Prime Resources Relocating To Bryant Site Back

Source: Connecticut Post, Friday April 27, 2001

The long-vacant former Bryant electric site in the West End will be reborn as the new home of a fast growing promotional products company, thanks to a package of state aid announced Thursday.

Prime Resources Corporation will nearly double its existing space by building a 200,000 square foot facility on the 10-acre State Street site making it the largest industrial facility built in the city in the last 25 years.

"This is a great project," said Governor John G. Rowland, who outlined the package before beaming Prime Resources employees in front of the company's existing headquarters in the Boston Avenue Industrial Park.

Jerry Russo, Prime Resources' chief operating officer, said the new facility expected to open 2002 would house, at one site, workers now scattered in five locations. The company has about 440 employees, and expects to have about 550 in the next five to seven years.

"It's a big step for all of us at Prime," he said of the project.

Without the state's help, Russo said the company "would have been forced elsewhere" than its Bridgeport home.

Prime Resources celebrated a second piece of good news Thursday when Inc. magazine cited it as one of the nation's 100 fastest-growing companies.

Bryant Electric, once one of the city's major manufactures, left Bridgeport 13 years ago.

Construction on the one-story Prime Resources production facility and two-story office structure is expected to begin next spring.

Those involved in the deal said the discussions began two years ago.

"They're everything we want to keep in the city," said Edward Lavernoich, the city's project manager. He noted the overwhelming majority of the firm's workers live in Bridgeport, that it offers advancement opportunities to those starting in low-skill jobs and that it offers good benefits.

Read The Press Release - Connecticut's Governor Rowland Visits Prime and Announces Building of New Bridgeport Facility!