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June 10, 2024 What’s Trending

CT Innovations approves tax breaks for major medtech, food manufacturing projects

PHOTO | COSTAR Carla’s Pasta’s sprawling South Windsor-based production plant at 50 Talbot Lane and 280 Nutmeg Road.
CONTRIBUTED A rendering of the Connecticut Proton Therapy Center planned for 932 Northrop Road in Wallingford.
By Andrew Larson

Connecticut Innovations, the state’s quasi-public venture capital arm, has approved sales and use tax exemptions for three major projects, including the state’s first proton therapy center in Wallingford.

The projects sought tax benefits under the state’s Sales & Use Tax Relief Program, which exempts companies from Connecticut’s 6.35% sales tax, up to a certain amount, for capital equipment and/or construction materials purchases.

CI’s loan committee in May approved up to a $5 million tax exemption for construction costs related to the Connecticut Proton Therapy Center’s 25,000-square-foot facility.

Yale New Haven Health, Hartford HealthCare and Proton International have partnered to develop the $75 million proton therapy center, which is under construction.

Also, the committee approved a $700,000 tax exemption for Home Market Foods Inc.’s expansion and renovation of the former Carla’s Pasta facility in South Windsor.

Home Market Foods, based in Norwood, Massachusetts, has proposed a $71 million upgrade and 28,000-square-foot addition to the existing facility, at 50 Talbot Lane and 280 Nutmeg Road, for a frozen food manufacturing plant. The company produces frozen meatballs and other foods, including hot dogs.

In addition, the loan committee greenlit up to a $500,000 tax exemption for New England Cell Therapeutics Inc.’s construction of a new biotechnology research and development facility in Windsor.

The company in 2021 proposed to build a 50,000-square-foot facility at 2195 Day Hill Road, but the project has been delayed. In 2022, New England Cell, which is owned by Japan-based Nipro Group, purchased the roughly 40-acre site for $4.4 million. The company is developing medical equipment and test- and diagnostic-related products.

To qualify for the Sales & Use Tax Relief Program a project must be valued at more than $4 million.

CI requires a letter of credit so the agency can force repayment if a company falls short of its requirements, or moves out of state within 10 years. Full or partial clawbacks have occurred.

The exemptions require approvals only from CI’s loan committee.

HBJ Editor Greg Bordonaro contributed to this story.

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