARTFORD --  Isabelle Miner and her boyfriend Kevin Turko, both millennials, said they enjoy living  in The Grand on Ann in downtown Hartford.

"I would say most people that live here are probably in their late twenties or early thirties," said Turko, who walks to work.

Miner moved here from New York City. She said she likes living in Hartford because it has a city feel to it.

"If you look around there are just so many vacancies so you can get so much more bang for your money," Turko said. "I want to live in something new that isn`t something old that`s falling apart," Miner said.

West Hartford town manger, Ron Van Winkle said millennials are the largest demographic in the workforce now.

"We had people come and people go but there was a negative outflow of people from the state of the Connecticut of almost 30,000 people," Van Winkle said.

He said that exodus is driven by boomers who are retiring and moving away.

"As we see that exit, we need to work hard in the state of Connecticut to attract the new workers to fill those jobs and those younger workers to come in and fill the homes, fill the businesses," Van Winkle said.

Connecticut needs people like Isabelle and Kevin who will live and pay taxes and spend money here. So West Hartford is investing in attractions to appeal to millennials.

"There`s a new kind of experience called experience retailing which isn`t just going out and having a drink or going out to dinner or just shopping but it`s having an experience when you go out," Van Winkle said.

The idea Van Winkle said is for those millennials to go from renters to home buyers.

"The twenty somethings become thirty somethings the thirty somethings have families," Van Winkle said.

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