Manufacturing company doubles down on CT, moving headquarters to Danbury

Alexander Soule | Oct. 18, 2021

This past summer in preparing to move the family business to Danbury, Tim Holland unearthed a steno notepad from 1984 in which his father Bill had jotted down the business plan for Parker Medical, which sells systems for imaging machines that detect breast cancer.

“The business will be started with the introduction of a dedicated mammo tube — followed by x-ray high voltage cables,” Bill Holland Sr. had scrawled. “Other novel x-ray component products will be introduced in the future after the mammo tube and cables are established.”

Holding the steno pad Friday at Parker Medical’s new Danbury headquarters, Tim Holland drew a laugh from some of the 75-plus employees he leads as president and chief operating officer of the company.

“I’m not sure what happened to the mammo tube,” Holland said. “But the sentence that strikes me here — ‘other novel component products will be introduced in the future after the tubing’ — that’s exactly what he did.”

Parker Medical makes high-voltage cable assemblies inside breast-cancer imaging machines sold by General Electric, Hologic and Philips, as well as thousands of other components for computed tomography (CT) machines and others. Some of the company’s most complex products can take days to put together by multiple people, including testing and inspection.

Tim Holland said that the need for extra space drove the decision to move from Bridgewater where Parker Medical had long had facilities. At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company secured extra flex space in Brookfield as well to create a duplicate assembly line, allowing for better spacing between employees and a continuity of production should either facility be hit with a viral outbreak.

For its new headquarters, Parker Medical considered locations in Brookfield and Westchester County, N.Y., but Holland said the Danbury building fit its needs best.

“Keeping manufacturing in Connecticut was dear to my dad, dear to me,” Holland said. “It was a matter of availability and opportunity.”

Himself a former x-ray engineer with GE, Bill Holland started Parker Medical in 1984. He died April 24, 2020, at age 91 of complications from a fall.

“While he was at GE, he developed one of the first x-ray tubes for mammography,” said Christine Holland, one of the seven sibling co-owners of Parker Medical who leads business development.

The company’s new home was used previously by Belimo which makes valves, actuators and sensors for heating and air conditioning systems. Belimo moved in 2015 to a nearby building that is more than twice the size of its former facility.

Parker Medical is located a short distance from a Hologic facility that makes some of the most advanced 3D mammography scanning machines available today.

State Rep. Ken Gucker, D-138th, recalls touring the Parker Medical building while in grade school to see the operations of Metallic Arts, a one-time maker of commemorative medallions for presidential inaugurations, military awards and others.

“You got to push this little button and it would stamp this memorial for the day,” Gucker said Friday. “It brings me back to why it is so important we have buildings not staying vacant, but actually having people working in them,”

Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-842-2545; @casoulman

Connecticut towns were named among the 100 best places to live in the nation. Rankers praised their history, beauty, walkability and more.

RJ Scofield,Patch Staf | Posted Fri, Oct 15, 2021 at 4:46 pm ET|Updated Sun, Oct 17, 2021 at 3:57 pm ET

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CONNECTICUT — Four Connecticut towns are among the best 100 places to live in America, according to a new ranking released by the community research outlet Livability.

Norwalk ranked highest at 59th overall, with Livability noting the city's incredible diversity and its position nestled along the water of Long Island Sound.

"...residents have a high quality of life, with access to great schools, distinct neighborhoods and robust health care offerings," Livability said about Norwalk. "Rounded out with beaches, parks, historic sites and the Norwalk River, this city is full of beautiful scenery and lots of outdoor recreation options."

Hartford ranked next at 69th, while Danbury was ranked 85th. Livability gave Hartford strong praise as "an arts and culture heavy-hitter, home to spots like The Mark Twain House & Museum, the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art."

The authors said "...Danbury is home to ... great shopping, tons of parks and open spaces, top-notch health care and lots of arts and entertainment options."

New Haven rounded out the list at 87th and the authors said "It offers a high quality of life, thanks to its thriving restaurant and bar scene, arts and cultural offerings, walkable downtown and outdoor recreation opportunities."

Livability.com considered more than 1,000 small to mid-sized cities in the ranking process. The outlet surveyed residents on factors like safety, affordability, economic stability, outdoor recreation, accessibility, and community engagement.

Julia Perkins | Aug. 9, 2021

DANBURY — Four new sculptures created by local artists are expected to help liven downtown Danbury.

The works will join the sculptures already displayed on Main Street near the intersection of Kennedy Avenue as part of CityCenter Danbury’s ongoing “Sculpture in the Streets” project.

These sculptures are being added on Main Street through a collaboration between the Cultural Alliance of Western Connecticut and CityCenter Danbury.

It’s part of the Cultural Alliance’s “Accessible Art” program to promote artists and their work throughout the region. This is the second Accessible Art program this year, with the first being installed at Aquila’s Nest Vineyards in Newtown.

“Partnering with CityCenter is a great example of how we support community,” Lisa Scails, executive director of the Cultural Alliance of Western Connecticut, said in a statement. “We are connecting artists with the opportunity to make art more accessible to everyone, and in this case, helping to create a vibrant downtown Danbury that’s welcoming and interesting.”

The city is installing new streetscape in downtown Danbury in an effort to revitalize the area.

Art Stueck, chair of the CityCenter Board of Commissioners, thanked the Cultural Alliance and the artists.

“Public art is a great reason to travel to a destination and we intend to make Danbury a place to visit, view, and enjoy all forms of public art,” he said. “And while you’re here, you can participate in events such as ‘Dancing Under the Stars,’ and our friendly trivia competitions, as well as eat at a wonderful downtown restaurant.”

Selected artists are from Danbury, Bethel and New Hartford.

Artist Justin Perlman, of Bethel, created an abstract sculpture called “Virtuoso,” which was re-purposed from an old bulldozer blade and is a “not-quite solid figure of pieces resembling notes and instruments,” the Cultural Alliance said.

Another piece by Brian McCarley, of Danbury, is called the “Continuum: The Doorway Between Past and Future.” It’s made of reclaimed steel and stained glass and represents the “interconnected nature of life and death” during the coronavirus pandemic, the organization said.

David Skora, New Hartford resident and Western Connecticut State University professor, focused on the tension between objects in his piece, “Bent.”

Danbury resident Jim Felice’s “Jack and Jill” was originally constructed in the 1990s in memory of the artist’s aunt and uncle, who were professional ballroom dancers and whose act was named “Jack and Jill.”