Greenwich-based computer animation studio responsible for blockbusters including the Ice Age movies, Horton Hears A Who and this past spring's Rio. While the tone was light-hearted as Mr. Malloy got a
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As he seeks ways to spur economic growth in the state, Gov. Dannel Malloy paid a visit Monday afternoon to one of Connecticut’s recent success stories.
Mr. Malloy took a tour of Blue Sky Studios, the Greenwich-based computer animation studio responsible for blockbusters including the Ice Age movies, Horton Hears A Who and this past spring’s Rio.
While the tone was light-hearted as Mr. Malloy got a sneak peek at next summer’s Ice Age: Continental Drift, his focus was serious, talking about the adjustment of the state’s tax and regulatory practices to be more competitive and taking other measures to attract more businesses like Blue Sky, which has created 400 jobs, to Connecticut.
The visit to Greenwich was the second stop on Mr. Malloy’s “jobs tour,” which will have him meeting with business leaders across the state and it followed a morning meeting with the Business Council of Fairfield County in Stamford.
“I want to speak to people about what it will take to make a competitive state and understand what our strengths and weaknesses are,” said Mr. Malloy when asked what the jobs tour would entail. “I want to understand what state government can do to get out of the way so the private sector can create jobs.”
Mr. Malloy was mayor of Stamford when Blue Sky Studios relocated from White Plains, N.Y., to Greenwich in January 2009 and he has seen first hand the positive effect that the move has had on the county. During his discussion with the studio’s employees he noted that as part of the tax incentives offered to Blue Sky, there was an agreement that the studio would bring 300 jobs, a goal it exceeded by 25%. He called it a “bright shining star” for job creation in the state.
The governor said bringing Blue Sky Studios to Connecticut was a “unique opportunity” to work with a company looking for quality of life for its employees, a great location and the tax breaks the state offered. He said this was “the leader in the class” of investments made throughout the state in digital media and other media for television and film production.
“This is the kind of investment that we want to replicate,” Mr. Malloy said. “You’re taking a large number of permanent employees and bringing them to the state.”
When asked if the state could afford to give the kind of tax breaks and incentives for other industries that were used in 2009 to bring in Blue Sky, given the state of the economy, Mr. Malloy immediately responded, “Given the economy, the state can’t afford not to.”
State Rep. Livvy Floren (R-149) has been a champion of Blue Sky Studios since the deal was struck, bringing the company right into her district. While she did not attend the tour, she said it was a success story that must be replicated. The studio is not only intending to add to its workforce here, but also to have additional office space added as well, she said.
Having Blue Sky in the town spills over to other industries since the employees are not only eating in the area during the day, they’re moving to the state, Ms. Floren said. She believes Catherine Smith, Department of Economic and Community Development commissioner who took the tour with Mr. Malloy and will be with him throughout the jobs tour, understands this and that progress can be made.
Ms. Floren said the success of Blue Sky Studios in Connecticut shows the need for a state strategy to create what she called “clusters” with packages that include tax incentives, office space and zoning variances. This would allow for major companies to come to a town and then have the kind of educated work force there that is dedicated to supporting that industry, she said.
This has helped digital media become a major industry in Connecticut, not just at Blue Sky but in smaller studios in Greenwich, Stamford and Norwalk as well, she added.
“You need to pick an industry and build a cluster around it and support it with incentives and a workforce that is specifically attuned to that cluster,” Ms. Floren said. “Before we had a scattershot approach where towns would essentially fight with each other to try and attract these businesses and that didn’t work.”
Ms. Floren said she hoped to see this happen again with the bio-science industry and pointed to working with the University of Connecticut to provide the kind of educated workforce these companies need as the right direction for the state.
Mr. Malloy praised the contributions Blue Sky Studios had made to Connecticut, and said the business had a “very strong and fruitful relationship” with the state. He briefly addressed the studio’s employees and compared their work in creating movies to what he’s trying to accomplish with the state’s economy.
“There’s a certain amount of magic involved in turning a state around,” Mr. Malloy said. “You express magic on a movie screen. People are used to and confident about the product you provide. You tell a great story and make it interesting for children and adults.
“To some extent as governor that’s what I have to do. I have to put together what the narrative is and what the outcome ultimately is going to be. How are we going to get from where we are to being more competitive and more successful for all of our citizens? I have to figure out how to do that and part of that is investment in education and infrastructure and consolidation of state government agencies and developing new tools. But then I have to convince people to follow. You have to convince them to buy a ticket and I have to convince them to pass legislation or change direction in the land of steady habits.”
After saying he is optimistic he could do all that, Mr. Malloy took questions from the employees on topics like increasing single stream recycling throughout the state, which he favors, and reducing gas prices to levels closer to New Jersey, which he said could only be accomplished there because of that state’s frequency of tolls, which Connecticut does not have.
After meeting with the employees, Mr. Malloy, who was visiting the Greenwich headquarters for the first time, toured Blue Sky with Chief Operating Officer Brian Keane and saw where the computer animators were hard at work on the next Ice Age movie, which is scheduled to hit theaters in July 2012. Mr. Malloy congratulated the studio for the strong box office performance of Rio and got a first-hand look at all the detail that went into animating a small sequence of that movie, including seemingly minor details like the ruffling of a bird’s feathers and the drool coming from a bulldog’s mouth.
Mr. Malloy joked about the studio’s business plan of releasing one movie a year, saying how the state had recently negotiated to have two submarines manufactured a year in Connecticut and if Blue Sky would only follow along that pattern they could increase the number of employees here.
Mr. Keane spoke briefly as well and said Blue Sky Studios was “proud to call Connecticut our home” and that it was looking forward to many more years here.
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