Amazon breaks ground where Pratt and Whitney once operated

File photo—The former Pratt & Whitney site in North Haven Aug. 21, 2014. File photo—The former Pratt & Whitney site in North Haven Aug. 21, 2014. Photo: Mara Lavitt / Journal Register Co. Photo: Mara Lavitt / Journal Register Co. Image 1 of / 14 Caption Close Amazon breaks ground where Pratt and Whitney once operated 1 / 14 Back to Gallery

NORTH HAVEN — Construction crews have broken ground on the future home of Amazon’s warehouse on Washington Avenue, a $255 million project that will be fully up and running around May or June 2019. It’s anticipated the operation will create 1,800 jobs initially, which could stretch into 3,000, First Selectman Michael Freda said.

“We’re staying very close to this to make sure there’s no disruptions or hurdles in the building process,” he said.

The building will yield 1.2 million square feet, which is about the same size as the Pratt & Whitney facility that used to stand on the property, Freda said. Amazon will be the largest company to enter the area since Pratt and Whitney left in 2001.

The old Pratt & Whitney plant boasted a million square feet of machine shop alone and everything in the offices was pea green, said Bob Bishop, who worked at the plant for decades. Five-hundred draftsmen and engineers worked on jet engine designs and manufacturing at the plane where the company made engine blades, fuel vessels, fuel tube linings, motors and more.

The plant operated 24 hours a day with around 8,100 employees in 1969, Bishop said, and an employee had everything he or she needed right on site. The plant maintained two cafeterias, police and fire departments, a bank, credit union, a doctor and around the clock nurses. The plant became such a large operation that the company had to add space to the plant and buy neighboring houses to build additional parking.

“We had so many people that if you were second shift and didn’t get there by 3:10 p.m., you couldn’t find a parking spot,” Bishop said. “You would have to wait for first shift to leave and then you would clock in late.” Off the long ramp from the plant to Washington Avenue, hundreds of cars would be backed up with employees leaving work and, traveling on Washington Avenue, a driver would have to wait six or seven minutes for the light to change, he said.

During the heyday of Pratt & Whitney’s operation in North Haven, the plant was like a little town, Bishop said. “We had the good years,” he said. “Money was plentiful until everything started going tough for the economy. Everything I have I owe to Pratt and Whitney.” He had worked 36 years with the company when he walked out the door in 1993 on March 11, the same date he started.

Bishop began his career at Pratt & Whitney as a mail boy in 1957. He was 20 years old, but, back in those days, an employee could work their way up without a college degree, he said. He moved on to become assistant to the paymaster and then got promoted to take over the pay office in East Hartford. When he came back to North Haven in 1988 he was the staff assistant to the plant manager.

“There was a time I knew everyone in that plant,” he said. “If I didn’t know their name, I knew where they worked.” Bishop was also a member of the board of directors for the employees club, which sponsored company sports leagues and the annual Christmas party. Bishop said the event entertained 3,200 kids and every single child got a present. The 168-acre property of the former plant also had baseball and football fields, and old pictures show barbecues and games taking place outside on the property.

“It was the largest place in the whole area,” former Pratt & Whitney employee Bill Richards said. He spent about 30 of his 42 years with the company working in the North Haven plant in materials organization before he retired. He said the Pratt & Whitney plant uplifted the whole town.

“You had people coming in, you could count on these people helping out with all these local businesses. They would spend money in town. When (the company) transitioned to move out, you could tell the difference where local business felt a major effect. Their incomes were affected, all the little guys.”

Pratt & Whitney made such an impact on the town’s economy that during two instances of strikes, local eateries brought food to the picket lines in support of the workers. The only local business still in the area is Dino’s restaurant, Richards said. “It’s a big effect when you get a company that big that moves out of town,” he said.

Bishop said he shopped more in North Haven than he did where he lived in Wallingford. The community and the company were tight knit and the culture of the plant was to support one another, he said. The plant even employed many people from the same family. Richards’ father was a supervisor and many other employees had family working in some capacity for the company.

Since the plant’s closing, the land on which it once stood has been undeveloped and no company has been able to fill the economic void that Pratt & Whitney left when it moved out of town. The company had been paying about $4 million a year in taxes to the town, Bishop said. The impact of the Amazon fulfillment center will be similarly uplifting for the town, he said.

“Pratt was my whole life,” he said. “Pratt was good and was good for the whole town. I’m glad to see Amazon take it over, but I was really sad to see the building taken down. I never thought they would take it down.” Bishop said he’s hoping he’ll get to see the new Amazon facility and how far automation has come. “Pratt was a great thing and I think Amazon will be just as good.”

Similarly, Richards said having the company “will lift the town the way Pratt once did.”

The full economic impact of Amazon will begin to be realized in 2020, Freda said and the town is expected to see an average of $5 million in annual local real estate and personal property taxes. He said from the job creation, to taxes and the effects for local business, “There’s a great multiplier effect to having this project being built and being fully up and running.”

Richards and Bishop donated photos of the plant from its heyday to the town. They have been professionally matted and framed for display in Town Hall, hung in the hallway leading to the second floor conference room.

mdignan@hearstmediact.com