A corporate headquarters win for Conn.

You don’t need to approve of Big Tobacco to applaud Tuesday’s news about a major employer moving its headquarters to Connecticut. You don’t need to think Philip Morris International is a good company or a bad company to acknowledge what it means for our state to have the firm’s offices here.

Connecticut has throughout the years punched well above its weight in attracting corporate headquarters. There have been some fears recently that those days were over, that long-term trends were now working against the kind of home we could provide big companies. Tuesday’s news defies those trends, and should be welcomed.

Philip Morris International is the world’s largest tobacco company, and had been headquartered in New York. On Tuesday, its leaders announced a move to Connecticut, bringing about 200 high-paying jobs with it. While the exact new home has not been determined, the Stamford-Norwalk corridor is a likely landing spot, with the company expected to fit right in alongside other corporate giants. Philip Morris would be the 15th Fortune 500 company to be based here.

The good news for Connecticut real estate recently has mostly been tied to the residential market. Houses are selling for higher than their asking price across the state as outsiders vie to gain a toehold in the suddenly red-hot Connecticut scene. Now there’s reason to believe the forces boosting residential real estate are also affecting corporate decision-making.

It’s not an unfamiliar place for southwestern Connecticut, where major companies have long taken advantage of easy access to New York as well as in-state amenities when making headquarters decisions. Still, the 2016 departure of GE from suburban Fairfield for Boston shook the faith of many Connecticut believers. Without a major city of our own, there were worries about our ability to compete.

That remains a concern, and building up Stamford and New Haven to better vie with major metropolises around the Northeast and the nation should remain a priority. But Tuesday’s news showed Connecticut still has plenty to offer prospective companies.

It was also well-timed with Gov. Ned Lamont’s news that the state is working hard to speed up train times both in-state and to Manhattan. Faster, more reliable train service as part of a larger infrastructure push is a necessity to attracting and retaining employers.

There’s no sense denying Big Tobacco’s role in society and public health over the past halfcentury-plus. People die every day of debilitating diseases linked to smoking, and even though smoking is nowhere near as common as it once was, it continues to wreak havoc on lives around the globe. But the truth is that those 200 jobs Philip Morris will bring are going to be based somewhere. There’s no reason Connecticut shouldn’t be that place.

The good news about Connecticut real estate shouldn’t obscure the tough position faced by our state economy. The pandemic took a huge toll, unemployment is higher than the national average and major challenges remain. Still, we should take good news when we can get it. Corporations are once again looking to Connecticut to make their home.

There’s reason to believe the forces boosting residential real estate are also affecting corporate decision-making.