For decades, the toymaker Hasbro has been one of Rhode Island’s largest employers. Originally founded in Providence, the company has been based in Pawtucket since 1962. But we learned in September that Hasbro is considering moving its global headquarters to Boston, news that came as a surprise to city and state leaders. This week, the Boston Business Journal broke the news that Massachusetts officials have been courting the company for months. Morning host Luis Hernandez spoke with BBJ senior reporter Greg Ryan, who’s been following the story.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Luis Hernandez: All right, so bring us up to speed on what’s been happening over these last six months.
Greg Ryan: The Business Journal reported last month that Hasbro has been looking in Boston, in downtown Boston, in the Boston area at potential sites to move its headquarters to. And so this has sparked, as you mentioned, sparked a lot of interest, caught Rhode Island officials by surprise. They’ve been scrambling to keep the company in the state. And I filed a public records request with the Massachusetts executive office of economic development, looking for emails between Hasbro and state officials. And what I found is, yeah, that these discussions have been going on for six months. Hasbro CEO Chris Cox met with state of Massachusetts’ top economic development person Yvonne Hao. They met over dinner in April, and at least broached the subject of headquarters move. They followed that up a few months later with another in-person meeting in Boston, where they talked about the tax breaks available to Hasbro, without getting into specifics, supposedly. But, yeah, these conversations between the two sides have been going on for months prior to Rhode Island officials learning that Hasbro may move.
Hernandez: And what prompted Massachusetts officials to begin courting Hasbro?
Ryan: It looks like based on the emails that Hasbro reached out to Massachusetts. In the emails, Yvonne Hao, the Economic Development Secretary, she mentioned to Chris Cox, the Hasbro CEO, that, thanks for bringing this up, you know, we’re interested in exploring this further. So based on those emails, it seems like this was Hasbro approaching the state.
Hernandez: You talked about it a second ago, incentives. What are some of these incentives that Massachusetts is offering or could possibly offer to Hasbro to lure them away?
Ryan: Massachusetts has this, this tax break program called the Economic Development Incentive Program. You know, it’s really the main way they try to draw companies to the state or keep companies here. Some of the more, the better known incentives, they gave $46 million to MassMutual to stay in Springfield and to open a large office in Boston. They gave a $31 million tax break to Wayfair to grow in Boston in the western part of the state. Those are two of the bigger ones. It’s not necessarily that that much money would be on the table for Hasbro. But they do have the potential to go into the tens of millions of dollars to get a company they really want to get.
Hernandez: And how has the McKee administration and the city of Pawtucket responded to this news that it’s actually been going on for months, these conversations?
Ryan: So I haven’t gotten a reaction since we reported that these conversations have been going on for six months. I do know that in the past few weeks, the Pawtucket mayor, Governor McKee, they’ve been seeking to meet with Hasbro and it sounds like they have had some conversations. So as I see it, that is the next shoe to drop is how is Rhode Island going to respond? I mean, what sort of tax breaks are they going to put on the table to keep Hasbro in the state?
Hernandez: You know, it’s not the first time that Hasbro has explored the possibility of leaving Pawtucket, but I’m wondering what are the factors driving big employers like Hasbro to consider relocation anyway? Why leave?
Ryan: Yeah, it’s interesting. You’re not seeing a ton of that since COVID. I think prior to COVID, Massachusetts won some big corporate relocations, most notably General Electric from Connecticut. But I think the pandemic scrambled the workplace so much. So many employers are doing remote work or hybrid work. They’re trying to figure out what their office needs are that taking on a relocation has not been at the top of the list, which makes this interesting.
I think in Hasbro’s case, in Chris Cox, he became CEO a couple of years ago. He’s not a Rhode Island guy. You know, he became CEO because he was the president of a subsidiary of the company based in Seattle that is focused on gaming. Some of the brands there are Dungeons & Dragons or Magic the Gathering. So his background is really in gaming and digital gaming, and that’s the direction he wants to take the company.
I haven’t spoken to him, but you can see where someplace like Boston would be appealing where you have universities like Harvard and MIT. You do have some video game makers there. You have Activision/Blizzard just opened an office, or they announced they would be opening an office in Boston. So I think those are part of the reasons he’s looking at a potential relocation right now
Hernandez: I mean, it’s not like Rhode Island doesn’t have you know, Brown and RISD, but okay. I’m wondering, is this just a negotiation ploy to force Rhode Island to provide Hasbro with more tax incentives?
Ryan: It could be. I wouldn’t rule that out, but the fact that Hasbro reached out to the state of Massachusetts so long ago and conversations about these things were happening months before a potential move became public makes me think that it might not be. You know, sometimes like in the case of GE, they made it very publicly known that, “Hey, we’re looking to move. Like, let’s see what the best offer is here.” Same thing with Amazon with their HQ2 search a few years ago. That was very much a public process. So, not that it only is, but the fact that so much was happening behind closed doors for months makes me think that, you know, it might not be.
Hernandez: What kind of impact would losing Hasbro have on Pawtucket and on Rhode Island? What do we lose?
Ryan: I think there’s certainly – there are, I think there’s over 1,000 jobs. So, you know, losing those would be a big blow. But I think there would be a psychic blow just as large to lose a consumer company like that that has a long history of In Rhode Island. I think it could hurt more than losing, you know an insurance company or something that’s not so public and doesn’t have these brands that are so beloved.
Hernandez: All right. So where are we in this? What’s next? What’s going to happen?
Ryan: So I’m very interested to see how Rhode Island responds to this news that these tax break discussions have been going on in Massachusetts, see what they put on the table. I think that’s the big next step here. I know there’s been some discussion about, well, where could Hasbro go if they want a new facility? There was a discussion about the Apex site in Pawtucket, redeveloping that. Discussion about a new development on the I-95 land in Providence. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see some more ideas like that being floated, but I think the ball at this point is in Rhode Island’s court.
Hernandez: I’ve been speaking with Greg Ryan, senior reporter for the Boston Business Journal. Greg, thank you for shining light on this story for us. Thank you so much.
Ryan: Thank you.
