Oct. 29–With news reports saying that Hyatt Hotels Corp. is in talks to buy Stamford-based Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, the natural question is: What happens to the employees in Stamford?
The number of employees in Stamford has been falling, even as the company won another tax incentive and loan package from the state in May 2014. At the time of the announcement, Starwood had 980 employees; by the end of the year, it had 847.
The state announced an incentive package worth as much as $89.5 million under Gov. M. Jodi Rell in 2009 to lure the company to move from White Plains to Stamford's Harbor Point. The amount of state sales tax credits was later scaled back by more than $4 million.
Then, in 2014, the Malloy administration announced a $25 million package combining more tax credits and a loan offered to encourage Starwood to increase its presence in Stamford to 1,320 workers.
Hyatt Hotels is headquartered in Chicago, where it has a corporate staff of about 1,000. Hyatt would run the combined company, reports say.
So far, Starwood has claimed $22.5 million in tax credits against its state income tax liabilities; $848,000 against its sales tax liabilities; and has been given $7 million in loan forgiveness on the 2009, $9.5 million loan, which required neither interest nor principal payments for 10 years. It has been paying interest only on the $5 million loan announced in 2014.
If Starwood scales back its Stamford presence to fewer than 400 employees before 2019, it will have to pay back $14.5 million on the loans, and $1.7 million on the income tax credits, plus 7.5 percent of any tax credits it claims or sells from now until the time it shrinks below 400 workers.
Reuters reported that the deal between Hyatt and Starwood could be struck within weeks.
