GCEDC

Rachael J. Tabelski, communications director for Genesee County Economic Development Center, released the following details on the four projects that will be considered by the GCEDC board this afternoon. The board meets at 4 p.m. at the MedTech Centre, 99 MedTech Drive (across from the college).

1. (GCEDC) Proposed sales tax and property tax abatement -- Graham Corp.
Graham Corporation would like to renovate the "old" plant area, located at the corner of Harvester Avenue and Howard Street in the City of Batavia. A new bay will be constructed (12,439 square feet) that will enclose the area between two manufacturing bays located facing Harvester Avenue along with renovations of office and manufacturing areas. In addition, a new building (3,800 square feet) will be constructed on the 20 Florence St. property. This new building will be used for X-ray inspections of welds done during the fabrication process. Graham currently has 311 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees and expects to add 30 more over three years after the certificate of occupancy is obtained for these renovations. Board Action Request: Approval of an initial resolution to accept the application, and schedule a public hearing as benefits exceed $100,000. The application for the expansion project includes a sales tax exemption ($240,000) and property tax abatement on the incremental increase in assessed value ($243,396). Historical Look: The last expansion project that Graham undertook and the GCEDC assisted was in 2011. At the time, Graham had 278 FTE’s and pledged 30 new jobs in three years for a total of 308 FTEs. According to its 2013 application the company has exceeded its employment goals and plans to keep growing.

2. (GCEDC) Proposed sales tax and mortgage tax exemption and property tax abatement -- Guthrie Heli-Arc, Inc. 
Guthrie Heli-Arc, Inc., is a federally certified repair facility for transportation vessels. For the past 22 years its has operated out of a rented facility in Bergen. That facility has been sold, and the lease will terminate. CLR Industries, LLC, real estate holding company, has purchased a facility at 6276 Clinton Street Road in Stafford. The company plans on moving into the Stafford facility after a 7200-square-foot addition to the existing structure is completed. The addition is necessary to accommodate workflow. Board Action Request: Approval of a final resolution to approve incentives for the proposed project. The application for the expansion project includes a sales tax ($14,400) and mortgage tax exemption ($3,750) and property tax abatement on the incremental increase in assessed value ($58,902).

3. (GCEDC) Proposed RLF  for business expansion Pellegrino Auto Sales
The company is seeking a 16’x48’ expansion to the current facility and office renovation of 12’x38' at 4060 Pearl Street Road in the Town of Batavia. This will allow for three times the office space for future growth. The company is investing $150,000 and pledging 2.5 FTEs and retaining 5.5 FTEs. Board Action Request: Approval of a $75,000 from the revolving loan fund.

4. (GGLDC) Proposed RLF from the Batavia Micropolitan Area Community Redevelopment Loan Fund -- Jackson Square, LLC.
The former Carr's warehouse was built around 1880 in what is today known as Jackson Square. The company is looking to convert the former warehouse into a mixed-use, commercial and residential site. The ground floor will have flex office/light industrial and four new market rate apartments on the second and third floors. The City of Batavia is current owner of building and will transfer the title to the Batavia Development Corporation for sale to 13 Jackson Square, LLC. It is our understanding that the City of Batavia is looking to assist the project with its 485-A real property tax exemption. Board Action Request: Approval of a $100,000 from Batavia Micropolitan Area Community Redevelopment Loan Fund. Historical look: Board approved final resolution in July 2013 for sales tax ($24,816) and mortgage tax exemption ($2,994) contingent upon 13 Jackson Square, LLC, purchasing the building.

Press release:

The Board of Directors of the Genesee County Economic Development Center (GCEDC) will consider two projects at its Aug. 1 board meeting. The board anticipates reviewing two revolving loan fund applications at this meeting as well.

Graham Corporation is seeking sales and property tax abatement for an expansion of its existing facilities. A new bay will be constructed (12,439 square feet) that will enclose the area between two manufacturing bays facing Harvester Avenue along with renovations of office and manufacturing areas. In addition, a new building (3,800 square feet) will be constructed on the 20 Florence St. property. This new building will be used for X-ray inspections of welds done during the fabrication process.

The total capital investment of the project is estimated to be approximately $5,500,000, with the proposed tax incentives contributing $483,396. Graham currently has 311 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees and expects to add 30 more over three years after the certificate of occupancy is obtained for these renovations.

The estimated economic impact of the project is 17.30:1. For every dollar of tax relief granted, the company will invest $17.30 into the local economy. Because the proposed incentives exceed $100,000, the board will first consider an initial resolution to be followed by a public hearing.   

The last expansion project that Graham undertook – also with assistance from the GCEDC – was in 2011. At the time Graham had 278 FTEs and pledged 30 new jobs in three years for a total of 308 FTEs. According to its 2013 application, the company has exceeded its employment goals and plans to continue growing.

Guthrie Heli-Arc, a federally certified repair facility for transportation vehicles, is seeking sales and mortgage tax exemption and property tax abatement for an expansion and relocation project. For the past 22 years, the company has operated out of a rented facility in Bergen. That facility has been sold, and their lease will terminate. CLR Industries, LLC, a real estate holding company, has purchased a facility at 6276 Clinton Street Road in Stafford. Guthrie Heli-Arc plans on moving into the Stafford facility after a 7200-square-foot addition to the existing structure is completed. The addition is necessary to accommodate workflow.

The total capital investment of the project is estimated to be approximately $300,000, with the proposed tax incentives contributing $77,052. Guthrie Heli-Arc estimates that the project will allow the company to create two new jobs while retaining six others. The estimated economic impact of the project is 9.4:1. For every dollar of tax relief granted, the company will invest $9.40 into the local economy. 

All GCEDC Board meetings are open to the public. Meetings are held on the second floor of the Dr. Bruce A. Holm Upstate Med & Tech Park, located at 99 MedTech Drive in the Town of Batavia, across from Genesee Community College. The meeting is anticipated to convene at 4 p.m.

Press release:

The Genesee County Economic Development Center (GCEDC) is offering a second round of applications for its Food Processing Training Program. The program provides individuals with a certification to work in the food-processing industry, including the yogurt companies in the Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park. The deadline for submitting applications is Sept. 1.

Up to 25 individuals will be accepted for the class. Members from first graduating class are already working at local companies.

Applications can be picked up at the Genesee County Career Center at 587 E. Main St., Suite 100, Eastown Plaza in Batavia. The application also is available at the GCEDC Web site <http://www.gcedc.com>. Applicants also will need to complete a Customer Registration Form as well as submit an up-to-date resume with their application.

“We want to build off the success of the first graduating class and get as many applications submitted as possible in order to enhance the talent pool of individuals with the skills to work and be successful in the food processing industry,” said GCEDC Chairman Charlie Cook.

The training program is being funded by an Area Development grant obtained by the GCEDC from the National Fuel Gas Corporation with additional financial support from the Finger Lakes Food Cluster Initiative — funded by the Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration in the amount of $38,000 or 28 percent of the program.

In addition to receiving a non-credit certificate and certificates in Team Building and OSHA Safety in a Manufacturing Environment from Genesee Community College, participants will receive certificates in Lean Systems Six Sigma Yellow Belt (Rochester Institute of Technology) and Basic Dairy Science & Sanitation Certificate (Cornell University).

“Our goal is to increase the 78 applications we received for the first class and we were encouraged that we received so many applications from outside of Genesee County,” said Steve Hyde, president and CEO of the GCEDC. “It shows that the Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park is a regional economic asset and that people are willing to travel for good jobs.”

Previously, we published a press release from GCEDC that announced an expansion for Premiere Credit. Here is a press release from Premiere Credit with more information.

Premiere Credit of North America, LLC, a leading national accounts receivable management company headquartered in Indianapolis, Ind., announced today the addition of 50 jobs to its Batavia call center operation on Mill Street.

Premiere Credit will be hiring managers and collection cpecialists. Interested applicants can apply online at www.premierecredit.com and click on the Employment tab. These are solid jobs with good benefits and great earning potential for top performers.

“Premiere Credit opened an office in Batavia 17 months ago and we have been so impressed with the workforce in this location. We are excited to have the opportunity to expand our business here,” said President and CEO Rob Meck. “I am also proud to be part of a team that so willingly gives of their time and resources to this community through their involvement in local charities.”

“Premiere Credit’s expansion of its Batavia office is a testament to a high quality, productive and home-grown workforce,” said Steve Hyde, president and CEO of the Genesee County Economic Development Center. “This announcement builds on the positive economic development continuing to gain traction in Batavia and throughout the county.”

The Mill Street location started with 50 employees in March 2012 and will employ nearly 200 people after this expansion is complete.

Press release:

The Board of Directors of the Genesee County Economic Development Center (GCEDC) reviewed and approved four items at the organization’s July 11 board meeting. The projects would create approximately 60 new jobs, including 50 new jobs at Premiere Credit in downtown Batavia while retaining approximately 50 jobs at Leroy Plastics.

The board also approved the sale of 10 acres of land to Alpina for a future use as yet not unveiled by the company. Alpina has already surpassed its commitment to create 50 new jobs to receive benefits from the GCEDC as 55 new jobs have already been created.

Le Roy Plastics received approval for a $100,000 loan fund from the GCEDC in order to purchase a building at 59 Lake St. in Le Roy. The company is seeking to consolidate its processes from current facilities located at 15 Lent Ave. and 7835 E. Main St. The loan would have a term of seven years.

Premiere Credit, which opened operations in the city of Batavia in 2012, received a sales tax exemption of approximately $26,000 in return for an investment of $325,000 to expand the footprint of the company’s existing call center at 1 Mill St. The expansion will create an additional 50 new employees for a total workforce of 135.

Imagination Industries is constructing a 7,015-square-foot facility at 8240 Buffalo Road in the Town of Bergen. The multiuse facility will house an indoor firing range, training center, gunsmith services and a laser engraving business. The company is investing nearly $400,000 and will create 10 new jobs. 

Since this is a retail business, a public hearing was conducted on July 9 for community feedback to the project as part of the passage of new state legislation to determine if the project makes available services which would not be, but for the project, reasonably accessible to residents of the municipality where the project is located. After it was determined that the project fulfilled the new criteria, Imagination Industries received approval for sales tax and mortgage tax exemptions and a property tax abatement.

“These are all very high-quality projects that we believe will have a positive economic impact in the region,” said Steve Hyde, president and CEO of the GCEDC. “While the main function of our organization is to create new jobs, it’s also important to remember that we are here to help existing companies such as Le Roy Plastics retain jobs and keep them here for the long term.”

Press release:

Fisher Sports has decided to close its doors. We have thought about the situation and have had many discussions over the last month and we feel with being a new business we just haven’t had enough time to build our business to where we could withstand a hit like the one the GCEDC gave us paying Dick's to come to town.

We would have liked to stay open through the end of the year but with my son Jonathan’s football season at Syracuse starting next month I will be doing a lot of traveling and thought this is as good a time as any to start the closing process. We are having a 50-percent off everything in the store sale to reduce our inventory so please come in and take advantage of the savings.

Genesee County Economic Development Center -- through its financing arm, Genesee Gateway LDC -- is committing $500,000 to redevelopment projects in the City of Batavia as well as the business districts of Genesee County's towns and villages.

The money to start the new revolving loan fund is seeded from revenue generated for the LDC by the Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park, which in the last year has seen two companies construct yogurt plants there.

"Fortunately, some of the risks we've taken and some of our strategies we've taken have created some capital," said GCEDC CEO Steve Hyde said during a joint meeting Thursday of the GCEDC and LDC boards of directors. "I'm now recommending to the local development board to say, 'let's take some of the strategic investment money from the success of the ag park and reinvest it to support the redevelopment activities and revitalization here in the city and the business centers in the towns and villages.'"

The board approved the proposal unanimously.

The vote followed presentations by Batavia Development Corp. Economic Development Coordinator Julie Pacatte and City Manager Jason Molino.

The city, which is largely built out and has some aging industrial and commercial buildings, has been developing a strategy to pursue redevelopment, adaptive reuse and in-fill development.

An example of redevelopment, Pacatte said, is the Masse Gateway project, which took old manufacturing buildings and turned them into office buildings.

Adaptive reuse would be the project now under way to convert the former Carr's warehouse in Jackson Square into retail, office and apartment space.

In-fill would be the kind of project that Pacatte said needs to take place with the Della Penna property on Ellicott Street where there's one building on the property now and another could be added to create more density and expand the range of uses for the property.

"These projects are very difficult to fund," Pacatte said, "the Carr's warehouse for example. It was a warehouse. It's becoming residential and commercial. The condition of the building today, he (the buyer) would never get a traditional mortgage to do anything with that site, so he needed to start with a lot of equity. He has to look for some other opportunities so he can cash flow the project before the the grants will come in on the back end to reimburse him."

The kind of loans available through the new Batavia Micropolitan Redevelopment Fund could have helped the Carr's Warehouse project.

The loans will need to meet a long list of requirements to be granted and can range from $25,000 to $100,000 at 80 percent of prime.

To qualify, a developer would need to have at least a 30-percent equity stake in the project or already have another traditional bank loan in place. Collateral is required and the developer must make a personal guarantee for repayment.

Legislator Marrianne Clattenburg -- who both while City Council president and as a legislator has been critical of the scant attention GCEDC has seemed to pay to redevelopment in the city -- was pleased with today's decision and was on hand to witness the vote.

"It meets what I'm looking for," Clattenburg said. "It's a start. It's a beginning and it's gratifying to see the culmination of what I believe is a partnership that's forming and a recognition that the county development agency should be into redevelopment while it's doing greenfield development. I'm gratified it's coming about and I look forward to much more in the future."

For more than a decade, at least, GCEDC has been focused on building shovel-ready parks to attract manufacturing and other industrial businesses. Its biggest success so far, with the opening of the Alpina and Muller Quaker yogurt plants, has been the ag park.

The LDC will administer the loan fund. GCEDC could become involved in projects where tax abatements are needed to assist the redevelopment effort, Hyde said.

Molino said it's really been a collaborative effort to develop the new program.

"Developing this over the past few months has been a good opportunity for everybody and hopefully there will be more opportunities where the city, the BDC and the EDC can partner and take advantage of some of the development that's happening throughout the county and really help redevelop and improve some parts of the city," Molino said.

The Authorities Budget Office has released an annual report, along with several spreadsheets, that contain a range of data about the state's multitude of public authorities, including industrial development agencies, such as the Genesee County Economic Development Center.

Here's what the report shares about GCEDC:

• Total staff compensation for GCEDC's 12 employees was $772,360 in 2012, the third highest in the state behind Erie County, with 19 employees at $1.2 million and Yonkers with 20 employees at $1.14 million. Yonkers and Erie also have the largest staff of IDAs in the state, followed by Genesee and Jefferson with 12 apiece.
• Eighteen authorities in the state paid performance bonuses in 2012, but only three were IDAs, and only GCEDC among IDAs paid bonuses in excess of $10,000. In all, six employees received bonuses of $10,000 or higher, including Steve Hyde, whose bonus of $142,000 put his total compensation for the year at $312,388.
• The 51 other authority employees in the state that received performance bonuses in excess of $10,000 all work for health care agencies, such as the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, and pulled in total compensation packages two and three times Hyde's compensation. The president and CEO of the Westchester County Health Care Corporation was paid $1.4 million in total compensation.
• GCEDC has 11 projects that were approved in 2008 with total tax exemptions awarded of $2 million. Those projects were supposed to create 66 new jobs. There were actually only 14 jobs created, according to the ABO report. That's far from the worst performance in the state, however. The Albany IDA's projects came up 2,138 jobs short on promises and 14 other IDAs had greater deficits than GCEDC's projects.
• In the list of new IDA projects for 2012, GCEDC ranks third with 13. Topping the list is Monroe County's IDA with 33 followed by New York City with 16.
• On the same list, GCEDC is third in total net exemptions, having awarded  $3.6 million, behind Jefferson County with $5.34 million on six projects and Westchester County with $4.2 million on 11 projects. Monroe's 33 projects received $2 million in exemptions and NYC's $1.5 million.
• Those 13 projects for GCEDC are expected to net 341 new FTE positions, which is the seventh highest projection in the state. NYC is number one with 1,409 estimated FTEs followed by Monroe County with 501.
• Jobs created by IDA-funded projects are a self-reported number from the employer to the sponsoring IDA. As the sponsoring IDA, GCEDC reported 244 jobs created for its 2012 projects, which is 137 new FTE positions that didn't exist before the projects were approved, but still 97 fewer jobs than promised by the projects.
• Those 137 additional jobs are enough to place GCEDC fourth in the state for IDAs creating jobs from approved projects. Tops is Monroe County with 1,369 new jobs, followed by NYC, 206, and Syracuse, 198.
• Erie County actually lost 56 jobs on its 10 projects that received $1.18 million in exemptions.
• Orleans County had one project in 2012 that received $3,000 in exemptions that promised three new jobs and three new jobs were created.  
• The Genesee Gateway LDC gave out $5.8 million in loans for projects expected to create 244 jobs with 99 FTEs positions reportedly created in 2012. That's $58,435 of loan money per new FTE position, 10th on the list for highest loan amount per job. Topping the list is Washington County LDC, which gave out 33 loans totaling $3.4 million and had two FTEs created for an average of $1.7 million per job. At the other end of the scale, Livingston County gave out 16 loans totaling $1.1 million and those projects created 243 positions, for an average of $4,501 loaned per job.

This week, staff members of the Genesee County Economic Development Center are at SEMICON West, the largest trade show globally for the semiconductor industry, held at the Mascone Center in San Francisco.

The staff is there to promote WNY STAMP, the high-tech/nano-tech industrial park in the Town of Alabama that GCEDC hopes will some day be home to at least one large technology company employing thousands of people.

Joining the GCEDC staff are representatives from Greater Rochester Enterprise, Buffalo Niagara Enterprise, Rochester Institute of Technology, and the University at Buffalo.

The photo is from GCEDC's Facebook page. At left is Chris Suozzi and second from left is  Rachael Tabelski. IDs are not provided on the other people in the picture.

Press release:

Through financial support provided by National Fuel and Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), the first class of 25 graduates received certificates as part of a workforce development program targeting the food processing industry.

Certificates were awarded to the graduates in Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt through RIT, basic dairy science and sanitation through Cornell University, as well as team building and OSHA training in a manufacturing environment through The BEST Center at Genesee Community College.

“This program is just another example of the high level of collaboration in our region between the public and private sectors and in this instance, our centers of higher education and food processing companies,” said Steve Hyde, president and CEO of the Genesee County Economic Development Center. “If we are going to create a world-class industry cluster in the food processing industry, then we need to make sure our workforce is highly trained and educated.”

Cornell University’s Department of Food Science and Cornell Cooperative Extension has been a long-term resource to the food growing and dairy processing industry in Western NY.

“Workforce development is now a key to the growing industry and we are continuously developing and improving our training programs and accessibility to meet industry needs and to support economic development," said Tristan Zuber, Dairy Foods Processing Extension associate with Cornell University.

The first graduating class of 25 individuals was from a pool of 78 applications. Sixteen graduates were from Genesee County; three from Livingston County; two from Orleans and Monroe counties; and, one from Wyoming and Cattaraugus counties.

One graduate has been hired while 18 graduates will visit and tour Yancey’s Fancy, an artisan cheese maker in Corfu, as part of a job application project at the company. Alpina and Muller Quaker Dairy are also interviewing and considering the graduates at their yogurt manufacturing facility in the Genesee Agri-Business Park.

“This is just the first step in a process to ensure that as the food processing industry grows there is an ample supply of labor to fill jobs,” said John Jakubowski a workforce consultant hired by GCEDC. “The certificate program provides a short-term solution to fill a gap, but we need to continue working on a longer term plan so that people who want a career in food processing have the skills and training to be successful.”

As part of this process, Genesee Community College has asked the New York State Education Department to approve a two year Food Processing Technology associates degree. The program has already been approved by the GCC Board of Trustees and is now under review by the State University of New York as well as SED.

“While anticipating the implementation of GCC’s full credit Food Processing Technology program, The BEST Center will be offering three more sessions of the two-week, intensive certificate program,” said Lina LaMattina, director of Business Skills Training at The BEST Center. “We are also reaching out to numerous companies within all segments of the food industry to expand employment opportunities for the program participants. After a very successful first class, we are looking forward to the next session which starts September 23, 2013.”

Those interested in applying to be part of next training cohort should contact the Genesee County Career Center (One Stop) in the Eastown Plaza, 587 E. Main St., Suite 100, Batavia, (585) 344-2042. Applicants take ability tests in math and reading. If needed, assistance with these skills is available.


May 2013 GCEDC Food Processing Training Program Graduates (all of New York):

Craig Barnes – Le Roy
Dawn Czaja – Oakfield
Victor DiGregorio – Byron
Mark Ebersole – Mt. Morris
Mary Fulkerson – Rochester  
Jeffery German – Batavia
Laurie Gerstenslager – Delevan
Donna Heininger – Batavia  
Elizabeth Horner – Darien Center
Jeanne Jansch – Dansville
Kevin Jones – Batavia  
Sharon Joyce – Batavia 
Jake Kent III – Henrietta
Steven Lindsley – Warsaw
Donald Lowe – Batavia  
Catherine MacConnell – Bergen   
Jacob MacConnell – Bergen
David Minervino – Medina
Thomas Misisco – Pavilion  
John Mosher – Bergen
Rachel Neilans – Alexander
Elise Prevost – Leicester
Daniel Sobczak – Batavia
Paul Stack – Elba
Jamie Unger – Kent
 

It's not every year that a local election has at least one issue that might sway voters. With all the attention garnered by the Genesee County Economic Development Center since the last County Legislature election, this November the opinions candidates hold on GCEDC funding and its policies might be an important issue for voters. We thought it a worthwhile public service to get candidates on the record on this issue as soon as they were declared candidates.

In posing the questions to the GOP candidates -- the first group to declare -- we found not all of the candidates agreed with that assessment.

We received objections to answering questions along the lines that it was too soon; wait until the election is closer; "my position is already well known"; and, most surprising, that candidates shouldn't have to answer questions before all of the candidates are declared.

There is apparently some concern that since there's still weeks left for candidates to declare, some candidates thought they shouldn't be asked policy questions until after the filing deadlines. None of the candidates explicitly stated that they fear their answers might prompt another candidate to enter the race. They did express concern that they would be sharing opinions that would be read by potential opponents before those opponents needed to answer the questions.

That's not a line of thinking The Batavian finds terribly persuasive. Any candidate should be willing to speak openly and publicly about their positions without fear of the political repercussions. If an opinion might spur another candidate to enter the race, well, then, that's good for democracy. If a candidate lacks sufficient confidence in a position that it will be easily targeted by opposition, then perhaps he or she should reconsider that position.

The filing deadlines are July 11 for candidates running on an established party line, and Aug. 20 for a candidate running as an independent (creating his or her own party line).

Below are the answers to our three GCEDC-related questions we received from six of the declared Republican candidates, the three declared Democrats and the lone independent to enter the race so far. After the three questions are statements we received from the three candidates who did not answer the questions. 

Question 1: Traditionally, there has been an item in the county budget to transfer money to GCEDC to assist funding the operations of the agency. Last year,  GCEDC received $215,000 in the county budget. Do you support continuing this fund transfer to GCEDC, or should it be eliminated or modified?

Shelley Stein, incumbent, Dictrict 5: The Genesee County Legislature has supported GCEDC at approximately 20% of the GCEDC 2013 approved budget. Moving forward I would support same level of funding to provide for foundational costs of GCEDC operations. Eighty percent of GCEDC’s budget must be derived from providing services and collecting fees for services from business community, grants and contractual annuity payments, not taxpayer dollars. Additionally, LeRoy Business Council and small businesses located in LeRoy are very supportive of the foundational funding of the GCEDC.

Earl Funderburk, challenger, District 5: I do not support the continuation of county budget funds to GCEDC. They have millions of dollars from fees and no longer require funds from the county.

Esther Leadley, incumbent, District 6: Every year the upcoming County budget gets several months of intense scrutiny – by the whole legislature, not just a committee. GCEDC’s funding request is always included in that scrutiny. Please note that State and Federal mandates continually erode the County legislators’ ability to provide a quality of life that Genesee County residents have come to expect.

We legislators have already begun general discussions about the 2014 budget. As we go forward, I am confident GCEDC’s funding request, when it is received, will be one of the topics of discussion. I will weigh all input and make my decision at that time.

Please also note that companies considering making a significant investment in Genesee County want concrete evidence that the County’s leadership has financial “skin in the game.”

Gregg Torrey, challenger (GOP endorsed), District 6: Every item included in the County budget needs be evaluated and that includes the funding which assists the operations of the GCEDC. With the increasing pressure put on County Government by State and Federal unfunded mandates each department must justify its funding request.

I was encouraged to see that the incentive compensation system at the GCEDC was eliminated last year. I am now more confident that the funding is directed to the intended purpose of supporting the economic development mission for the County.

With that being said, the EDC has shown a tremendous return on investment for the County and makes the County money while its funding is only a very small portion of the overall budget (under 1%). The County funding also shows that we are committed to investing in ourselves and the County’s support of the EDC’s efforts which include leveraging other State and Federal money. This support of the GCEDC does not go unnoticed during the attraction process when potential companies are considering bringing investment into our community.

Marianne Clattenburg, incumbent, District 8: My position on this issue is well documented and on the record. This was my first budget vote as a new legislator and I took the opportunity to voice the concerns that many of my constituents have expressed regarding GCEDC funding.  Many opposed the salary and bonus structure of the organization. My position is that public employees who enjoy the benefits of a NYS retirement should not receive bonuses. The second reason I did not support the funding was that I wanted to send a strong message to the GCEDC that redevelopment must also become a priority of the organization. I represent the City of Batavia. We have needs and issues that are different than those of the rural towns around us. If the GCEDC is going to work as the county’s public benefit corporation dedicated to development, then it must strive to improve all areas of the county. I will dedicate my second term to working with the organization to see that this is done. My future support would be contingent upon the organization's willingness to work toward the goals of redevelopment, particularly in the City of Batavia.

William Fava, challenger, District 8: I would support a modification of the amount transferred from Genesee County to the GCEDC Agency. Originally, the agency needed the start up fund support, but now the agency has been successful in meeting yearly goals. The Agency has increased internal manpower to parallel anticipated growth and created sub organizations to minimize potential legal problems for Genesee County. In addition, the Agency continues to look forward (to) bringing in more business growth opportunities to the area…from all points of view, this State/County endeavor appears to be a success for the County. Modifications should be appropriate over the next few budget cycles to bring the annual fund down to a more reasonable amount. In doing this, the Agency can continue to document County support in any advertisement to a potential customer. The appearance of “Lack of County Support” has been mentioned many times during previous discussions concerning a decrease in funding…this is  simply a reduction, not an elimination of the fund. A modification would be a win-win solution for the Agency and the County taxpayer.

Ed deJaneiro, incumbent, District 9: It now appears that the GCEDC finances are strong enough to continue without a County contribution.

Bob Bialkowski, challenger, District 9: I am very prudent when it comes to spending tax dollars so I would insist on a complete accounting of this expenditure. The way the state has the EDCs set up is that if you want to participate you have to pay. This means that if the county doesn’t support the GCEDC we won’t be considered for the grants the EDC receives, so yes I would vote to continue this support. Genesee County has done very well for itself considering that in a recent survey New York State placed 49th in economic development out of 50, but here we have seen tremendous growth. Last week Texas announced that it was aggressively marketing for New York businesses to move there. They have no state tax. New York needs to learn to treat all business the same and discontinue making special deals.

Andrew Young, candidate, District 4: Yes, I support the County investing in its goal of creating jobs, promoting business capital investment (which converts to tax base) and keeping our kids in our community.

Frank Ferrando, incumbent, District 7: As you indicated, the $215,000, or an amount similar, has been transferred to the GCEDC for several years. It’s not new. What I believe was disturbing to most local citizens was the bonus pay model used by the GCEDC with the assumption that the subsidy supported the bonuses. I and two colleagues on the Legislature voted against last year’s budget in objection to that practice. Bonuses are no longer a part of the GCEDC’s compensation practice. This year I will vote for the subsidy if the GCEDC Board presents to the Legislature a detailed description of a specific project the subsidy will be used to support. A demonstration of support by the County is important and it represents about .1 percent of our overall budget.

More after the jump. Click on the headline to read more.

Question 2: Are you confident that taxpayer subsidies for economic development in Genesee County are generating the results claimed/promised by GCEDC or should steps be taken to foster greater accountability?

Shelley Stein, incumbent, Dictrict 5: Investment of $215,000 of taxpayer dollars increases exponentially the capital investment in Genesee County; jobs, tax base, sales tax revenue, infrastructure (water and sewer lines), shovel-ready business parks and workforce educational opportunities. There is no better mechanism to leverage this investment in Genesee County.

LeRoy Plastics is an excellent local example of a private business seeking to retain jobs, renovate an older facility, and creating several new jobs within 3 years, as per their application to GCEDC for assistance in sales and mortgage tax relief. LeRoy community is pleased to see this local private investment as a sign of our economy turning around.

Earl Funderburk, challenger, District 5: For the money being paid to GCEDC leadership, we need a greater number of new businesses being lured to our county that provide good high-paying jobs. Base compensation of GCEDC employees should be directly tied to clear goals and objectives. GCEDC must be regulated better by the GCL, and compensation needs to become more proportional to performance.

Marianne Clattenburg, incumbent, District 8: The GCEDC has been very successful with many of the projects they have put forward. The opening of two new factories in the Town of Batavia is a remarkable achievement considering it was done during one of the worst economic downturns in recent memory. The STAMP project is in its preliminary stages. I fully support bringing high tech jobs to Genesee County. We need to develop the jobs that will enable future generations to live and work in the areas that they have grown up in. I do have concerns, as I said in my prior answer, that issues that face different areas of the county all need to be addressed. The legislature has the obligation to foster accountability. We have instituted term limits for the first time. We control who sits on the GCEDC board and we control a portion of their operating budget. I believe we must continue to work toward greater accountability and I support the steps that have been taken thus far.

Esther Leadley, incumbent, District 6: Yes, I am confident that “taxpayer subsidies for economic development in Genesee County are generating the results claimed/promised by the GCEDC.”  GCEDC leadership reports regularly to the Ways and Means Committee of the Legislature, and annually to the whole Legislature. These are open meetings that anyone can attend. The Legislature and GCEDC work as partners, not as adversaries. I believe that the people we legislators appoint to the GCEDC board do have the best interests of Genesee County residents at the forefront of their decisions.

Gregg Torrey, challenger (GOP endorsed), District 6: I’ve seen firsthand the results and successes of the GCEDC at the Genesee Ag Park which includes successfully attracting international investment, as well as a Fortune 500 company, to locate and invest in our community. Over $200 million in private investment and nearly 200 quality jobs have been brought into in the park and there is about 40% of the park still to be developed.

The bottom line about accountability is results and the GCEDC is generating results. There have been considerable improvements within the last year in transparency, communication, and policy adjustments as well. I would like to see increased engagement by the County Legislature in appointing Board members to the GCEDC that will maintain this high level of accountability and responsibility as they continue to carry out the comprehensive economic development activities for the County.

William Fava, challenger, District 8: The results that are reported each year by GCEDC are gathered by the Agency itself and independent Accounting/Consulting organizations. The information reported to the Agency, should be audited to be validated as to the accuracy for the period being reported…remembering that numbers don’t lie, people may distort facts to support their case. For example, if a company is granted a subsidy for the creation of 5 positions, the company goes out and hires 5 people over the agreed period, a few months later, 3 people out of the 5 are released. The company reported that they hired during this period, but after the period ended…so did the employment of the three employees. The taxpayers of this county have not forgotten what Sylvania “pulled” after its tax subsidy ended; there are many individuals that never recovered from this loss of employment. The reasoning behind any subsidy or abatement program is the potential  “offset”  by increased sales tax collections, increased business for local vendors, increased home ownership, increased job opportunities to increase a person’s income…for the residents of the City of Batavia…look around, do you see more retail businesses starting up, do you see more new housing construction, do you see the City of Batavia enjoying an overflowing increase of new sales tax dollars? Maybe you see it in the Town of Batavia, but not in the City. The potential windfall of increased betterment has not reached the City of Batavia. I would support less independence of operation and an increase in accountability.

Ed deJaneiro, incumbent, District 9: GCEDC continues to provide new job opportunities in our County. I believe every agency needs greater accountability especially if they receive government funding.

Bob Bialkowski, challenger, District 9: The GCEDC is overseen by a board of directors. I would like to see the board being more accountable to the legislature. If elected it would be my goal to push for more development in the city and improved communications between the GCEDC board and city council. For the last few years there was a large public outcry over the GCEDC staff being paid large bonuses. The NYS comptroller issued a statement that this was wrong and needed to be discontinued. This was a major point of contention amongst taxpayers and it has been stopped. Now it’s time to move on and put a better system of checks and balances in place.

Andrew Young, candidate, District 4: Contrary to some heavily biased reports recently, the Genesee County Economic Development Center is revered and respected statewide. It also has been recognized regionally and even nationally as a benchmark organization. It amazes me that within our own county borders we don’t understand just how good they are.

Frank Ferrando, incumbent, District 7: The questions presented to the Legislative candidates might be great questions for GCEDC Board members. The GCEDC Board, as everyone realizes, is its own entity. Once appointed, they have governance over the program until terms expire.

Having stated that, I believe, as I trust most citizens in the county (do), that progress is happening.  The Ag Park is but one example. Presently 200+ are working there. More jobs are coming. I also understand a McDonald’s restaurant will be going up on the East side of the City, a good indicator of spin off development. I personally would like to see a greater emphasis on redevelopment since this is the strategy needed for the City of Batavia, Village of Leroy, etc. In summary, the progress to me is obvious and it should make us feel optimistic about the future.

Question 3: Do you support or oppose tax breaks for retail projects, such as those provided to COR Development for Batavia Towne Center and the Dick’s Sporting Goods project? 

Shelley Stein, incumbent, Dictrict 5: COR Development project is a very unique project for “retail development” in Genesee County. Each retail project is measured against IDA laws. COR Project does qualify for the unique allowable retail project status, for goods and services not readily available to Genesee County residents. Our board of directors of GCEDC performed a very comprehensive and exhaustive review of the project, found it to be within the letter of the law and the right investment for Genesee County residents. There are several other retail projects in our county not eligible for tax incentive abatements.

I do support PILOT incentives to encourage capital investment with a schedule of payments to local school districts, towns, villages, city and county in lieu of property taxes. The schedule builds gradually to 100% of assessment being taxable and providing increased revenue to all of the taxing jurisdictions mentioned above. Tax base increases reduce local property taxes for all of us. As a previous Town Supervisor, Town of LeRoy did receive over $20,000 per year and increased annually in PILOT payments. The school district and village have received scheduled payments also to support their annual budgets and reduce the property tax burden of homeowners.

Earl Funderburk, challenger, District 5: As a rule of fairness, the tax playing field for corporations should not have handpicked winners and losers. Existing companies should not have the playing field tilted in favor of the new guy on the block by providing them unfair tax incentives. Additionally, I believe it is healthier for our local economy to have diversity in our local businesses. One or two large employers can provide a substantial base of economic support, but the risk is that if one or two of those corporations fail or leave the economy will greatly suffer. By encouraging growth for small and medium businesses (SMBs) we can grow the economy, minimize risk, and encourage entrepreneurship. That said, there is a place for the GCEDC and incentives. Tax incentives must be consistent and rule based. Criteria and parameters should be clearly defined and not subjective. Decisions should not be made based on who you know or how good your story might be. Decisions should be made based on numbers and facts. There must be clear expectations and consequences for missing targets placed on businesses receiving incentives. Any new incentives should be time bound and consistent from one company to another. In short, the playing field should be level. I’d like to see this become the rule in Genesee County -- if not all of New York State.

Esther Leadley, incumbent, District 6: Tax breaks for retail projects are a new component of New York State’s Industrial Development Agency (IDA) regulations. Our GCEDC, which is our county’s IDA, has very qualified legal assistance from Harris Beach, a respected law firm in Rochester. I partially understand tax breaks, such as Payment In Lieu Of Taxes (PILOTs), but that is not my area of expertise. Therefore, I cautiously trust others to make appropriate economic development a priority for Genesee County.

Gregg Torrey, challenger (GOP endorsed), District 6: As a general rule, I think that retail projects need to be scrutinized more closely because they tend not to increase the overall demand for retail goods and services and may create intense competition for established stores. It is important when considering providing tax expenditure benefits to a project such as the COR Development project that you do not end up with a net financial loss for the County.

You must, however, also consider the impact that this project will have on the sales tax revenue for the County. It is estimated that the COR Development project will generate an additional $2 million in sales tax annually once it reaches full occupancy. With this estimate the project would provide an additional $1 million to the County in local sales tax revenue. The estimated economic impact of this specific project is 25:1; meaning that for every dollar of tax relief the company will invest $25. If this project can come anywhere near these projections it would be a tremendous return on investment for the County.

The GCEDC Board has made a “Unique Facility / Services” determination for this project in order for it to be approved, which means that they feel that the predominant purpose of the project is to make goods or services which would not be, but for the project, reasonably accessible to the residents of the municipality where the project is located. I am comfortable with the Board’s analysis, determinations and approval of this specific project. I have also found that the GCEDC has participated in very few retail projects and chose not to participate in several potential retail projects including the McDonald’s project under development on the City of Batavia’s east end near the AG park.

Marianne Clattenburg, incumbent, District 8: I do not support the COR Development tax breaks for one reason: I believe they are unfair to existing retail stores in the City of Batavia. I am very concerned that this will negatively affect the small businesses that have served our residents for many years. I believe the board should have considered this before they voted to approve COR’s request. 

William Fava, challenger, District 8: In this particular situation, I do not support the tax break for assisting construction on something that we already subsidized a few years back. To support this redo plan is basically using taxpayer money paid by our merchants (the ones that have remained in the city..ie., Barrett’s Sporting Goods)  to help them be put out business by the big box retailers. The EDC should have approached this redo with more thought and creativity and at the same time operate within the guidelines set forth by the state.

Ed deJaneiro, incumbent, District 9: I do not support tax breaks for major retailers. I believe that giant retail stores will locate here, if they think there is money to be made, with or without tax breaks.

Bob Bialkowski, challenger, District 9: It is unfortunate that all businesses aren’t treated equal. Basically I am against these types of discriminatory practices but I did not make the rules for the EDCs. What we have in New York now is a system where everyone is competing against each other for the same piece of the action. This is why New York placed 49th in economic development. I would push for a more equitable system of tax incentives to help all business in the county. This would be a difficult but not impossible battle. At the county level some relief and assistance could be given to already existing businesses.

Andrew Young, candidate, District 4: I believe each project needs to be judged based on its individual merits. If after careful consideration a project makes sense for our community, we should support it.

In regard to your specific example of COR, it is important to note that like nearly all GCEDC projects, no outlay of taxpayer dollars (cash) was given, no checks were written. The County simply agreed not to take as much of the increased tax revenue that results from additional capital investment. This is done to incentivize investment and is done only for a period of time.

Even with the unfortunate departure of Lowe's, the Batavia Towne Center facility produced more than $1 million in local sales tax revenues this past year. Our county’s sales tax revenues have increased considerably because of this retail center.

In 2013, the Batavia Towne Center (COR and Target) will pay some $314,000 in local property taxes. If that site was still a trailer park, its property owners would have paid roughly $40,000 in local property taxes. And by the way, that amount paid by COR and Target increases substantially each year going forward until it is on the tax rolls for 100% of its value at which time the owners will be paying in excess of seven hundred fifty thousand dollars each year in local property taxes. Again, instead of $40,000.

The most recent COR project applies only to new/additional capital investment. It will drive an additional $18 million into our community, all of which does not exist today and much of which will further increase the local property tax paid, immediately and to a greater degree over time. It will also generate a considerable net increase in sales tax for our local municipalities.

Frank Ferrando, incumbent, District 7: I appreciate that the GCEDC recognizes the importance of all business. If new jobs can be created and additional revenue streams developed for our municipalities, those are good things. Our tax base will be expanded over time and sales tax kicks in at the onset of business. Should we let the land sit idle? That option, in my opinion, would be bad business.

District 1, Raymond F. Cianfrini: Howard, I think most of us on the County Legislature have established our position regarding GCEDC. Why not ask the new candidates where they stand? Also, I think it's way too premature to be getting into these issues now. Why not wait for the election season? Also, what is this going to establish with those of us who have no opposition? Finally, I have to ask by going into these issues if you are reporting the news or trying to generate news?

District 2, Robert J. Bausch: Howard, I appreciate your questions and they are valid. However the questions will be more appropriate in the fall after all the tickets have been established.

I have established a public record on the issues and have received questions about my position on various occasions so the public knows my positions.  

District 3, Annie M. Lawrence: Your timing is premature on this issue. Play fair, when all parties have endorsed for Genesee County Legislature, then I will be able to answer your questions.  (Note: This came in from Lawrence before the Democrats had announced their candidates. However, once the candidates were announced, we received no further e-mails from Lawrence.)

Press release:

The Genesee County Economic Development Center (GCEDC) approved four projects at its June board meeting. They total approximately $2 million in investments as well as the retention of 91 jobs and the creation of 22 new jobs.

“All of the projects being considered by the board are investments in infrastructure which means the companies seeking benefits intend to be here for the long term,” said Steve Hyde, GCEDC president and CEO. “Companies typically do not invest in facilities and infrastructure without long-term plans so it is great to see this commitment to our region.”

Mega Properties, Inc., (Koolatron) is a Canadian company that manufactures, markets and distributes various portable thermoelectric cooler parts and components. The company is proposing to invest $775,000 in its operations that would retain 11 jobs and create six new jobs. Because the company is seeking more than $100,000 in incentives – in this case $190,000 – a public hearing must be scheduled.

Imagination Industries is seeking to build a 7,015-square-foot facility at 8240 Buffalo Road in the Town of Bergen. The multiuse facility will house an indoor firing range, training center, gunsmith services and a laser engraving business. The company plans to invest nearly $400,000 that would create 10 new jobs.  The project is allowable under state retail restrictions as the purpose is to make available services which would not be, but for the project, “reasonably accessible” to residents of the municipality where the project is located.  

The company is seeking a sales tax exemption of $19,970, a mortgage tax exemption of $3,750 and a property tax abatement of $63,195. The Board found that the project meets the goods and services retail clause in order to approve the application.

Reinhart Enterprises operates a 25,720-square-foot multi-commercial tenant facility on Liberty Street in Batavia. Due to flooding this past year, 4500 square feet of space was vacated. The company is looking to improve its facility and is planning a $206,000 capital investment for drainage and parking lot improvements to enhance the property for current and prospective office and corporate tenants. The company is seeking a sales tax exemption of $9,888. The investment would create three new jobs and retain 80.

Jackson Square LLC, the former Cars Warehouse which was built around 1880 in the area of the city known as Jackson Square, is proposing to convert the former structure into a mixed-use commercial and residential site. The ground floor will have flex office/light industrial and four new market rate apartments on the second and third floors. 

The City of Batavia is the current owner of building and will transfer the title to the Batavia Development Corporation for sale to Jackson Square LLC. The company is seeking a sales tax exemption of $24,816 and a mortgage tax exemption of $2,994 contingent upon Jackson Square LLC purchasing the building.

Throughout the 90-minute opening ceremony for the new Muller Quaker Dairy Plant in the Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park, Steve Hyde sat in the second row and smiled.

Not one speaker -- and there were five of them -- mentioned Hyde by name. There was no official recognition of his work to bring this day about.

Still, he smiled.

You couldn't help but think of a proud father watching his son or daughter graduate.

Asked how he felt afterward, Hyde, as he usually does when posed such questions, demurred and praised others.

"It’s a great day for everybody in the community," Hyde said. "This was a dream of mine and a lot of other partners. It’s 10 years in the making and this is just phase one."

Hyde has his critics. Genesee County Economic Development Center, the organization he runs, has its skeptics. But the Muller Quaker plant is a big deal, especially for a county of only 57,000 people that hasn't had a big factory opening in more than five decades.

PepsiCo and Theo Muller Group invested $200 million in the facility and that dollar figure doesn't count product development, designs for new trade-secret machinery to create the Greek-style yogurt, new software to run the plant and the planning that goes into bringing a new product to market.

Ken Adams, president of Empire State Development, indicated he was a little bit awed by the idea of a global powerhouse like Pepsi and a German-based company like Theo Muller coming to Upstate New York.

"Having PepsiCo here, having Muller here, is like a global seal of approval for this park and its infrastructure," Adams said.

And he gives a lot of the credit for making it happen to Hyde.

"Steve Hyde as far as I’m concerned, he really put the agri-business park, this particular location, on the map at a statewide level," Adams said. "Steve is always in Albany working very closely with the legislators from the area, senate and assembly, working very close with the governor’s office.

"I’ve told this to him, so I'll say it to you," Adams added, "Steve Hyde is a forceful, well respected advocate for investment and economic development here in Batavia. He really put the site on the map and then he also pulls everybody together at the local and state level to make sure a project like this actually goes smoothly. That’s important for the company, for the investors, that there are no hiccups along the way."

A critical factor with Muller Quaker -- called Project Wave during the planning process -- was the speed at which all of the necessary permits could be secured. A lot of credit goes to Town of Batavia and Genesee County officials, but the GCEDC staff laid the ground work to have a shovel-ready site and push the paperwork through the process.

In his speech today, Theo Muller praised the local authorities who got approval for the plant so quickly.

"It would be unimaginable in Germany," he said with a wink. "In Germany that would have taken at the very least three years. You have to send a whole case of yogurt to them over there to get anything done."

Sen. Charles Schummer called the ag park a great idea of local leaders and said when GCEDC came to him for help, he was happy to jump in and secure federal grants for infrastructure.

"There is no better way to strengthen our dairy industry and create jobs than to build a park like this, which has helped attract this great company," Schumer said.

Assemblyman Steve Hawley, who helped with the state legislative process on the project, noted that in any big project like this, stretching, as it does, across the boundaries of local, state and federal responsibilities, there are a lot of people who deserve credit for bringing it together, but Hyde certainly provided critical leadership.

"This is a big deal," Hawley said. "It's one of the largest plants in the country. We need jobs. I hear about it every day from constituents."

It takes a lot of work, Hawley said, to untangle the regulations that can hold up a business and a lot of people had a hand in bringing it together.

"A lot of the credit goes to Steve, but it's a team effort," Hawley said.

Danny Wegman, CEO of Wegmans and president of the Finger Lakes Economic Development Council, is also a Steve Hyde fan. He believes Hyde will pull off the gargantuan task of developing WNY STAMP, the proposed 1,200-acre, high-tech manufacturing park in Alabama that could employ 9,300 people some day.

It's an audacious project, but Wegman said when there are people passionate about projects, they can make things happen.

"Steve is very excited about this," Wegman said last week during the governor's visit to Genesee Community College. "There are a lot of confidential things that can't be shared, but I feel confident that if somebody I believe in is excited about it, the chances of it happening are pretty good."

The success of the ag park only enhances the chance's of success with STAMP, Adams said.

"We’re very hopeful," Adams said. "It’s a globally competitive industry. The opportunity is at STAMP. It’s a great site. It’s much bigger than this site, the agri-business park, but Steve has done a good job at lining up all of the vital ingredients for that site -- power, water, obviously the land, permitting, all the things you need to really be shovel-ready when the right business comes along. He’s the chief marketer. He’s going to Albany tomorrow. He’s on it and he works very closely my colleagues at ESD on marketing STAMP, so we have our fingers crossed."

Hyde said it's all about building on the natural assets of Batavia and Genesee County and showing that can be done with the ag park will translate into confidence for other projects, such as STAMP.

"It helps build credibility in the eyes of some of the folks in the leadership roles in the state that we know how to do this here at the local level," Hyde said. "This (agriculture) is an industry where the regional assets were in great demand and we could make an impact, and when you look at the regional assets in the nano stuff in our region we’ve got the same situation developing."

According to Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo, Batavians owe a big thank you to Danny Wegman.

No, not for promising one of his unriviled grocery stores to Genesee County, but for steering her attention toward yogurt and the need to produce it in Western New York.

"When I visited Danny in his flagship store in Rochester, Danny said to me, ‘Indra, you should get into the yogurt business because it’s growing extremely rapidly and if you do, the plant has to be located right around here in Upstate New York,' " Nooryi said. "I listened to Danny  because Danny is one of the most respected thinkers in the industry, and, Danny, we delivered on the promise.”

Wegman stood at the back of a tent crowded with local and state dignitaries and smiled broadly.

Last week, Wegman told The Batavian that it might take build out of the STAMP project in Alabama to bring a Wegmans to Batavia. Today, Wegman (top inset photo) had a slightly different take.

Coming out from a tour of the new Muller Quaker Dairy plant, he said, "more projects like this and we'll be here."

The dairy plant -- which will manufacture two brands of Greek-style yogurt, Muller FrutUp and Muller Corner -- officially opened today.

To start, it operates three production lines, employs 180 people in a 350,000-square-foot facility that could one day accommodate as many as 16 production lines.

Already, the plant produces 120,000 cups of yogurt per hour.

Sen. Charles Schumer announced during opening ceremonies that Muller Quaker has reached an agreement with the Upstate Milk Cooperative to source all of its milk from WNY dairy farmers.

The OA-TK-A plant in Batavia will produce the milk protein that Muller Quaker uses in its yogurt production (rather than strain milk as done in traditional Greek yogurt production, Muller Quaker adds protein to give its yogurt a similar rich, silky texture).

"This is an amazing shot in the arm for our economy here in Western New York and I am pledged to continue to do whatever I can do to make this the most successful venture in Western New York," Schumer said.

The project brings together two companies -- the worldwide giant in the food and beverage industry, PepsiCo, and a much smaller, but well respected, dairy company from Germany, the Theo Muller Group.

Stephan Muller, who moved to the United States to assume the reins of the new company, spoke about the entrepreneurial spirit, the risk taking of the $200 million investment by the two companies.

Muller represents the fifth generation of Mullers in the dairy business.

His father, Theo Muller, said through a translator, that the company made previous attempts to break into the U.S. market.

Stephen Muller described his father as a bit of a technophobe who never used a computer and then he got an iPhone just after Stephen Muller arrived in the U.S.

"He sent me a text message," Muller said. "I think it was his first one or one of his first ones. He said, ’520 years ago Christopher Columbus started his journey west with just three ships. Now you are our Columbus. Capital, excellent knowledge now are your ships, and one thing one cannot buy, the iron will to have success."

Nooyi (second inset photo) believes the product will be successful

PepsiCo already has a track record of success of developing a balanced portfolio of food and beverage products that she described as "fun for you, good for you and better for you."

"PepsiCo is becoming a real force in the good-for-you space," Nooyi said. "We have the best go-to-market systems and superior marketing, combined with Muller’s leadership in phenomenal dairy products, I think we’re going to become a real force in the dairy business in North America."

The success in just getting the plant open bodes well for Batavia, Schumer said. With 90 acres of available space at the Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park, there will likely be more jobs coming to town.

"We could employ as many as 1,200 more people when the food processors learn of the transportation advantages, the food production advatnages and just the work force advantages that we have here in this area," Schumer said.  "Food processors from around the world are learning what we have to offer."

Ken Adams, president of Empire State Development, said the success of today's opening is something that will attract more investment in the park, especially in supply chain support for Muller.

"It’s a very powerful confirmation of this facility, the agri-business park as a center for international investment," Adams said. "One thing I’m struck with at this ceremony is you’ve got a global leader like PepsiCo partnering wth Muller and obviously Quaker, the PepsiCo brand, coming together right here in Batavia. The project confirms Batavia, Genesee County’s position, certainly in the Northeast if not North America, as a center of the yogurt universe."

To purchase prints of these photos, click here.

The state law meant to curtail tax breaks by IDAs for retail developments should be defined as narrowly as possible, according to Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

If IDAs broadly interpret the law and push through subsidies for projects that should be outside its scope, then reforms may be necessary, DiNapoli said.

"They should certainly interpret it as narrowly as possible," DiNapoli said. "Having not been a Legislator at the time, I can't overly interpret on their behalf the intent. But what I think we'll do with IDAs that are too broadly interpreting that exception is, we'll make recommendations and work with legislators to tighten up that definition, if that seems necessary to curtail the use of IDA incentives for retail."

DiNapoli was in Batavia this afternoon for a meet-and-greet fundraiser hosted by the Genesee County Democrats at Larry's Steakhouse.

Throughout a six-minute conversation with The Batavian, DiNapoli made it clear he doesn't believe IDAs should be, as a general rule, handing out tax incentives to retail projects.

Asked whether retail chains really wouldn't come to a community unless they get tax breaks, DiNapoli said "that probably varies from community to community," but went on to explain the problem, as he sees it, with such IDA incentives.

"The kind of retail projects we've seen in recent years are the kind of projects that in the long term do not promote the kind of job creation and economic development that would really make a lasting difference in a community," DiNapoli said.

"I continue to have very healthy skepticism of the value of such incentives. As we always point out, there is a cost to the communities that isn't fully realized, so it underscores that the kinds of economic development (undertaken) should be of greater significance, more long lasting, have a transformational impact, and retail doesn't really provide that."

In early May, the Genesee County Economic Development Center Board approved $1.8 million in tax incentives for COR Development to remodel the vacant space at Batavia Towne Center formerly occupied by Lowe's Home Improvement.

The package includes a reduction in property taxes and forgiveness of state and local sales taxes on building material and store fixtures.

The state law prohibits IDAs from giving away state sales tax money unless certain findings are made (there is no law that prohibits other tax breaks for retail projects). The potential findings are that the project is in a highly distressed area, is a tourist destination or will provide goods and services not readily available to area residents.

It was on the last exception that the GCEDC board based its decision on. There was no evidence presented at any public meeting to substantiate the finding.

The only known tenant at the time of the vote was Dick's Sporting Goods.

Genesee County has five small retail outlets that sell sporting goods, four of which are locally owned.

Among the arguments put forward by GCEDC CEO Steve Hyde in support of tax breaks for COR is that he needs that Lowe's space filled in order to attract major corporations to projects such as WNY Stamp and the Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park.

"I'm not sure I buy that argument," DiNapoli said. "I'm not in a position to judge that, but that argument is a stretch."

DiNapoli acknowledged that interpretation of the law is largely left up to the local IDAs.

"Even the report we put out every year (on IDAs in NYS), even that is limited by the fact that it's self-reported information," DiNapoli said. "As people have pointed out, IDAs, as well as other authorities in New York, tend to operate with a level of autonomy that I think doesn't provide a maximum opportunity for accountability.

"As you point out," he added, "there are certain exceptions and there certainly there isn't any easy way to clamp down on an IDA that might be too generous in interpreting that exception."

During the "gaggle" (that's what reporters call it) with Gov. Andrew Cuomo following his speech at GCC yesterday, I asked him specifically about Genesee County Economic Development Center providing tax incentives to the retail project at Batavia Towne Center.

In these mini-press conferences, reporters are only given enough time to ask a few questions and it's difficult to ask follow-up questions, so I fumbled through my question (which really should have been a two- or three-parter), trying to cram in as much information into a short time as possible (and it was still a pretty long-winded question).

Another media outlet has reported that Cuomo was critical of the retail tax subsidies given to COR. The quote used: “It wasn’t the smartest investment of money."

The quote, in my view, is being taken out of context.

Here's Cuomo's full response to my question:

Your case is fact specific and I would have to look at the actual facts to see what they did. We had proposed IDA reforms. I believe there are economies that I can find there and I believe there are incidents where you can find it wasn't the smartest investment of money. That's why, that's one of the reasons I like the approach we're talking about here today. It's simple. It's clean. It doesn't have a lot of bureaucratic red tape. It's very easy to administer. Very few government officials required to administer it. So I think it's preferable to a lot of things we've done in the past.

Included in Cuomo's budget was a reenacted law meant to curtail IDAs providing tax breaks to retail projects. I asked Cuomo what the intent of that law was. He said, "Just improve the process and address the kind of abuses you've been talking about." He then said thank you and turned and left.

I didn't report any of this because I didn't find it particularly newsworthy. He couldn't address the specific local issue (hardly surprising, but I had to ask) and his answer to the more general "intent" question referenced my own question, which by his own admission, he didn't know much about. That seemed like a kind of circular logic that didn't make a lot of sense.

However, given that another media outlet used the quote, and though I don't mean to be critical of a fellow reporter, I feel obliged to put the quote in context.

Genesee Community College sits high on a hill surrounded by a lot of open space.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo visited GCC today to promote his "New York Tax Free" proposal, which would allow SUNY campuses such as GCC to play host to new businesses or businesses that are creating new jobs.

Up to 200,000 square feet of land around a SUNY campus could also be used for the 100-percent-tax-free zone.

All that open space around GCC, then, might also be described as opportunity.

"That was the vision 10 years ago that we started developing with GCC and Dr. Steiner and now Dr. Sunser," said Steve Hyde, CEO of GCEDC. The agency now has offices across the street from the college campus in what's known as the Upstate Med-Tech Center. "I think we're really well positioned to rock and roll together and really make a difference here."

Cuomo is clearly passionate about his proposal.  Whatever its critics might have to say about it, Cuomo has an answer and at times during his speech and afterward made his points with the fervor of an evangelist for Upstate New York.

Cuomo:

Nobody ever said (speaking of those who have left New York), I didn’t like New York or I didn’t like Upstate New York. Nobody.

We did this (mess up the state and cause 50 years of decline) to ourselves. We did this to ourselves because this state has every asset imaginable.

I spent eight years in the Clinton Administration. I worked in every state in this nation, literally, dozens and dozens of times. I know everything else that’s out there. I’ve seen the best that every state has. No state has to offer what we have to offer in New York. No state has our combination of talents.

Our geography, our diversity, our history, the most beautiful natural resources, mountain ranges, the greatest cities, beaches, we have it all, all in one state – the best of everything with the distillation of the best of America -- in one state called New York.

So it’s not that that they're beating us. We're beating us. We created these conditions. We can reverse these conditions. Reduce the taxes. Make this state as competitive as any state out there from a tax point of view.

"NY Tax Free" would turn SUNY campuses into zones with no state or local taxes of any kind for businesses based on the campuses (or in the 200K zone), and a company's employees, for up to 10 years.

The businesses would have to match the educational mission of the host campus, working in industries of related fields of study.

Cuomo's dream is clearly to incubate the next Apple or Google.

"If you look at the places that are creating jobs, it's the higher education institutions that are doing research and development. It's the 28-year-old who develops the new chip or the new iPhone of the new application, but the schools are actually creating the jobs."

These sorts of companies are getting founded on NY campuses now, Cuomo said, but 75 percent of them leave New York within the first year, taken either by founders or investors to lower tax states such as Florida or Texas.

Yes, the proposal is big and bold, Cuomo said. No other state in the nation has ever dared to take on such an audacious project, but New York does big and bold well, Cuomo said (while a picture of the Erie Canal was projected on the screen behind him).

Big problems, he said, require big solutions.

"People have been leaving," Cuomo said. "Jobs have been leaving. At the same time, we have more and more government and the costs of governing are going up and up while there are fewer and fewer people to pay for the increasing cost of government, which makes taxes higher, making the tax burden higher, which causes more people to leave. That's the dynamic and the longer the dynamic continues, the worst it gets."

Upstate, especially, needs the help, Cuomo said, and with 55 of the 64 SUNY campuses located in Upstate, and 95 percent of Upstate residents living within 30 miles of a SUNY campus, this proposal makes a lot of sense.

In the past several years, there has been only a 5-percent increase in new jobs in Upstate, while New York City has grown jobs at a clip of 16 percent. The 5-percent growth rate doesn't even keep up with the national average.

The proposal would create 120 million square feet of entrepreneurial space in Upstate, Cuomo said, which is more commercial space than in San Francisco and Philadelphia combined, and more than Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse combined.

Speaking with reporters after his speech, Cuomo said the major criticism he's heard of the proposal is that taxes should be lowered to zero for everyone.

"It's the right idea to have zero taxes across the board," Cuomo said, "but there's some problems with the details."

If the proposal seems unfair, Cuomo argued that the current tax system is unfair.

"There is not a level playing field in the current tax code," Cuomo said. "The more you make, the more you pay. Some businesses get tax breaks that others don't. We have tax breaks for manufacturing. Why? Because we decided we want manufacturing businesses here. We have tax breaks for the film business ... because we want to produce movies here. It's a falsity that the tax code is equal, but for this. The tax code is anything but equal."

He also argued that residents around SUNY campuses will benefit from the job creation, with employees of these companies buying groceries, cars and houses locally.

"There will be economic activity in your community and that will be a good thing for you," Cuomo said.

He added, "We can't sustain what's going on now in Upstate New York. We cannot sustain the population decline. Nobody moving in. Everybody moving out. Fewer and fewer people paying the cost of a growing government.  We cannot continue the trajectory we've been on."

Earlier this week, we e-mailed 10 questions to Steve Hyde about the approval of the COR Development Project. Below are the questions and his responses verbatum.

Q. According to the best available information, at the time the GCEDC board passed the resolution finding that COR's project would provide goods and services not readily available, only one of the proposed tenants was known and two others were in negotiations. How can such a finding be made without a certainty as to the exact tenants? What if COR were to change the tenants to include, say, a liquor store and/or a jewelry store (two business categories well represented in Batavia)?

A. We cannot comment on private negotiations between a developer and prospective tenants.  Like every project that is presented to our board, we have to rely on the information provided to us by the applicant which included a confidential disclosure of not only the known Dick’s project but two additional tenants as well. If the tenants that ultimately reach an agreement with the developer fail to fulfill the new criteria as defined by state law, we would ask our legal counsel for an opinion as to whether the applicant is living up to their end of the agreement and initiate appropriate claw backs. We are confident that COR will fulfill their obligations as they are a reputable developer.

Q. GCEDC has asserted that the COR project is bringing in retail with goods and services not readily available in Genesee County, but there's never been any specific information from GCEDC to substantiate this claim. What exactly is it about the known COR tenants that provides goods and services not readily available in Genesee County? Beyond the assertion, what are the facts to back up the assertion?

A. Again, we are relying on information provided by the applicant that the tenants both know and where private negotiations are occurring will provide goods and services that are not readily available in our community. We confident that COR will fulfill their commitments as it pertains to the GCEDC board’s finding which allows for GCEDC participation in the project under the retail exception as a part of the new state law.

Q. Does GCEDC have any obligation to provide mitigation for the tax breaks given to COR to the existing retailers, be they an independent business such as Batavia Marine or long-standing national chains such as Kmart (which also sells sporting goods)?

A. Any business in the community can submit an application for assistance to our agency and if they fulfill criteria such as the creation of new jobs and investment then they may be eligible for assistance. Our goal is to help businesses create jobs and bring new investment to our community and we stand ready to do everything we can to do that. We encourage businesses to learn more about the incentives provided by our agency. Information about these incentives as well as an application for assistance are available on our Web site at www.gcedc.com.

Q. Calculating from COR's own sales tax estimates, their tenants will generate somewhere in the neighborhood of $26 million in annual sales. On what basis are we to believe that Batavia is a marginal market in need of tax incentives in order to attract these retail businesses? The figures appear to be right in line with Dick's per store gross sales average, which means they should be able to project $500,000 in net annual profit. At that kind of return, do these retail stores really need tax breaks in order to come to Batavia? Aren't the things that make Batavia an attractive place to do business -- centrally located in a large rural area, Thruway proximity, promising economic growth -- sufficient for retail without tax breaks, and if it not, what will keep these business in town when the subsidies run out?

A. The fact that we do not have large retailers like Dick’s indicates that Batavia is a marginal market, however as we grow our economy through projects like Alpina and Muller Quaker and longer term STAMP, we will become a destination market. The fact remains, the developer applied for tax relief to conduct an adaptive reuse and expansion of the property at Batavia Towne Center that will create jobs and new investment in our community and just as important the application submitted fulfills the criteria for retail under the new state law.

Q. According to COR, the stores will invest a collective $11 million in opening their stores. If a retail business is willing to make that kind of financial comment to a community, how can we believe that tax incentives are critical to attracting national retail to Batavia?

A. Think about that for a moment. If you had an opportunity to make a $1.8 million investment over 10 years, which is essentially what our incentive package totals, and the return on that investment was $11 million worth of capital investment, who would not make that deal. On top of that, our investment of $1.8 million is going to be returned in the first year alone based on sales tax revenue generation which will benefit our community and help keep property tax rates down.  Without our assistance, there is no $11 million capital investment and no new sales tax revenue for our community thereby creating additional pressure to raise property taxes which hurt residents and businesses.

Q. GCEDC has asserted that it's bad for the community and bad for attracting business to have Lowe's vacant. In the time since it's been vacant, GCEDC has landed two major tenants and is about to land a third for the Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park. What evidence is there that a vacant Lowe's hurts business development?

A. When both Alpina and Muller Quaker were touring the area, the Lowe’s store was in fact still open which showed the companies that we did in fact have a vibrant retail center immediately located off of the I-90. Moreover, we are trying to take a holistic approach to economic development here in our community. You seemingly are taking the view that the Lowe’s vacancy does not “hurt” business development; we take the view, based on our years of experience in the company attraction business, that a vibrant retail center located at the gateway of our community enhances our ability to attract companies to our community in this very competitive world of economic development.

Q. GCEDC has asserted that it's bad to have a vacant Lowe's, but COR has said that it's bad for the rest of Batavia Towne Center to have a vacant Lowe's. Doesn't COR have a strong motivation to lease that space even without tax abatements?

A. I don’t want to single COR out; they are a prominent developer and like many developers they have options and choices as to where to lure their retail clients. Our decision was based on an application that our board believes fulfills the criteria under the new state law specific to retail projects. We believe the return on investment that will be generated through the tax assistance provided will create a vibrant towne center.

Q. What do you say to a comment such as Mike Barrett's, that tax incentives are like "using your own tax money to put yourself out of business"?

A. Alpina and Muller Quaker and the related economic benefits would not have occurred without the incentives being provided through the GCEDC. To the contrary, we are using incentives to create new jobs and new wealth and subsequently new tax revenues to make our community more prosperous and an even better place to work, live and play. I can assure you that Alpina and Muller Quaker are not putting local dairy farmers out of business.

Q. Based on our polls and nearly daily discussions with people in our community, it's difficult to find local residents who support tax breaks going to COR. Is it appropriate for GCEDC to go against the wishes of the vast majority of Genesee County residents on such an important issue?

A. Genesee County has a population of approximately 60,000 residents. A public hearing was held in the evening which was open to the public; about 30 residents attended and six spoke against the project during the hearing. One letter was received at the offices of the GCEDC opposing the project and was officially included in the transcripts of the hearing. The board was provided a written copy of the transcripts from the public hearing prior to voting to approve the adaptive reuse and expansion project at Batavia Towne Center. I think if we were to start relying on polling that admittedly in not statistically accurate and to use that data to make decisions about economic development, you would not see many businesses even contemplating coming to our community.

Q. Will GCEDC continue to have a policy of providing tax breaks to retail projects even though there is a significant body of research that shows tax incentives to retail have no tangible return to local communities and even though the vast majority of Genesee County residents oppose such tax breaks?

A. The GCEDC as a matter of practice does not pursue retail projects. This is evidenced to our not participating in the Tim Horton’s project locating at the west end of Batavia and the McDonald’s project planned for Aldi plaza in the City on the east end. We will continue to comply with state law while advancing our vision and mission to provide a positive place to do business for all companies. There is a significant body of evidence that shows there is a tangible return to local communities. To claim that the “vast majority” of residents oppose such tax breaks is subjective at best without any real statistically accurate information to substantiate such a claim.

Press release:

Assemblyman Steve Hawley (R,I,C-Batavia) recently voiced his support for the Genesee County Economic Development Center (GCEDC) and its successful efforts to attract a Dick’s Sporting Goods store to Towne Centre Mall in Batavia. The group was able to secure the store’s move through pro-business tax incentives, which will create local employment opportunities and increase sales tax revenue to support local programs and services. Hawley defended GCEDC against attacks from Buffalo-area Assemblyman Sean Ryan, who has publicly criticized the local economic development effort.

“Here in Batavia and across Genesee County, we deserve access to both consumer choice and employment opportunities. By attracting Dick’s to Towne Centre Mall, GCEDC has helped bolster both,” Hawley said. “Assemblyman Ryan’s attacks on our local economy are completely uncalled for. While he purports to be concerned with the use of state tax dollars, surely he would agree that one of the highest-taxed states in the nation has bigger fish to fry than Genesee County’s legal ability to strengthen its own economy. I believe it is in the best interests of all involved that assembly members focus on their own constituents and that he focuses on revitalizing Buffalo’s economy.”

“The GCEDC was created to help increase the tax base, create new jobs as well as bring new investment and revenues into our community. This project fulfills all of these criteria and without our assistance, these benefits would not be realized,” said Steve Hyde, president and CEO of the GCEDC. “The project will create jobs, increase sales tax revenue, bring new goods and services into the community, and reinvigorate what is currently a large, vacant space located at the gateway of our community off of I-90.”

Hawley noted the crucial role the GCEDC has played in attracting job creators to Genesee County and keeping them here long-term.

“Between the Genesee Valley Agri-business Park, Oakta Hills and countless other projects, GCEDC has long been at the forefront of job creation and economic development in our community,” Hawley said. “Throughout my time in the Assembly, we have worked diligently to revitalize our local economy, and GCEDC has my full support in its effort to bring jobs to our community.”

Press release:

“The Genesee County Economic Development Center requested and received a legal opinion regarding the approval of tax incentives for the COR Development project in the Town of Batavia as well as whether the project is legally exempt from new retail provisions recently passed into state law.

“We are pleased to announce that this opinion supports the recent vote by our board to approve these incentives as well as the exemption to the new law.

“The GCEDC strongly believes that this project will bring goods into the community that are not currently available to area residents. It should be noted that other tenants also will be opening in near future providing residents with other goods and services in what is currently a large vacant space located at the gateway of our community off of the I-90.”

“More importantly, the sales tax revenues that will be generated in just one year will be more than the incentives provided to the developer. The GCEDC was created to help create new jobs as well as bring new investment and revenues into our community. This project fulfills all of these criteria and without our assistance these benefits would not be realized.”

Downoad: PDF of Attorney's Letter.