Little Pink House_ A True Story of Defiance and Courage - Jeff Benedict [25]
In order to achieve these goals, it will be necessary to relocate the Calamari Bros. scrap dealer, upgrade utilities and infrastructure, and acquire a number of surrounding properties.
Claire promised that the NLDC would acquire the residential and commercial properties within the parameters of the redevelopment design plan. “We will work with you to refine this proposal to meet Pfizer’s requirements,” she said.
11
NATURAL-BORN LEADERS
January 18, 1998
Reid MacCluggage and his wife had just finished unpacking suitcases at their winter vacation spot in Florida when the phone rang. It was nearly eleven o’clock at night, but as the publisher of New London’s newspaper, the Day, MacCluggage never really escaped the news. Even on vacation, his job always seemed to catch up with him. Expecting an editor, he picked up the phone and said hello.
“Reid, this is Claire.”
MacCluggage couldn’t believe she had tracked him down in Florida.
She insisted she had something very important to discuss, some inside information on a developing news story. Pfizer, she reported, had decided to build a large research lab and office building on the New London mill site.
MacCluggage wasn’t too surprised. One of his reporters had a source saying the same thing. The paper had been seeking a second source for confirmation. But Claire wanted MacCluggage to delay reporting the news until Pfizer was ready to announce its plans at a large media event. MacCluggage didn’t like the idea of holding back the news.
“I’m going to invite you to be on the inside,” she told him, offering to grant access to a reporter. “But you can’t report until the announcement.”
Unwilling to pull his beat reporter off the story, MacCluggage countered, “Here’s the deal. I’ll assign one reporter to come in and get the inside story on how this deal comes through. And we’ll report that after the announcement—sort of an anatomy of how the deal was made.”
Claire had no problem with that.
“But,” MacCluggage continued, “I’ve already got a reporter working on this, and if she nails it through other sources, we’re going to break the story before you announce it.”
“Well, I don’t want you to do that,” Claire said.
MacCluggage didn’t know what to say. He wasn’t used to being told how to run his newspaper. Claire wasn’t used to being told no. For nearly two hours they went round and round, each trying to get across his or her point of view.
Exhausted, MacCluggage finally said, “I’m not going to make any agreements that tie the hands of the newspaper.”
Dissatisfied, Claire said she had to talk to her assistant and would get back to MacCluggage. She never did.
The Day broke the story a few days later.
January 21, 1998
Decision day had arrived. Pfizer’s board assembled at corporate headquarters in Manhattan to vote on a number of matters, including whether to authorize funding for George Milne’s recommendation to construct a new research-and-development laboratory in New London.
Milne had briefed the board earlier and made the case for investing $300 million to develop the site. This bold, unorthodox move would enable the pharmaceutical giant to lead the revitalization of an economically depressed city. Governor Rowland had made up his mind, too. He wanted Pfizer in New London badly enough that he had promised $75 million in incentives.
Claire had persuaded both men to raise the stakes in order to close the deal. By embracing her vision, Milne and Rowland were taking big risks. Pfizer specialized in making drugs, not transforming small cities. How would shareholders and the board of directors react if more than $300 million in corporate treasure ended up squandered on a social experiment? The state was taking an even bigger risk. Rowland