Technologies showcase opens in Palm Beach County
Devices aim to reduce energy, water and carbon dioxide use
United Technologies is probably best known for Carrier air conditioners and Otis elevators and escalators. Its new $150 million UTC Center for Intelligent Buildings, which officially opened Tuesday in Palm Beach Gardens, will showcase the best of these new technologies it employs around the world.
The 224,000-square-foot, glassenclosed center — just east of Interstate 95 on Donald Ross Road — is a first-of-its-kind, buildingtechnology showcase for the global building industry. It is the global corporate headquarters for United Technologies’ Climate, Controls and Security division and regional headquarters for Otis Americas.
The center’s technology shows how United Technologies’ employees “take challenges that some would think impossible, and are building the possible,” UTC Climate, Controls and Security division President Bob McDonough said at Tuesday’s opening event.
Among the building’s highlights are devices designed to reduce energy use by 60 percent, water use by 36 percent, carbon dioxide by 60 percent, and outside water by 100 percent, the company says.
The museumlike center houses up to 500 employees and expects to host 5,800 visitors this year alone, including UTC customers and students.
UTC Center already has brought 380 new jobs to Palm Beach Gardens. McDonough on Tuesday said the center will hire an additional 100 people over the next three years. The new hires will likely boost the expected economic impact from the center to more than the previously announced $600 million, he said.
During the opening, Gov. Rick Scott said UTC is bringing “good, high-paying jobs to Florida.” The latest jobs announced have an average annual wage of more than $91,000, according to Palm Beach Gardens documents.
In 2015, the state and Palm Beach County approved a $10.56 million incentive package for UTC — one of the largest packages for any company in South Florida. UTC promised to create 380 jobs over six years at an average annual wage of $85,000. By 2016, UTC already had filled half the jobs, placing workers temporarily in other offices.
The company must retain the jobs created for at least five years. The package is based on at least a $115 million capital investment in Palm Beach Gardens.
This February, Palm Beach Gardens approved $560,000 in additional job creation-related state and local incentives for an unnamed company that is “the world’s largest provider of building technologies.”
Connecticut-based UTC also owns Pratt & Whitney’s jet-engine operation in northwestern Palm Beach County, which employs 1,250 workers, according to spokeswoman Jennifer Dervin.
Construction of the center was substantially completed in February, and employees began moving in March.
“Smart” technologies and UTC brands used in the building include:
A Lenel mobile-phone app that works like an employee badge, giving access to enter the building, the floor where the employee works and common areas. The technology also helps communicate tempera-