Massachusetts is wooing Hasbro

Massachusetts is “working to establish a dialogue” with Hasbro as the Pawtucket-based children’s toymaker and entertainment company makes a decision on its headquarters.

The state’s Office of Business Development is trying to establish talks “as it regularly does with businesses both in and outside the Commonwealth that may benefit from learning more about the many opportunities to grow in Massachusetts,” spokeswoman Colleen Arons said in an email Friday.

The Massachusetts Office of Business Development is part of the Bay State’s government that helps businesses relocating to Massachusetts or trying to expand there.

"We are still in the process of evaluating several options for contemporizing our corporate headquarters, including finding a new corporate campus in the vicinity of our current headquarters," Hasbro spokeswoman Julie Duffy said in an email. "We are committed to delivering a fully-updated, connected and flexible workspace for all of our employees, and want to find the right solution that will ultimately create the best corporate headquarters for Hasbro into the future."

Rhode Island politicians, meanwhile, have said they’re working to keep the toy company in Rhode Island, and Pawtucket "if we could."

Gov. Gina Raimondo in an interview on April 11 downplayed concerns about the lack of Hasbro headquarters news, saying she keeps in regular touch with Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner.

"There's always a risk," she said. "In this global economy there is always a risk. Shareholder pressure is enormous on these guys."

But, she added: "I check in all the time and I am not worried."

Besides staying in Pawtucket, where it has been for almost a century, possible landing spots in Rhode Island for Hasbro include downtown Providence.

The mayor of Pawtucket, Donald Grebien, sounded alarm bells in November about the possibility that Hasbro would decamp from the city and bring its local jobs elsewhere. The Pawtucket Red Sox announced a move to Worcester last year.

—With reports from Journal staff writer Patrick Anderson