New Britain OKs $1.1M land sale to spur Polamer expansion

Photo | Contributed Polamer Precision.

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By Joe Cooper

New Britain aerospace manufacturer Polamer Precision Inc. cleared a key hurdle Tuesday in its quest to expand and create 600 new jobs.

The city’s Committee on Planning, Zoning and Housing voted unanimously Tuesday to sell Polamer for $1.1 million the remaining 27.3-acre tract of city-owned land in The Pinnacle Business Park on Alton Brooks Way, where the company is currently located.

The vote comes more than a month after Polamer announced plans to leverage a new $80 million contract with Rolls Royce to add three buildings spanning over roughly 600,000 square feet. The new space, to be built over the next seven years, will add about 600 new employees to Polamer’s current workforce of more than 200.

Polamer will likely receive a tax deferral or tax abatement to support its expansion project, Mayor Erin Stewart has said. Federal dollars or other funds from the state Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) may also be awarded to Polamer, which has significantly grown its operation over the last decade or so.

The contract-manufacturing outfit, which makes engine and airframe components for defense and commercial aviation customers, spent $46 million five years ago to move its headquarters from Newington to a new 152,000-square-foot building in New Britain. Polamer still has a location at 16 Progress Circle in Newington.

Polamer in recent years won DECD’s commitment of a $9.5 million loan and $500,000 grant to fund an expansion of its New Britain facilities, in return for its pledge to retain 100 jobs and create 200 more within three years.

The Pinnacle Business Park was built on land formerly home to a public-housing development, which the city acquired in 2006 and razed years later.

CEO and President Chris Galik founded the company in 1997.