BOSTON — City and state officials offered General Electric Co. a package of incentives ranging from a public helipad to a joint concierge relocation team to help secure the move of the company’s headquarters to Boston, according to an agreement made public on Wednesday.
The five-page memorandum of understanding, released to media outlets, was signed by Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, Democratic Mayor Marty Walsh and GE chairman Jeff Immelt on Jan. 13, the day the $130 billion global industrial company announced it was relocating its headquarters from Fairfield, Connecticut, to Boston’s Seaport District.
As previously disclosed, the city offered the company up to $25 million in direct property tax relief while the state put up $120 million in grants for infrastructure improvements in and around the eventual Seaport District site, which hasn’t been determined.
The memo of understanding details what some of the incentives could entail, including corporate air access for GE executives. The city and state would coordinate with GE to build a helicopter landing facility while helping the company secure parking for a corporate jet and a helicopter at Logan International Airport and a hangar site for six executive jets at Hanscom Airport in suburban Bedford.
The $120 million in infrastructure grants could also go toward a variety of other purposes including public parking facilities, traffic and street improvements, landscaping and a $5 million innovation center that would be located near the company’s headquarters to forge connections with innovators from state research institutions and the higher-education community.
Besides those incentives, the agreement says the company would benefit from other perks financed by the city that would boost the Seaport District, including a $100 million reconstruction of the deteriorating Northern Avenue Bridge, a more than century-old span now closed to vehicular traffic and pedestrians.
The concierge relocation team, formed by the state and the city, would offer a variety of services for GE employees moving from Connecticut to the Boston area, including help buying homes.
GE announced in June it was considering a move after Connecticut lawmakers passed business tax increases, some of which were later scaled back.
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