Makes me concerned how they'd treat Pete's Robo con since the con seems to like a certain hotel in that area.

 

This move inspired by the engineering team's desire to build an authentic transforming bourbon barrel.

 

And a baseball bat. This is a Botbots tie-in waiting to happen.

 

Maybe they just want to be closer to HP Lovecraft?

Kinda like the tricks that Amazon pulled in “shopping around” for a new Headquarters.

 

Companies do this every so often. They talk about moving, and usually they're given tax breaks to stay put.

 

I came on to see what my fellow RI’ers thought and I wasn’t disappointed. To echo everyone else, moving from one spot to another in RI is equivalent to throwing a stone and going seconds later to pick it up.

 

Live coverage of the press conference:

Live Streaming Special Coverage | WPRI 12 Eyewitness News - WPRI.com

Article of press conference:

Mayors call on state to help keep Hasbro in Pawtucket

If they move from Pawtucket to another part of the state it's not so bad for the state, but it's devastating for Pawtucket, which just lost the Pawsox baseball team (which also means the stadium) and Memorial Hospital.

Info is coming out bit by bit over the news radio this morning, at a faster rate than the news stations.

They possibly plan on moving out of state because they apparently aren't getting the same business benefits/tax-cuts other businesses and new businesses in the state are getting. Alan Hassenfeld was upset about this so he donated tons of money to the Mayor's opponent (Witman) because he's fed up with the Providence mayor (Elorza) and Governor (Raimundo) for not making the state more business friendly(this I know has been a problem here for a long, long time). So this means they could also leave their Providence building too and Hascon could end up being in a different state. So Hasbro's message to the state seems to be "shape up for businesses or we'll ship out."

What really is pissing folks off right now is how the Pawtucket and Fall River mayors (and possibly the governor) kept this under wraps until the morning after Election Day because they knew this news would be damaging to the Democratic candidates (especially their own reelection campaigns), when they should've been addressing and solving this problem before it could ever even reach the headlines and cause their campaigns harm. This issue never should've gotten to this point. Frankly it's embarrassing and shows the world how bad and thick-headed our state is towards bringing in and keeping businesses and jobs.

It's putting 1000+ jobs at risk. Remaining employees could be forced to move out of state or lose their jobs. People who have been with the company for 30+ years were part of the recent layoffs. No one is safe. Hasbro is hurting more from the ToysRus loss than they're letting on. The loss of 1000+ jobs means more than just effecting those lives, it also means the loss of all the business Hasbro brought into the state, and the economic spending the company and all those employees contributed to the state itself and surrounding local businesses.

All politics aside, the issue here is about having a good climate for current and new businesses, so we can keep current jobs in our state, make new jobs in our state, keep money flowing within our state, and have outside money come into our state.

 

Okay, yeah, wow. That is NOT something you keep quiet during an election. That is a bona fide election issue right there, whether or not you want to capitulate to Hasbro's demands.

 

Texas has plenty of space...

 

Very this.

I drive for about that long to get to work and I'm still in the same city. I could drive that amount of time in hours and still be in the same STATE, unless I went North. My point being this is not a big deal.

 

Agreed, moving to Providence means that Hasbro will have truly become the Cthulhu of toy manufacturing.

...whatever that actually means.

 

This goes back to that talk before of the employee issue that came up. Wasn't a layoff, was an internal structural issue as they work out what employees are willing to move, and how that's going to go.

Seems like Hasbro is in the process of doing something like Apple with how they want to have a campus and maybe some living quarters etc. To make a better think tank setup and create a better internal culture that fosters creativity.

I don't expect it'd be that big of a change as yet, but I like the growth potential in that as an end goal to create a new internal system and how that can expand in different ways, including educational ways. Lots of interesting potential here. Really curious to see how it plays out and what the future growth means and does.

 

Strikes me as being drastic to the regional economy as when Nokia recently moved to a new headquarters. Literally across the street from the old one. If people want drastic, look at when DC left NY after 75 years for Burbank.

 

That's what I am not understanding. Those poor 1k employees and their 10 extra minute commute.  

 

If Hasbro moves Boston might be a backup location. GE just put up a decent portion of their seaport campus up for sub lease.

 

At first glance I thought big deal they can commute 15 minutes. I think it is more the more the tax loss and commerce loss in the immediate vacinity ie lunches, convienience store ect.

 

Yup. That impacts the local economy of a city.

 

I think that loss would be minimal as well. I mean the Hasbro employees will still live there so gas ups before going to work wont change much. The lunch crowd may diminish but they'll still be around for dinner and on the weekends. It may suck for small local businesses, but I don't think they'll go under. Hell they could move too and maybe get more business.

 

not even. it's walking distance if you walk through the convention center that connects to the mall.