Chinese Manufacturer Comes Shopping

Over a swanky breakfast and then on a tour of tech and manufacturing hot spots, city leaders sought to convert a newly forged Chinese business connection into the creation of up to 100 local jobs.

That effort took place Thursday, as over a dozen city officials, local businesspeople, and university administrators rolled out the red carpet for four visiting representatives from Hunan Boom New Materials Co., a Chinese high-tech research and manufacturing company that specializes in silicon carbide fibers and silicon nitride fibers.

The city’s pitch: New Haven is small enough to lavish care and attention on every new business, but big enough to provide access to an educated workforce, world-class research institutions, ample factory space, functional regional transportation, a customer base that spans the Northeast, and an overall high quality of life.

Heat-resilient and low in density, Hunan Boom’s chemical composites are used in the manufacture of airplane engines and (future) 5G cell phones to other electronic devices.

The mayor and her staff first met the Hunan Boom’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Haitang Yang, researcher Peishing Wang, and manager Ping Zou in April during a 10-day trip to Changsha, China, the capital of Hunan Province and New Haven’s newest ​“sister city.” The aim of that trip was in part to make contacts with business owners and investors who might be lured to create jobs in New Haven.

Meeting with them for the first time stateside this week, this time joined by Yang’s assistant and translator Zicheng Huang and by Yang’s 7‑year-old son Billy, city officials hoped to convince the Hunan Boom team to open a new office, research laboratory, and manufacturing factory here in the Elm City.

The eight-year-old Chinese company’s sole offices, manufacturing center, and roughly 100 employees are all currently based out of Changsha. It’s looking to expand abroad.

“You’ll always matter to us,” city Economic Development Administrator Matthew Nemerson told the Hunan Boom group during a Thursday morning pitch at The Study hotel on Chapel Street. ​“No matter how big we get, we can’t get that big. You will always be a very, very important part of our future as you grow, as you make connections throughout North America. You’re going to be part of our world, and we’re going to be very proud of your success.”

Wang and Yang said they are looking for a U.S. location where they can work in close collaboration with a university to design, refine, improve, and reduce costs for their silicon fiber products. They said they also want to be near potential customers, like aerospace manufacturers and other electronic device manufacturers.

They said they are looking for roughly 21,000 square feet of space, and are not sure if they want to set up an office and a lab or a factory or all three. Huang said that if Hunan Boom opens some combination of office, lab space, and manufacturing space in New Haven, the company will likely hire somewhere between 50 and 100 employees.

The Hunan Boom group arrived in New Haven on Wednesday morning. The visitors spent the day meeting up with researchers at the University of New Haven (UNH) and with Pedro Soto, chair of the city’s development commission and the head of the aerospace manufacturer Space-Craft.

At 8 a.m. on Thursday, the four visiting Chinese scientists and business people were feted by some of the city’s top political, academic, and business officials with a breakfast buffet in a private room at The Study.

In attendance were Mayor Toni Harp, Nemerson, Kozlowski, city Deputy Economic Development Administrator Michael Piscitelli, City Controller Daryl Jones, Yale University Vice President Lauren Zucker, Yale-New Haven Hospital Senior Vice President Vin Petrini, Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) President Joe Bertolino, Key Bank Market President Jeff Hubbard, Market New Haven Chief Marketing Officer Anne Worcester, United Illuminating (UI) spokesman Al Carbone, Albertus Magnus College Vice President Sean O’Connell, UNH Vice President for Enrollment Management Walter Caffey, Yale-New Haven Health Vice President for Marketing & Communications Robert Hutchison, mayoral Executive Administrative Assistant Andrea Scott, and Special Assistant to the Mayor Michael Harris.

As the group dug in to a breakfast buffet of scrambled eggs, bacon, fruit, pastries, dumplings, and scallion pancakes, Nemerson made a 20-minute pitch for why New Haven is a good fit for Hunan Boom’s next office, research, and manufacturing facilities.

“We’re not just another place,” he said about the city’s centuries-long history with Yale University,. ​“We’re one of the founding places of North America, and we’re one of the places that believed that education and knowledge and innovation should be a part of our very existence.”
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He clicked through slides describing New Haven as well positioned between Boston, New York, and Hartford with rail lines connecting all three; as a hotspot for education, health care, IT, advanced manufacturing, and life sciences jobs; as bringing in the second-highest federal and private research and development (R&D) dollars per capita in the country; as currently undergoing a massive construction boom, primarily of market-rate apartments; and as having a rich cultural scene with hundreds of restaurants and a handful of world-class museums.

Furthermore, he said, the cost of living in New Haven is a third that of New York City and half that of Boston.

Also unlike in a larger city, he said, Hunan Boom can count on having direct connections to the mayor and other local business and research and political and development leaders. As was evidenced by their collective presence at Thursday morning’s meeting.

“This probably couldn’t happen in New York,” he said. “Probably couldn’t happen in San Francisco.”

“We say that New Haven is small enough to be friendly,” Worcester said, ​“and large enough to be interesting.”

Wang, who specializes in theoretical computations for Hunan Boom, said he was impressed with the presentation.

“It seems like a really nice place,” he said. ​“A balance of everything. Not too big.”

After the breakfast, Scott and city Deputy Economic Development Administrator Steve Fontana gave the four Hunan Boom employees, plus Yang’s ever-jubilant 7‑year-old Billy, a van tour of four local sites that the Chinese company should consider moving into.

The first stop was 300 George St., the nine-story tech tower at the corner of High Street and George Street downtown.

Kasia Brown, a senior property manager with the building’s owner, Winstanley Enterprises, LLC, told the visitors that the former SNET-call center currently houses a mix of research labs and office space, 70 percent of which is occupied by Yale University and Yale-New Haven Health programs.

Kevin Walsh, the chief of facility operations for Achillion Pharmaceuticals, gave the Hunan Boom group a tour of a second-floor chemistry lab where his company conducts research into rare blood diseases and kidney issues.

“Can we modify the building?” Wang asked about whether or not Hunan Boom could make changes to an individual lab or office space if they decided to rent at 300 George.

“Absolutely,” Brown said.

The group next drove up to the DISTRICT, the new technology and entrepreneurial hub at 470 James St. in Fair Haven. DISTRICT Co-Founder David Salinas gave the Hunan Boom visitors a tour of the bustling and chic renovation of the former CT Transit bus depot.

He showed them the DISTRICT’s largest available space, 18,000 square feet of metal and sunlight, with 15-foot-high ceiling.

“How many meters?” Yang asked about the ceiling height.

Salinas pulled out his smart phone, asked the voice-recognition tool how many meters are in 15 feet, and showed Yang the answer of 4.5 meters.

“Five meters would be better,” she said. She said she would be interested in building two floors of offices, one top of the other, but that 4.5 meters is a little tight.

Salinas then gave the group a tour of DISTRICT’s co-working spaces, complete with 72 individual offices, as well as the facility’s gym, sauna, kitchen, Crossfit training area, soon-to-be new barbeque restaurant, and new coding school.

“When you’re a part of DISTRICT,” he said. ​“You’re a member. You’re a part of our community.”

The group then drove down James Street and over to River Street, where they looked at two old brick factory buildings looking out over the New Haven Harbor.

Local realtor Frank Hird explained that the first, at 115 River St., is newly on the market now that the fabric-coating manufacturer Von Roll is closing down its New Haven plant and consolidating operations to the company’s headquarters in Schenectady, N.Y.

Hird and Von Roll’s Aaron Kelsi gave the Hunan Boom team a tour of the 50,000 square-foot heavy manufacturing plant, where Von Roll is still in the process of decommissioning many of its industrial-sized instruments like its warehouse-filling laminator and oxidizers.

The group then moved on to 90 River St., where John Flaskamper of the marine dredging and construction company Patriot Marine is looking to lease roughly 40,000 square-feet of warehouse space that his company doesn’t need in the building.

“The factories are too large,” Yang reflected as the group got back on the van and made its way to the Graduate Club on Elm Street for lunch. ​“And we would have to pay a lot to change” and update the old factory spaces.

She, Huang and Wang said they are most impressed with the DISTRICT, but that they have not yet decided whether or not they will open up shop in New Haven. For the afternoon, their plan was to tour Yale University and visit the Yale-China Association on Temple Street. They then leave New Haven early tomorrow morning.

Fontana said that city staff will meet up on Friday to discuss next steps in figuring out how best to encourage Hunan Boom to decide to invest in the Elm City.

“We’ve got a little bit of everything,” Fontana said as the group drove back from Fair Haven through the Mill River Distsrict, Wooster Square, and Downtown. ​“But it all works together.”