Fidelity to close Marlborough, MA offices, move jobs to NH & RI

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May 25, 2013, 02:34:47 pm

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Fidelity to close Marlborough offices, move jobs
http://www.boston.com/business/ticker/2011/03/fidelity_to_clo_2.html

Fidelity Investments, which has cut thousands of jobs in Massachusetts over the past few years, plans to shutter its Marlborough operations by 2012 and move most of its 1,100 jobs there out of state, a spokeswoman said today.

Anne Crowley, a spokeswoman for the financial services giant, said the company will likely relocate a small number of jobs from Marlborough to its Boston headquarters. But Crowley said the vast majority of positions will be transferred to locations in other states, including Merrimack, N.H. and Smithfield, R.I.

"We have significant vacant space around the country," Crowley said, adding that it doesn't have much available space in Boston.

Fidelity said it currently has 8,400 workers in Massachusetts, down from about 13,000 in 2006, after a series of layoffs, jobs cut through attrition, and positions moved to other locations. The company has 37,000 employees worldwide.

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A lot of the jobs are going to Merrimack, NH.

I would estimate that just the state income tax loss for MA from this move will be about 36 million dollars. There are rumors that a number of financial companies in the Boston area are planning to move out of state primary due to MA labor and tax laws. If anyone here is hooked into the investment industry it would be a good recruiting ground for corporate participants in the FSP. With MA's 12.5% tax on short term capital gains, it would also be a great recruiting ground for individual participants.

Another news story about this:

Fidelity move will have ripple effect
http://www.bostonherald.com/business/real_estate/view.bg?articleid=1323939

Marlboro businesses fear Fidelity Investments’ plan to move 1,100 jobs out of their town will take a big bite out of the local economy.

“It’s going to hurt,” commercial real estate broker Eric O’Brien said. “If another employer doesn’t come in, it’ll be a little like a ghost town in certain parts of the city.”

[...]

O’Brien said the moves will send Marlboro’s office-vacancy rate from an already high 14.4 percent to an abysmal 25 percent.

“A 25 percent vacancy rate is a bad situation,” he said. “It means one in four buildings will be vacant — which is scary.”

Fidelity had already been scaling back its Marlboro operation in recent years, cutting 2,600 jobs through layoffs, relocation and attrition since 2007.

Local restaurateur Laura Palmer said that has noticeably hurt business at Allura, the Mediterranean eatery she operates about a half-mile from Fidelity’s campus.

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Maybe we should send some kind of local mailing to the remaining small businesses in the area suggesting that their owners may want to join the FSP and follow Fidelity, with their businesses and employees, to NH.

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