Jobs Blow for Connecticut. UBS Looks to Exit Stamford. Lockhart Had It First.

It might have been the wish giving birth to the thought when Governor Dannel P. Malloy pooh-poohed stories that Stamford-based finance titan UBS has been eyeing an exit to Manhattan.  The Stamford Advocate’s Brian Lockhart has been on the story for weeks.

The New York Times confirms today that UBS is on the verge of leaving Stamford for New York to be closer to its clients and to improve recruitment of talent that prefers city life. An announcement is expected in the next month. The former Swiss Bank, which moved to Connecticut in 1997, is negotiating to become the anchor tenant at 3 World Trade Center, the paper reports.

Connecticut’s commissioner of economic development, Catherine Smith sounds beaten at the starting gate.  She told the Times, “We just want to make sure that Connecticut has a fair shot. We love having them in the state and hope they’ll stay. But you don’t always win these competitive battles.” More than 3,000 jobs are at stake, many of them lucrative.  Put some fight into it, commissioner.