CVS CVS Health Corporation

By Joseph De Avila and Keiko Morris 

New York City is shelving a $9.6 million incentive package offered to Aetna Inc. while the insurer reassesses whether to move its headquarters to the city.

The company said in June it would move its headquarters and 250 jobs from Hartford, Conn. to New York City. Those plans, however, were put on hold following CVS Health Corp.'s December announcement that it would buy Aetna for $69 billion. Aetna said at the time the merger was announced that all of its locations will be evaluated as part of its integration with CVS.

An Aetna spokesman said Wednesday that evaluation is ongoing.

The city said the uncertainty was the reason it is not proceeding with a formal approvals to finalize the $9.6 million incentive package announced last year.

"We are unable to move forward with the proposed assistance package at this time," said a spokesman for the city's Economic Development Corp.

Aetna had planned to move into a 170,000-square-foot Chelsea building developed by Vornado Realty Trust and Aurora Capital Associates.

A spokeswoman for Empire State Development, New York state's economic development arm, said its offer of $24 million in performance-based tax credits is still on the table. The company would have to meet and maintain job count and investment requirements before the state would pay out the credits, the spokeswoman said.

The news was earlier reported by Crain's New York Business.

Write to Joseph De Avila at joseph.deavila@wsj.com and Keiko Morris at Keiko.Morris@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 10, 2018 19:40 ET (00:40 GMT)

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