Cortland County Business Highlights
Cortland County's commitment to economic development has been dramatic. Within the past two years, the County has seen more than $90 million in new industrial investment, attracted $10 million in federal and state grants for business and workforce development, and generated $8 million in SBA finance activity for small business expansions.
In fact, Cortland County is one of Upstate New York's success stories. Last year Cortland County was responsible for New York State's fourth largest industrial investment - a $38.5 million expansion by BorgWarner Morse TEC that will create 300 new jobs. In all, Empire State Development calculated that the total impact of economic development projects in Cortland County last year alone was $343 million. (Source: ESD Major Projects Report, Spring 2001). In March 2002, Cortland was recognized by Site Selection Magazine as one of the top 50 small towns in the United States for corporate facilities.
Cortland has accomplished this remarkable success by creating a coordinated, community-based approach to development that has produced a quality environment to live, work and invest. This has happened through the creation of public-private partnerships between local, county, state and federal government, and by focusing on these principles of development:
- Successful historic preservation that takes advantage of Cortland's beautiful turn of the century architecture, and works to maintain village centers and historic downtowns as vibrant business districts with a sense of place that suggests Americana at its best
- Successful adaptive reuse of older industrial buildings, encouraging reinvestment in older city and village centers
- Successful development of cultural and recreational amenities, combined with resource protection
- Successful development of intermodal transportation facilities
- Successful brownfield redevelopment projects
- Successful capital planning for infrastructure development
- Successful development and implementation of farmland protection programs
- Successful development of 21st Century infrastructure, including education/industry partnerships, and technology and telecommunications development
- Successful focus on small business development, including financing, technical assistance and training
- Successful interagency interaction and intermunicipal collaboration planning to deliver planning, development and human service delivery
- Successful community consensus building about quality development
Recent community development highlights include:
- The Cortland County BDC/IDA launched the Tioughnioga River Waterfront Development Project -- a multiyear effort to develop hiking, fishing, canoeing and kayaking along stretches of the 30 mile scenic waterway that is the headquarters of the Susquehanna River that eventually feeds the Chesapeake Bay. The project involves corporate partnerships with Cortland Line and Grumman Canoes, two well known outdoors companies located in the county. In addition, a major component of the project will be resource protection, including floodplain and habitat issues for the river.
- Through the involvement and coordination of Empire State Development, Congressman James Walsh, Senator James Seward, Assemblyman Marty Luster and the BDC/IDA, BorgWarner is currently making a $38.5 million industrial investment in Cortland County, resulting in 300 new jobs. One of the reasons BorgWarner made its decision in Cortland County -- and not in Michigan or North Carolina which were other sites being considered -- was that the company was impressed by the mobilized community response and the levels of local, county, state and federal partnerships involved. From the initial company inquiry to announcement, the deal was closed in eight weeks which is extraordinary for a transaction of that size. The project has become a success story for doing business in an upstate community.
- The 433,000 sq. ft. former Smith Corona facility is now more than half full with 14 new companies occupying 250,000 sq. ft. of industrial and warehousing space. Pall Trinity Micro recently made a 70,000 sq. ft. expansion, moving its Houston operation to the facility.
- Through a partnership between the Cortland County IDA, Cortland County Planning Department and the Cortland County Agricultural and Farmland Protection Board, an innovative new model has been created in New York State for farmland protection. The IDA created a new entity, the Cortland County Agricultural Development Corporation, to administer nearly $2 million in funding for farmland protection through grants from New York State's Farmland Protection Program under the Governor's Clean Water/Clean Air Bond Act. The IDA is facilitating PDR's to more than 500 acres of farmland in the Homer-Preble Valley and working with the farmers to develop conservation easements that will forever protect the farms and allow owners to reinvest the PDR money in new technology and create new value-added niche product lines, as well as explore avenues for agri-tourism. This is the first time in New York State that a farmland protection initiative has been undertaken through an IDA as opposed to an environmental group or land trust. The partnership is so novel that the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets and the American Farmland Trust have become excited about using it as a model to demonstrate how economic development and conservation communities can come together to both protect land in an important agricultural corridor and stimulate agribusiness development. Agriculture accounts for nearly $43 million of economic activity in Cortland. This partnership model is now encouraging other farm families to work together and assemble a critical mass of properties to submit for future rounds of funding through PDR programs.
- A community-based partnership has turned around a major brownfields site that was the gateway for more than 50 years to the Cortland community. Located at exit 12 of Interstate 81, Contento's was a 14-acre, seven-story high scrapyard that had been an unattractive entrance approach to the community. Through the efforts of local officials, and with the support of Senator James Seward and Congressman James Walsh through state and federal funding sources, the IDA acquired the development rights and recently successfully cleared 10,000 tons of scrap from the property. The IDA formed a local development corporation to manage the process and conduct Phase I and II environmental assessment work which was recently competed. Based on those findings, the County is now developing a community-based strategy for reuse.
- Working in partnership with the New York State Department of Transportation, the County undertook a $4 million multimodal project last year. The effort involved the NYSDOT, NYS&W Railroad, the IDA and a number of Cortland County businesses who came together to create an intermodal facility to both relieve truck traffic from local roads and create enhanced competitiveness for companies who can more cost effectively utilize rail to ship their goods. Working through NYSDOT's Industrial Access Program, the county received a $1 million combined grant and loan which leveraged an additional $3 million in private sector investment to rehabilitate a rail line and create the intermodal facility. At the same time the project produced a quality-of-life outcome for local communities and downtowns, shifting heavy truck traffic to rail. The new intermodal facility is taking 16,000 trucks a year off Interstate 81 and off narrow local streets that wind through historic downtown communities. The IDA will be working with the NYSDOT and NYS&W Railroad to create a second intermodal center in 2001.
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Cortland County is justifiably proud of these tangible examples of ways in which our communities are leveraging resources through creative partnerships involving local municipalities, with the assistance of partners from multiple state agencies. The community has become a national model for small town development.
Recent business expansions include:
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Marietta Corporation |
- Marietta Corporation -- The corporation, founded and headquartered in Cortland County, announced an expansion of its relationship with the Andrew Jergens Company to become Jergen's exclusive manufacturer of retail soap bars. The contract positioned Marietta as one of the top manufacturers in North America, competing head to head with leading soap manufacturers such as Procter & Gamble, Dial Corporation, Unilever and Colgate Palmolive. The expanded corporate demand required Marietta to enter into a lease for an additional 100,000 sq. ft. in its Cortland facility, and resulted in significant additional hires. Marietta is making a $14 million new investment in Cortland, acquiring the former Rubbermaid facility, resulting in the creation of 90 new jobs.
- Borg Warner -- BorgWarner Morse TEC, Inc., a subsidiary of corporate parent BorgWarner (headquartered in Chicago, Illinois), completed a deal to invest $38.5 million over five years to relocate part of its fast-growing engine components production to a 133,334 sq. ft. former industrial facility in Cortland. The investment will create up to 300 new high-paying manufacturing jobs, as well as retain 1500 jobs in the Cortland-Tompkins corridor. Cortland County competed aggressively against Charlotte, North Carolina and Coldwater, Michigan for this investment.
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Pall Trinity Micro |
- Pall Trinity Micro -- A global leader in the field of high tech filtration systems for the aerospace, health care and environmental fields, Pall Trinity added 140 jobs over the past year, now employing 790 people. In addition, the company made a significant capital investment with a 70,000 sq. ft. expansion into the former Smith Corona facility to absorb its Houston, TX manufacturing and distribution operation which was relocated to Cortland. Additionally, the company relocated its Massachusetts operation to Cortland. The company completed an $11 million contract for General Electric for two major high purity water filtration systems for its two-unit Lugmen Nuclear Power Station in Taiwan. In addition, the company recently purchased a new $300,000 state of the art machine that has applications for the semiconductor industry.
- SUNY Cortland -- The College, which is the largest employer in Cortland County, has recently completed more than $53 million in new capital projects, including a state of the art new $14 million stadium complex that will be a showcase for both Cortland County and Central New York. The stadium will host the 6,000 participants for the Summer 2002 Empire State Games. Student enrollment is up to an all time record, and the College was recently awarded a $1.75 million Title III grant to develop four new majors that will infuse technology across the curriculum.
- Paul Bunyan Products, Inc. -- The company, which manufactures wooden pallets and other specialty wooden packaging and crates, recently retired a $1.75 million bond with the IDA and at the same time completed a $600,000 capital project for its pallet retrieval, repair and recycling operations. Sales revenues were up significantly this past year and the company recently invested another $500,000 to expand its corporate offices and accommodate a growing demand in the Northeast for its new product line, premium colored landscape mulch.
- The Cortland Companies and Cortland Cable -- The firm, which specializes in the manufacture and custom engineering of cables and ropes for the marine and aerospace industries, expanded with the acquisition of Puget Sound Rope, based just north of Seattle, and the acquisition of Cortland Firbon, BX, based in London, England. The company also signed a major contract with the US Navy this past year.
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Albany International |
- Albany International -- The world's largest producer of custom-designed engineered fabrics that are essential to the paper-making process, Albany International's Cortland plant supplies 45% of the world's market with monofilament. The company just completed a $2.5 million investment in a new world-class R&D Center, expanding the production line at its Cortland facility.
- Monarch Machine Tool -- When its parent company threatened closure, local management mounted $8 million in private capital investment and acquired the company at the end of 2000. The company developed a new product line, Unisign and recently signed the largest order in its history, successfully delivering a major order for defense giant Lockheed Martin. The company is now making another major $750,000 capital investment in internal technology.
- Wetstone Technology -- A cyberforensics and computer security firm with contracts with the US Airforce and other federal partners, Wetstone Technology is making a $1.5 million investment in Cortland, locating its new corporate headquarters in the heart of downtown, and hiring 75 highly paid computer security experts to introduce a new cyber timestamp technology. Wetstone received international media attention for its work with federal agencies on steganography / de-encryption technologies following the 9-11 terrorists attacks.
- Graphics Plus Printing -- A creative, multimedia printing company, GPP expanded nationally with contracts with the aerospace industry, and established a subsidiary company, GPP design group. The company made an $800,000 capital investment in new technology last year, installing the most advanced large format color press on the market. The new equipment is expected to generate $30 million in new sales.
- Bestway Enterprises -- One of the largest dealers of treated wood products in the Northeast, Bestway Enterprises recently completed a $1.7 million business expansion. Bestway Enterprises, a longtime family owned business based in Cortland County, is a wholesale lumber company that processes lumber products and distributes them to 350 retail lumber yards through the northeast.