A commenter named ElmCityAle posed the following question in a comment posted to a recent story about the decision by Yale to lease the half of the 100 College St. tower left vacant by Alexion Pharmaceuticals’ decision to move much of its local operation to Boston:
It would be helpful if NHI included a thorough accounting of the payback of 100% of all public funds involved in the Alexion incentive deal. This was also requested in several comments of the NHI story that broke the news of Alexion moving their headquarters to Boston.
We forwarded the question to the state Department of Economic & Community Development. Spokesperson Jim Watson sent the following response:
The state supported the New Haven HQ project with up to $51 million in assistance through the First Five program:
• A 10-year loan of $20 million at a rate of 1% with principal and interest deferred for five years. Loan forgiveness of $16 to $20 million based on the creation of 200 – 300 full-time jobs;
• A $6 million grant for laboratory construction and equipment; and
• Urban and Industrial Sites Reinvestment (URA) Tax Credits of up to $25 million (which must be earned over a ten year period)
Compliance update:
The loan and grant were paid back in full with interest and penalties. Alexion paid us $28,131,371.63 broken down as follows:
Principal $20,000,000.00
Interest 791,782.50
Grant 6,000,000.00
Liquidating Damages 1,339,589.13
Total $28,131,371.63
They did receive two URA certificates for a total of $5,000,000 (which they got to keep).