ANDRO seeks state funding for expansion in Rome

ROME — ANDRO Computational Solutions, LLC of Rome is seeking state funding for an expansion project that company officials hope will serve as the “catalyst of technology-sector growth” in the region.

ANDRO used the phrase in a recent news release.

The firm in July submitted a consolidated-funding application (CFA) to the Mohawk Valley regional economic-development council (REDC) as it pursues funding for the project.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo created the CFA process, along with 10 REDCs in 2011, to help advance New York’s efforts to improve the business climate and expand economic growth, ANDRO contends.

Besides it own growth, ANDRO is hoping to attract similar companies to the region to work in nanotechnology and with the NUAIR Alliance on drone testing.

NUAIR Alliance is short for Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research Alliance.

ANDRO Computational Solutions, which operates at 7980 Turin Rd. in Rome, is an independently owned firm that provides research, engineering, and technical services to defense and commercial industries.

The company estimates the expansion project will cost about $1 million for the construction build out and to develop some new laboratories, says Andrew Drozd, president and chief scientist at ANDRO.

“But the CFA works on the basis of 20 percent of your investment, so you’re talking about $200,000, maybe a quarter million, depending on how they view the project,” says Drozd.

He spoke with the Business Journal News Network on Aug. 11.

ANDRO submitted its CFA requesting funding to expand into a neighboring building so it can add more laboratory and office space to accommodate future high-technology and “high-paying” jobs, according to the company news release.

The CFA is referred to as such because applicants are requesting funding from a consolidated list of sources that could include the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, says Drozd.

The firm is pursuing the project less than a year after ANDRO’s last expansion project when the company moved from its former 2,600-square-foot location within the Beeches Professional Campus in Rome to a larger, 15,000-square-foot building across the street, according to its news release.

ANDRO has added employees and new customers since its last move, and Drozd is planning for future growth with this next expansion project.

The firm’s current space at the Beeches complex could hold about 60 employees, but the firm currently only employs about half that figure, says Drozd.

Launched in 1994, ANDRO focuses on research, development, and the application of advanced-computer software of a variety of applications.

They include electromagnetic-environment effects analyses of complex systems; research and development related to spectrum exploitation; secure wireless communications for cognitive radios; multisensory and multitarget tracking; advanced radar-data fusion; and sensor-resource management.

Subsidiary
If ANDRO secures the funding it seeks, Drozd would like to begin the company’s expansion at the Beeches, he says.

He’s been looking at a vacant annex building next to his company’s location and he’d like to build into that.

“Now that plan would be based on trying to fit some of our current technology into the NUAIR [Alliance] and the nanotech spaces … We would eventually like to spin off to other locations [as well], ” says Drozd.

The eventual spin off, which doesn’t yet have a name, would be a subsidiary of ANDRO. The effort to launch the spin off wouldn’t happen until the summer of 2015, he adds.

The future ANDRO spinoff would have two components, according to Drozd.

One would be to commercialize military research and development that pertains to the NUAIR and the nanotech spaces.

The firm handles work in radio communications for the military, including secure, radio wireless-communications systems. ANDRO wants to take that basic technology and commercialize it for civilian use, he says.

“One good civilian use would be to be able to control and command drones more effectively, so they don’t collide, so that they are receiving their control signals effectively and they’re not being compromised by unauthorized sources,” says Drozd.

The second component would involve the future subsidiary’s involvement in supporting testing activities prior to any certification.

“It’s going to be more [research and development-type] experiments that we want to do with drones and other technologies for wireless applications,” he says.

The Mohawk Valley REDC will decide on the next round of funding recipients by September, according to the ANDRO news release.

New York in 2014 has up to $750 million in state resources to award through the CFA process, ANDRO said.

Technology campus
Drozd is hoping any company that locates in the area to work with the NUAIR Alliance will consider securing space at the Beeches and also work with ANDRO’s research and testing staff.

He’s hoping niche-oriented technology businesses, drone companies, and other technology businesses might choose to locate at the Beeches.

The Beeches is located just a few miles from Griffiss Business and Technology Park with close proximity to the SUNY Polytechnic Institute (SUNY Institute of Technology) and Syracuse University, which is an hour’s drive to the west from Rome along the New York State Thruway.

Drozd’s technology-campus vision “closely aligns” with the original vision for the Beeches campus when it opened in 1985, Orrie Destito, property manager, said in the ANDRO news release.

Destito has about 10,000 square feet of office space available on the 51-acre property, which offers amenities such as lodging and a conference center tenants can use.

The Beeches offers “reasonable” lease rates and works with tenants to draft lease terms that suit their needs, according to the ANDRO news release.

“We don’t become a financial burden for our tenants,” Destito said. “We become their partners.”

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com