Down the block from the Connecticut Department of Economic Development (DECD) is a small building adorned with an American flag. It is the current headquarters of the military contractor, Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology (CCAT), and is argued to be integral to the state’s manufacturing initiatives.

Soon, CCAT will be getting a major upgrade: the nonprofit is close to securing $57 million for its new headquarters in the Hartford Region.  

CCAT, a non-profit, has been a core part of Connecticut state official’s manufacturing plans for the past twenty years. It has received over $180 million in grants since 2004, according to filings with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and state audits.

Paul Lavoie, the state’s manufacturing chief, also manages the Manufacturing Innovation Fund (MIF), which is funded by the DECD. He works closely with CCAT and has high opinions of the organization. 

“CCAT sits in the center of driving innovation in the manufacturing sector,” he told Inside Investigator in an interview.

But not everyone agrees with him. Critics accuse CCAT of having mismanaged money, using state resources to support the organization and its members at the expense of taxpayers, and failing to bring about the intended substantive change in the manufacturing sector.

If you’re a glass-half-full person, Connecticut’s manufacturing industry is doing well. Manufacturing makes up 12% of the state’s gross domestic product (GDP) as of 2023—2% more than it did two years before. With more than $30 billion worth of products produced in 2023, it is one of the largest industries in the state. If you don’t count real estate as an industry—and Lavoie doesn’t—then it is second only to insurance and finance.

But if you’re a glass-half-empty person, or benchmarking against CCAT’s original goals, there are serious problems.

The number of manufacturing jobs has not only decreased since the 1990s, the job loss outpaced national trends. Despite this, there are thousands of open positions, according to reports and statements from the Connecticut Department of Labor (CTDOL). And, even though the MIF’s most recent report shows manufacturing is making up a larger percentage of the state’s GDP than it did in 2021, a long-term analysis of the industry indicates that there has been stagnation, not growth, for the last 15 years. 

“Manufacturing on a global scale is impacted by population declines and the lack of an available workforce. The state of Connecticut is not immune to any of that. In fact, we’re right in the middle of it,” Lavoie said. He went on to say, “We’re also not a low-cost state… After 2000, and after 2008 we saw a lot of the low-value, low-wage work leave Connecticut, but the high-value, high-wage work stayed.”

Between 1994 and 2003, Connecticut lost over 53,000 manufacturing jobs, according to an analysis submitted to the state legislature in 2004. More than half of those jobs disappeared between 2001 and 2003. That same report predicted that 20,000 more jobs would be lost by 2014 — the real number was twice as many.

CCAT was established in 2004 to counter this trend. The organization’s Certificate of Incorporation lists three primary goals: 

1. To promote economic growth, relieve conditions of unemployment and poverty, reduce community tensions in an economically depressed area, and combat community deterioration by revitalizing blighted land in East Hartford, Connecticut, through the creation of a technological and industrial park and the implementation of a new entity incubator space at the technology park.
2. To implement an educational initiative for youth of all grade levels that links academic development with current and future technology based business best practices. This program will encourage students’ interest and involvement in math, science, and technology based enterprises. Furthermore, it will enhance the workforce by promoting the education of future scientists, engineers and technicians; and 
3. To engage in any other lawful act or activity for which corporations may be formed under the Connecticut Revised Non-stock Corporation Act, Sections 33-1000 et seq (the “Act”); provided, that in all its activities the Corporation shall operate exclusively for charitable and educational purposes entitling the Corporation to exemption under the provisions of IRC Section 501(c)(3). 

CCAT is technically a defense manufacturer and is working with the Department of Defense (DoD) on integrating digital tools into the military’s supply chain. However, the company is involved in state programs that service other manufacturing fields as well. 

CCAT works hand-in-hand with the MIF. In its most recent report, the MIF describes all of the programs CCAT oversees: the Additive Manufacturing Adoption Program; the Digital Transformation Program; the Manufacturing Voucher Program; the High Rate Additive; the Manufacturing Program; co-administers the Apprenticeship and Pre-Apprenticeship program with the CTDOL; and Industry 4.0. It also ran the Digital Mode Initiative, which has now ended.  

According to Lavoie, CCAT takes the reins in innovation in the state, which is essential for the manufacturing industry at large.

“In the state of Connecticut, we make highly advanced products, and we don’t make a lot of them, so what we do requires a lot of innovation,” Lavoie said. 

That’s something that CCAT’s President and CEO Ron Angelo says he takes seriously. 

He has a shelf in his office filled with pieces of equipment CCAT has helped create for manufacturers. This includes a tube with strategically placed, wave-shaped cuts that allow it to bend, and a metal piece made up of copper and Inconel (nickel-chromium alloy). The laser meant to fuse the two metals together kept bouncing off the copper and CCAT engineers figured out that they could melt the copper in place, which creates a secure and easy-to-make part.

Angelo has been the president and chief executive officer of CCAT since 2018. Earlier in his career, he was the deputy director of DECD for over 11 years.

Since 2019, DECD has requested, and the Congressional General Assembly has approved, $100,000 or less for CCAT’s yearly budget. In a state audit for the year ending in December 2023, however, CCAT reported it received $7.1 million in grants in 2022 and $11.2 million in 2023.  

The vast majority of CCAT’s funding comes from grants and appropriations from Congress and state bonds.

CCAT has received many high-dollar grants, including a $7 million grant from the DoD to establish a Digital Thread Manufacturing Lab for the Northeast Defense Industrial Base in 2023. 

United States Representative John Larson (CT-1) is one of the most vocal advocates for CCAT. In the last four years, he has requested that CCAT receive a combined $30 million from the Community Funding Projects. He also asked for $5.1 million for Goodwin University to build a new mobile manufacturing lab, which is part of a recruitment program run by CCAT. Larson could not be reached for comment. The grants, bonds and appropriations are how CCAT funds many of its endeavors. The construction of the new headquarters is one of its largest undertakings since the company was founded. 

Larson’s former Chief of State, Elliot Ginsberg, used to be the president of CCAT. Ginsberg resigned in 2018 after a series of controversies. 

Before Angelo, Ginsberg ran the CCAT from 2007 until 2018. During that time, he made a number of eyebrow-raising decisions. Among these was establishing a for-profit subsidiary, Novus Insight, out of CCAT’s information technology department. Novus Insight was sold to CCAT’s former IT Director, Dan Salazar, in 2020 while Angelo was CEO. 

While Ginsberg was in charge, CCAT illegally charged companies to use a state-owned 3D printer. In another incident, other equipment purchased by CCAT through a Regional Aerospace and Defense Exchange program grant wound up being improperly used to design car parts and medical devices—a fact that was only discovered after CCAT published a report celebrating these inventions. 

With a state grant, CCAT also purchased a $2.9 million Zimmermann milling machine in 2017. A milling machine carves out complex objects with rotary cutters. Zimmermann is a respected brand and builds some of the most advanced milling machines on the market. 

Despite that, the machine was retired after only six years of use. According to Angelo, CCAT needed to “[free] up space” in its building.

A 2019 complaint filed by Mark Bliek, the president of Bolton Works, to Eric J. Brown, who was the Vice President of Manufacturing Policy and Outreach at CBIA at the time, alleges the machine was installed incorrectly. Bliek declined to be interviewed, but his complaints are publicly available. He claims the foundation was either designed or constructed improperly, and the machine’s pipes had to be cut and rerouted close to the ceiling as a result. 

“Due to the fault foundation, the machine is not able to reach its designed operating range and therefore detracts from the value,” Bliek wrote. 

State audits found the machine was only used once in two years before it was leased offsite to ACMT manufacturing company, which was owned by a then-CCAT Board of Directors member, Paul Paulo.

Today, the CCAT headquarters is filled with smaller-scale, advanced technology. The milling machines they have, for example, can easily fit inside an average classroom. In an interview with Inside Investigator, Angelo said the industry is heading in the direction of smaller machines. However, he insisted that CCAT still needs more space and a new, larger headquarters building to house more equipment—including larger machinery. 

The industry has changed tremendously since 2004, and so have the standards of success and the equipment needed to get there. Once, the state focused on building jobs. Now, attention has shifted toward honing the manufacturing process through technology. 

Lavoie is the first person to admit that it is hard to recruit new workers to the manufacturing industry. 

“Manufacturing on a global scale is impacted by population declines and a lack of available workforce. The state of Connecticut is not immune to any of that, in fact, we’re right in the middle of it,” Lavoie said.

In 2023, he penned an introduction to a report on the state’s Manufacturing Strategic Plan, in which he outlined two goals: “Increase the manufacturing employment to 235,000 by 2033, a 4% annual increase” and to “increase manufacturing annual gross domestic product (GDP) to reach 20% by 2029.”

But there was a caveat in that report. Lavoie wrote: “Since February [2023, when the Manufacturing Strategic Plan was created], we have come to a major realization. Based on national population projections, it has become clear that we will not solve our workforce challenges with people. The U.S. manufacturing sector is projected to have 2.0M jobs in 2030, leading to a loss in GDP of $1.0T dollars… It will be through implementing the three strategies of workforce development, workforce growth, and industrial automation that we will solve the workforce problem and grow Connecticut’s manufacturing GDP.”

The goalposts were moved again, however. In the Nov. 5 interview with Inside Investigator, Lavoie said he still wanted manufacturing to make up 20% of the state’s GDP, but he doesn’t have faith in future job growth. 

“To think that we’re going to have job growth is a fool’s errand,” Lavoie said. “There’s not enough people, there’s not enough people in the trades, there’s not enough people in hospitality, there’s not enough people in hospitals and health care.”

Every month, there are 3,500 new manufacturing jobs in Connecticut, Lavoie estimates. And every month, 3,500 manufacturing workers are lost, often to retirement.

In an email from early November, CTDOL Communications Director Juliet Manalan agreed with this trend. She wrote, “Manufacturers and manufacturing-specific programs have added thousands of jobs, however, at the same time new jobs are being added, there are retirements and other reasons for jobs becoming vacant. The CTDOL numbers represent the net payroll jobs that are currently filled (there are 157,800 manufacturers on payrolls in CT) —there are many unfilled jobs as well (6,433 Help Wanted Online ads for manufacturers). The numbers are always in flux as the labor data is reported monthly.”

So, even though the MIF reported in its recent yearly review that it created over 22,000 jobs since it was established 2015, the actual number of jobs in the state has barely changed during this period. 

“If there were 20,000 people that wanted to work in manufacturing tomorrow, we’d increase manufacturing employment by 20,000 people. I mean, we’d hire them. Hiring people is not an issue,” Lavoie said. “The lack of available people right now is an issue.”

Lavoie sees some hope in recruiting new populations: women, veterans, “people coming out of the justice system,” neurodivergent people and legal immigrants—although, in an interview on election day, Lavoie expressed his concerns about a Trump presidency.

“We have two people we have running for president,” Lavoie said. “If one of them wins and starts deporting people, the manufacturing sector is screwed, in the state, [and] in the US. In Connecticut, we’ll do the best we can, but there’s just not enough people.”

Lavoie also thinks employers need to seek out new types of workers. 

“That requires us to shift the attitudes of people who are running manufacturing businesses, because we’ve always looked at it as being ‘pale, male and stale,’” he said. “We’ve always looked at it as being my father, and my grandfathers and my uncles all worked in manufacturing. It’s not like that now and we need to continue to reach out to those groups to get them excited about it.”

He also has the long-term goal of exposing kids to manufacturing through career roadshows, symposiums, engineering and automative programing to K-12, internships and apprenticeships. CCAT is involved in these efforts. 

Since he doesn’t see future job growth, that 8% jump in GDP will have to be accomplished through innovation, he said. 

“The unique thing about manufacturing is we can use automation to drive productivity and drive efficiency for these low wage, low value jobs that we can’t fund people that want to do the work,” Lavoie said.

Angelo has a different view. He doesn’t think all hope is lost in improving the labor market.  

“The programs that have been occurring have really only been in effect for a few years, and they’re already showing traction,” Angelo said. “There are things that probably occurred in the state of Connecticut and in other parts of the country related to the industrial base employment, but those trends are changing.”

It is unclear if the manufacturing industry is actually improving in Connecticut. While Lavoie and Angelo believe things are on the up-and-up, a reason they believe their new headquarters is a wise expenditure, data shows a different story: 

Even though the MIF’s most recent report shows manufacturing is making up a larger percentage of the state’s GDP than it did in 2021, in 2022, the state produced $31 billion in goods and manufacturing made up 13% of the state’s GDP—this shows fluctuation in the market, not steady improvements.  

Regardless, CCAT’s plans for a new headquarters building are moving forward. 

In June, Inside Investigator reported the State Bond Commissioner set aside $15 million to CCAT to construct their new headquarters. CCAT got the bond through the Office of Policy and Management (OPM). On top of that, CCAT has already locked down $16.2 million in federal funding and is looking for another $16 million. CCAT reported an additional $10 million coming from “private funding.”

According to a recent interview with Angelo, the “private funding” is coming from CCAT. It will be paying for part of the building with its funding.

As of Dec. 10, CCAT has not determined where its new headquarters will be. According to Angelo, the organization is looking at two final locations. He expects a site to be chosen and a design plan to be completed by the end of the second quarter of 2025.

CCAT has three properties right now, and each of them contains expensive manufacturing equipment. In addition to that, its headquarters are home to over 20 small manufacturing businesses, classrooms to train workers in new skills, and a conference room that is sometimes rented to members of the community, according to Angelo. The new headquarters will combine all three of these campuses.

The new headquarters will also house state-of-the-art technology that Lavoie and Angelo say there just isn’t room for in the present CCAT building. 

CCAT has not decided what it will do with its existing buildings once the new headquarters are completed.

The present headquarters has several physical restraints, including ceiling height, which limits what robots can be used in the building, Angelo said. Also, it uses off-the-road power, which is “ungodly expensive,” according to him. The new facility will have new power sources and redundant systems. 

“This started years ago and one of the reasons I was brought in is these [facilities] need to be modernized. They need to be more efficient. They need to run like businesses. The programming needs to be more direct. It needs to be industry led,” Angelo said. “How do we make sure we scope out the right size facility and nature of the facility that everybody needs to operate out of and companies want to send their employees to?”

While CCAT has remained foundational to the DECD’s manufacturing initiatives, the nonprofit has evolved. Recent IRS filings state a very different mission than its Certificate of Incorporation. Gone are any mentions of job creations, alleviating the pains of unemployment and community rejuvenation. 

Now, its mission is wrapped up in a concise sentence: “To develop direct and concise strategies to advance applied technologies that drive innovative processes and value-driven solutions to businesses.”

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