Electric Boat, the Groton-based shipbuilder, has struck a five-year deal to relocate hundreds of employees to a facility owned by the Mashantucket-Pequot Tribe in North Stonington.
Straddling the North Stonington-Stonington line, Eagle Park is a 125,000 square-foot facility.
”It’s exciting when we have buildings that already exist, we want to bring life into them, so it’s an exciting thing for the town and the tribe,” said Mike Urgo, North Stonington’s First Selectman.
According to Electric Boat and tribal officials, the space will be repurposed over the coming months as the company moves in, relocating 400 designers and engineers from the Fort Trumbull facility in New London.
”It’s in line with what we’ve been trying to do and also what we kind of expected to happen,” Urgo explained. “There’s a lot of activity in the area and this certainly (is) one of the first catalysts to help, I think, attract more to the area.”
Urgo said the five-year deal makes sense given Eagle Park’s key location on Route 2, off the Interstate 95 corridor.
“It’s a really perfect location for a lot of potential businesses to call home, very convenient for people who want to work here,” he said.
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The move could also translate to more business for local eateries, such as Goodies Family Restaurant, which is less than two miles away.
”I would really like a really busy lunch hour,” said owner Cheryl Pelchat. “We’re not too busy here for lunch, breakfast extremely busy, so it would be very nice to get more clientele for the lunch. I’ll be sure to send them my takeout menus.”
