Intertek Testing Services Makes Major Investment to Anchor New Business Complex

The new Cortland Commerce Center officially opened today with announcements that four tenants will be making downtown investments in the 144,000 sq. ft. building which is located at 165 South Main Street in the City of Cortland. The new Cortland Commerce Center is situated on 3.1 acres, occupying an entire city block on South Main Street between Randall Street and Huntington Street. A block and steel building, with brick exterior facade, the building features office, light manufacturing and distribution space, with parking for 227 cars. It was previously occupied by ASSA International and before that by NCC Industries.

David Yaman is serving as developer and broker for the project. The Cortland Commerce Center is being developed as a multi-tenant, multi-use flex building, and will also be marketed as an ideal incubator for small downtown businesses. The site is currently featured on the BDC's new on-line business sites directory.

The anchor tenant for the new Cortland Commerce Center is ETL SEMKO, which is the Americas Division of London-based Intertek Testing Services (ITS), the world's largest product and commodities testing organization.

ITS <http://www.itsglobal.com> has redeveloped 25,000 sq. ft. in the Cortland Commerce Center into new offices for the company's consolidated North American accounting and employee services departments. The move into the new office space will also allow the company to expand capacity in its lab on Route 11 in the Town of Cortlandville to accommodate additional testing equipment.

ITS operates in 228 laboratories and 459 offices in 87 countries throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Locally, ITS provides performance and safety testing and certification, as well as EMC testing, for global clients in such industries as medical, HVAC, telecommunications, semiconductor, building products and power generating systems.

ITS benefited from the Power for Jobs program in New York State, and has just been locally certified as a new Empire Zone company.

"We commend ITS for undertaking this project which represents a significant downtown investment," said Linda Hartsock, Executive Director of the Cortland County BDC. "This project helps to put back into productive use a sizable portion of a major South Main Street facility, and creates an important business anchor for South Main Street. This investment, complimented by the recent move by Impact Sports Equipment into a nearby 70,000 sq. ft. building, creates a nice cluster of new activity, expanding the City's central business district."

Also moving into the new Cortland Commerce Center will be WebClothes who will be taking 20,600 sq. ft. on two floors of the building to expand distribution for their Internet-based children's clothing business. In addition, WebClothes plans to open a retail operation at the South Main Street facility.

WebClothes <http://www.webclothes.com>, started in Cortland by husband and wife entrepreneurs James and DeeAnne Anderson, is a trailblazer in the area of e-commerce, having being recognized as a 2001 finalist in the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award competition. In addition, the company won the 2000 Cortland County Chamber of Commerce Entrepreneur of the Year Award. The company has developed a global marketplace for children's clothing. With sales growing at an annual rate of 300 percent, the company has established itself in more than 50 countries, and has been incorporated in numerous Japanese and Canadian Internet shopping sites.

Other new tenants in the new Cortland Commerce Center include the US Forest Service and Ithaca-based Chen Distribution which is creating a new distribution center with plans to continue to expand.

"We congratulate David Yaman for spearheading this project," said BDC Chairman Paul Slowey. "This is an important building to the City of Cortland, and we're on the right track in terms of putting it back into quality use. The new Cortland Commerce Center is in the Empire Zone and offers many desirable features that should make it attractive to a variety of users. Propsects can learn more about the building on the BDC website."

The City of Cortland is making major infrastructure improvements to the South Main Street area in front of the new Cortland Commerce Center, with a new road, sidewalks, curbs, water and sewer lines, and upgraded lighting planned.

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For more information on ITS: www.itsglobal.com

For more information on WeClothes: www.webclothes.com

For more information on the Cortland Commerce Center, including a downloadable brochure: www.davidyaman.com

Or check the BDC's on-line directory of business sites here.