UTICA NANO WINDFALL
LIKELY TO BENEFIT US
In Particular, Mathes Sees Boon For Richfield
By JIM KEVLIN • for www.allotsego.com
Utica’s nanotechnology dream is about to come true with Governor Cuomo’s announcement last week that GE Global Research and an Austrian company, AMS AG, have committed to operations that will create 1,500 jobs in Utica and Marcy in the next five years.
That can only mean good things for Otsego County, said Sandy Mathes, president of the Otsego Now economic development venture. “It’s exactly what we’ve been hoping for,” he said.
Announced last Thursday to great fanfare in the Mohawk Valley, Cuomo said:
- Global technology leader AMS, a multinational company, plans to generate more than 1,000 new jobs and initially invest over $2 billion in a 360,000-square-foot wafer fabrication plant at the Nano Utica site in Marcy.
- GE Global Research will be the anchor tenant of the Computer Chip Commercialization Center (QUAD C) at the SUNY Polytechnic Institute’s Colleges of Nanoscale Science & Engineering in Utica, creating 500 jobs in the next five years and another 350 after that.
(Nanotechnology is the science of miniaturization, most relevantly in computer technology. New York State is becoming the world’s foremost region of nano expertise.)
As one of six counties on Cuomo’s Mohawk Valley Regional Economic Development Council, Otsego can expect to benefit from the news, particularly at the commerce park proposed in Richfield Springs, Mathes said.
The 130-acre site on the east side of Canadarago Lake is ideal for companies seeking to contribute to Nano Utica’s “supply chain,” he said, by providing materials and services, and making tools that will be needed by Nano Utica.
Richfield Springs’ location is central not just to Nano Utica, but to nano-related centers the state is developing in Albany and Binghamton as well, Mathes said.
The news may also improve chances for the MV500 effort, formed by the MVREDC to compete with other Economic Development Council’s statewide for one of three $500 million one-time grants from the governor’s $1.5 billion Upstate Development Fund.
“The announcement is not just fantastic for Oneida County, it’s great for the whole region,” said Mathes, whose COO, Elizabeth Horvath, was detached to put together the MV500 application.
The MV500 application is due at MVREDC offices in Utica in mid-September to be forwarded to Albany in early October. Mathes said he expects the governor will announce the three winners by mid-December.
The Utica windfall may also have an impact on real-estate sales in the Richfield Springs area, which is relatively inexpensive compared to Utica suburbs, Mathes said.
