Congressman Walsh Designates $500,000
for Cortland Business Park

Congressman James T. Walsh, Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on VA/HUD and Independent Agencies, has released a list of special funding secured in his FY 2003 VA/HUD and Independent Agencies House Appropriations bill, including funding for an economic development project in Cortland County.

Included in Congressman Walsh's list is a $500,000 HUD-EDI grant to the Cortland County Industrial Development Agency for infrastructure improvements to the proposed Cortland County Business Park. The project involves a 263-acre parcel in the Town of Cortlandville that was also submitted to New York State's Build Now NY II program, an initiative to assist economic development organizations with pre-permitting, engineering studies, planning activities and related costs at selected industrial and business sites across the State. Build Now NY grant decisions are expected to be released shortly by the Governor's Office.

"This $500,000 in funding from Congressman Walsh certainly moves the project to the front burner," said Linda Hartsock, executive director of the Cortland BDC/IDA. "The funding will help leverage state and additional federal dollars to extend public infrastructure in the Town of Cortlandville to a site that has been identified as key to long term business development. It is a great example of a federal-state-county-local partnership. We are very grateful to Congressman Walsh for his commitment and leadership in helping us develop Cortland County's first "shovel ready" business park."

The development profile for the project calls for a multi tenant business and technology park with a variety of uses ranging from light industrial, R&D, warehouse/distribution, commercial offices, data and call centers, and back office operations. The project could also support other related activities such as banks, hotels, health clubs, day care centers and similar amenities. It will be designed to have more sophisticated land use planning, higher quality architectural and landscape design, more building flexibility, and additional design, environmental and land use controls.

Walsh's FY2003 bill includes all Federal funding for the Departments of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and 18 related agencies including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and National Science Foundation. In releasing the list of all special funding projects -- including $60 million designated for Central New York projects -- Congressman Walsh noted, "This is a fiscally-sound bill that takes care of the needs of our nation's veterans, addresses critical housing concerns, protects the environment, and invests in science and technology research. As the bill has cleared its first hurdle in the appropriations process, I'm pleased to announce significant funding for Cortland County."

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