Projects in Syracuse, Binghamton, Auburn, and Lewis County will benefit from funding awards that the board of directors of Empire State Development (ESD) has approved.
ESD announced the funding in a news release Tuesday.
Ephesus Technologies will use a grant of up to $150,000 for a portion of the machinery and equipment costs the company incurred to relocate its headquarters in downtown Syracuse.
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Ephesus is a Syracuse–based, woman-owned firm that designs, engineers, and manufactures LED (light-emitting diode) lighting products for warehouses, manufacturing facilities, parking lots, garages, roadways, stadiums, tunnels, and bridges.
Ephesus in June 2011 sought to relocate from its original home in the Syracuse Technology Garden to an existing 5,000-square-foot facility in the Onondaga Tower at 125 E. Jefferson St.
The company wanted the new space to serve as headquarters for its operations and to provide a place to test and showcase its LED lighting fixtures, ESD said.
Ephesus wanted to centralize creation of all fixtures at its new headquarters, the agency added.
However, the firm couldn’t pay for the required renovation and equipment purchase necessary to occupy the new facility, ESD said. Ephesus then sought financial help during the first round of the regional economic-development council (REDC) process.
As a result of the project, the company will retain 10 existing jobs and create 24 new jobs, according to ESD.
Chenango Place
ESD also approved a grant of up to $250,000 for Chenango Place, LLC, a real-estate development and management company specializing in mixed-use development.
The firm will use the funding to pay a portion of the costs for construction and renovation of a commercial space in a mixed-used building at 7 Court St. in Binghamton.
In the second round of the regional council process, Chenango Place, LLC had submitted a proposal for an historic, mixed-used, development project. But, the Southern Tier REDC didn’t award any funding “due to unforeseen delays” in the design phases of the project, ESD said.
After a year of preparation and finalizing all design approvals, the company submitted the proposal in the third round, and the Southern Tier REDC selected it as a priority project.
The project will help to create 20 new jobs, increase residential options, support local-business development, and “repurpose a non-performing historic building,” according to the ESD news release.
Plaza of the Arts
Besides those projects, ESD also approved a grant of up to $700,000 for the project that will establish the Plaza of the Arts and promote tourism and business expansion in Auburn.
WST33, LLC, a real-estate holding company and subsidiary of Soules and Dunn Development Group, will use the funding for a portion of the construction and renovation costs to repurpose a “blighted” building for the project, ESD said.
WST33, LLC is the real-estate holding company for several Arby’s, Domino’s Pizza, and Tim Horton’s restaurants along the East Coast, including New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
The firm in December 2012 proposed renovating a building in downtown Auburn to address the need for office space and attract visitors for its arts and theatre facilities.
The company proposed a plan to acquire the property, demolish the existing “derelict” building and replace it with a 20,000-square-foot, two-story, mixed-use building called the Plaza of the Arts.
WST33, LLC applied for funding assistance through the second round of the Regional Council application process.
Lewis County
Lewis County Development Corp. (LCDC) will use a grant of up to $1 million to help finance its Lyons Falls brownfield-redevelopment project and create a greenfield site to promote business expansion and economic development in Lewis County.
The nonprofit LCDC is an organization that works to expand economic-development activity in Lewis County.
The 9.4-acre site contained 20 “dilapidated” buildings from the abandoned Lyons Falls Paper Mill.
The LCDC has developed plans, obtained permits, removed hazardous materials, and completed demolition of the derelict industrial mill buildings in order to prepare the 9.4-acre, industrial-brownfield site for future use as a modern, commercial-industrial park.
The LCDC applied for funding assistance through the second round of the REDC process. Without ESD’s funding help, the project “would not have moved forward,” ESD contended.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com
