July 2002

New York State Officials Visit Cortland To Discuss "Build Now-NY" Grants

Senior staff members of the Governor's Office of Regulatory Reform (GORR), visited Cortland on July 23 to discuss programs designed to provide assistance to local property owners and communities.

David Pietrusza, GORR public information officer and Terry Deuel, GORR policy analyst, discussed a new round of New York State business development grant applications which are due on July 31. Governor George E. Pataki recently announced a round of Build Now-NY grants to aid local communities with their economic development and job creation efforts. Empire State Development (ESD) will administer the grants and solicit applications under its highly successful Build Now-NY Initiative.

Through Build Now-NY, economic development organizations, IDAs, local governments and developers will be able to apply for up to $75,000 in matching grants. Funds can be used for pre- permitting, engineering studies, planning activities and related costs at selected industrial and business sites across the State. Under this round, applicants can submit sites that are suitable for one of three economic development project types: high tech manufacturing, distribution and logistics, or multi-tenant business and tech park. Twenty five awards will be made statewide.

If a community is selected through the Build Now-NY initiative, its "shovel ready" sites will be marketed to corporate real estate executives and site selection consultants through ESD's Business Marketing Program.

The Cortland County IDA is working with the Town of Cortlandville to submit an application to certify a 260-acre parcel "shovel ready" business park along Route 13. The site will be submitted under the development profile for a multi tenant business and technology park. These kinds of planned development projects include a variety of uses, ranging from light industrial, R&D, warehouse/distribution, commercial offices, data and call centers, and back office operations. Many are also home to other support related activities such as banks, hotels, health clubs, day care centers and other amenities. Aside from the variety of uses, they typically have higher quality environments, more sophisticated land use planning, higher quality architectural and landscape design, more building flexibility, and additional design, environmental and land use controls.

Cortland was ranked in the Top 50 US small communities for new corporate facilities in the March 2002 issue of Site Selection magazine.

Build Now NY grant applications are due to New York State on July 31, 2002. More information about the Build Now NY program is available on line at: http://www.gorr.state.ny.us