by Gary Taylor
According to the Hartford Courant, Pfizer Inc. plans to close its research and development headquarters in New London, Connecticut and transfer most of the 1,400 people working there to another facility over the next two years. The Pfizer facility was central to the redevelopment plan promoted by the New London Development Corporation as the justification for condemning Suzette Kelo’s home. If you recall, the city’s exercise of eminent domain to acquire the Kelo home and fifteen others resulted in the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. New London, in which the Court affirmed the constitutionality of using eminent domain for economic development purposes. Apparently the mixed-use development of restaurants, retail shops, marinas, and waterfront conference hotel envisioned in the plan to locate on the site of the Kelo’s neighborhood never came to fruition. Nothing stands on the site of the Kelo home, and now the linchpin of the plan, the neighboring Pfizer R&D facility, is moving across the Thames River to Groton as a result of the pharmaceutical company’s recent merger with Wyeth.
