City of Ansonia Photo
From left (2017 photo): Lindy Gold of the state Department of Economic and Community Development, RugPadUSA co-owner Karl Froehlich, Ansonia Mayor David Cassetti, state Sen. George Logan, and Valley Chamber of Commerce President Bill Purcell.
ANSONIA — RugPadUSA, a manufacturer city government had said would expand its operations in the Copper City, is instead leaving for Suffield and a newer, larger space.
RugPad owner and chief operating officer Karl Froelich confirmed that RugPadUSA, located in two former Farrel Co. buildings at 1 West Main St. and 35 Main St., will make its departure toward the end of 2022.
RugPad moved to downtown Ansonia from Bridgeport in 2017. It uses about 170,000 square feet of manufacturing space where it makes rug pads.
Officials in 2017 said RugPadUSA had 56 employees in Ansonia and was going to add 50 more. Click here for a previous story.
Froelich said last month the company employs 25 people in Ansonia and they’ll remain employed.
Froelich and Mayor David Cassetti’s administration talked for years about RugPadUSA expanding in Ansonia. Click here for a 2019 story from The New Haven Register.
But Froelich said he leases the buildings in Ansonia from Moustapha Diakhate, and was unable to strike a deal to purchase the buildings. Federal officials charged Diakhate in May with misusing COVID-19 loan money.
“We were never able to make a deal with him (Diakhate),” Froelich said. “And we have already committed to the other property in Suffield.”
An online assessor’s database lists the owner of 1 West Main St. as Yeladim, LLC. There was not a record online for the other address. The Valley Indy reported the property owner in 2017 as Ansonia Developers LLC, Diakhate’s company.
In March, RugPadUSA spent $10.6 million to purchase a facility of more than 200,000 square feet near Bradley Airport.
“Amenities include multiple fitness rooms and refreshment bars; state of the art educational facilities and a prototype company store to study merchandising methods. The property is located in the Bradley Airport Development Zone, and within Suffield’s Planned Industrial Development zone, which features attractive tax incentives,” according to an April press release from Amodio & Co. Real Estate.
“It was too good of a deal to pass up,” Froelich said.
They Were Already Out The Door
RugPadUSA’s imminent departure isn’t news outside of Ansonia.
The Journal Inquirer newspaper published a story July 17, 2020 announcing the company was heading to Suffield.
Yet on the same day during a press conference with Gov. Ned Lamont in Ansonia celebrating $500,000 in state grant money, Mayor Cassetti specifically mentioned RugPadUSA would be expanding thanks to the state aid.
At that point, the mayor said the company employed about 90 people in Ansonia.
“Karl’s future plans include adding another 100 to 200 jobs and another 100,000 square feet” of space,” Cassetti told the press. “Once cleaned and cleared, this parcel can accommodate that new operation. This could be a win-win for everyone.”
The mayor was talking about the old SHW building at 35 N. Main St., a 3.5‑acre site next to RugPadUSA in Ansonia. The grant money is being used for demolishing the dilapidated building.
At that press conference last year, neither the Cassetti administration, state officials, nor company officials mentioned RugPadUSA’s previously published plans to leave Ansonia.
No one from the media seemed aware of it, as it didn’t come up in questioning.
In an interview last month, Sheila O’Malley, Ansonia’s economic development director and grant writer, said the city was holding out hope that they could keep RugPadUSA here.
“We tried to intervene with Karl and the owner, and tried to see if the city could acquire some grant money to help (Karl) with the purchase of the buildings,” O’Malley said. “We also thought perhaps we could clear another spot for him somewhere else in the city or maybe locate a spot for Karl to build new. We did what we could to get them to stay.”
O’Malley said anytime either she or Mayor Cassetti talked about RugPadUSA’s possible expansion plans here, she was given the green light from Froelich to do so, and clarified that she “never said (the Ansonia expansion plan) was a done deal.”
“The city was holding out hope that RugPad would stay,” O’Malley said.
Cassetti said he’s sad to see RugPadUSA go.
“It’s sad to see that RugPad won’t be in the future plans for Ansonia, but unfortunately we can’t control what a private owner does with its property,” Cassetti said via an email.
Both O’Malley and Cassetti said a new manufacturer is looking to acquire RugPad’s space. There’s no deal in place as of Nov. 8.
John Marini, Ansonia’s corporation counsel, said the matter is complicated due to building owner Diakhate’s legal entanglements.
“The problem is with the ownership of that building. We have a lot of interest, but the mess Moustapha has made has made it difficult to determine who now owns the actual property,” Marini said.
Diakhate is due back in court in January.
