WEST HARTFORD -- Plans for an international company to buy the West Hartford UConn campus is moving forward.
In a town council meeting Thursday night, the town voted unanimously to note purchase the property, but Deputy Mayor Beth Kerrigan said the company, Seven Stars Cloud Group will be great for the town because of job opportunities.
The company agreed to purchase the 58-acre property for 5.2 million dollars. It is a digital financial technology company whose CEO is Bruno Wu.
“What they’re talking about 280 million dollar project, 330 employees, average salary of $120,000 a year. It sounds like tremendous potential in that regard,” said Matt Hart, town manager of West Hartford.
“Because of the cluster of the property as well as the remediation as well as we had no real plans. We did do a community outreach to see what individuals were interested in that it probably wasn’t in the best interest for the town,” said Deputy Mayor Beth Kerrigan.
Kerrigan said it is a great idea for the company to choose West Hartford as its global headquarters. It was announced the beginning of this month the State of Connecticut offered the company a loan in the amount of 10 million dollars.
“We’re talking all sorts of jobs and enhancements to the acres that are there as well as preserving our little league fields and our miracle fields which are so important to the town,” added Kerrigan.
People like Senator Len Fasano told FOX 61 he is skeptical over whether the company would be beneficial to the state or not with concerns being if Seven Stars can actually afford the deal.
“The company lost 4.2 million dollars in the first quarter. If you look at their sheet, their own auditor say as an ongoing concern,” said Sen. Len Fasano.
The company has agreed to pay for the cleanup of environmental matters like PCBs. Wu said whether he gets approval from the developer or not, he will still close in on the deal.