Part busy corporate center and part charming small town, Windsor holds a distinct advantage over many New England towns for those looking to buy, build or lease. Its corporate/industrial areas have been well-planned from the very start.
In most towns, the industrial base grew up from the past centuries' mills and factories or in pockets along railroads or highways. The result is often a lack of identity, traffic congestion, conflicts with residential neighbors, and little land for expansion.
Windsor's primary office/industrial area, however, started in the mid-1950s when Combustion Engineering Company, now ABB, moved to a site among tobacco fields on Day Hill Rd. To this large, flat, dry area, visionary town officials applied sound planning principles - direct interstate highway (I-91) access, separation from residential areas, and high quality infrastructure and private development standards. As a result, Windsor now has extensive tracts of land which are well planned to support development while preserving the quality of its neighborhoods and open spaces.

More than 170 companies are now located along Day Hill Rd. and adjoining streets. These companies occupy some eight million s/f of corporate office, manufacturing, warehouse, and flex space. Major employers among them include ING, Hartford Life, Alstom Power, Northeast Utilities, Konica-Minolta, CIGNA, Westinghouse, SS&C Technologies, Permasteelisa, and Valassis Direct Mail. In addition, this area contains more than 250,000 s/f of retail, professional office, day care and other supporting uses.
The Day Hill Rd./Rte. 75/I-91 interchange (Exit 38) has also attracted significant hotel development to serve corporate area visitors and nearby Bradley International Airport. The Marriott, Hilton Garden Inn, Courtyard Inn and Hyatt Summerfield Suites now provide a combined total of 830 rooms with meeting and banquet facilities for large groups at this location.
Bradley International, New England's second largest airport, is another key element of The Windsor Advantage. The New England Tradeport and Kennedy Rd./Hayden Station Rd. developments have more than 700 acres of development-ready land designed for distribution, warehousing and flex space use within three miles of Bradley's flight line. Windsor, Windsor Locks, Suffield and East Grandby, the towns surrounding the airport, have formalized their commitment to promote the economic development potential of the airport by establishing the Bradley Development League, a non-profit joint marketing organization.
There are other elements of The Windsor Advantage which accrue to the benefit of investors, developers and tenants. There is access to a highly educated workforce from the Knowledge Corridor that includes the Greater Hartford area and Western Massachusetts. Windsor also has a customer-focused, high performance local government. It provides a coordinated development review process that can approve a project in as little as six weeks.
The Windsor Advantage most especially includes an outstanding quality of life - Beautiful neighborhoods with a full range of housing styles and prices, an excellent community education system, an historic town center, and an extensive park system. All of which will be further enhanced by current plans for commuter rail service and new mixed-use developments.
Windsor with its significant corporate/industrial presence and its natural beauty and quality neighborhoods has the very best of both worlds. Good planning and a commitment to quality have made it so.

James Burke is Windsor's Economic Development Director.