[On Sept. 30], I along with CenterState CEO staff and several members, attended the Town of Clay Board and Planning Board joint public hearing on the proposed project to develop a 3.7-million-square-foot warehouse and distribution facility in the town. During the meeting, Andrew Fish, senior VP, and I went on record to voice CenterState CEO’s […]
[On Sept. 30], I along with CenterState CEO staff and several members, attended the Town of Clay Board and Planning Board joint public hearing on the proposed project to develop a 3.7-million-square-foot warehouse and distribution facility in the town. During the meeting, Andrew Fish, senior VP, and I went on record to voice CenterState CEO’s strongest possible support for the project. Additionally, CenterState CEO has submitted formal letters of support to the Town of Clay Board, Town of Clay Planning Board, and the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency.
We have long advocated for and pursued opportunities to attract a major warehouse and logistics facility to the region. In more than two decades, there has not been a single project within our region with this level of private-sector investment. The project — with its proposal to employ more than 1,000 people with an annual average payroll of about $30 million — holds the potential to create significant economic impact for our regional economy, with countless opportunities for local businesses to benefit from this massive investment.
As you are keenly aware, issues of unemployment and poverty limit our region from realizing its true economic potential. If we are to truly confront and alter the root causes of these persistent challenges, then we must fully embrace and support projects like this that create meaningful employment opportunities for those often disconnected from the workforce.
This project also plays directly to our region’s infrastructure strengths, and is situated along a corridor with some of the region’s most successful warehouse and distribution assets.
Additionally, this project advances regional strategies outlined in Central New York’s Upstate Revitalization Initiative that call for aligning job demand with available workers, addressing the skills gap, creating access to opportunity by locating jobs in proximity to public transit, and investing in the logistics and distribution industry. The proposed site is situated along Centro bus routes, and the majority of the proposed jobs will have a low-barrier to entry, enhancing the ability of more of our region’s available workforce to directly benefit from these employment opportunities, and to contribute to a thriving regional economy.
Robert M. (Rob) Simpson is president and CEO of CenterState CEO, the primary economic-development organization for Central New York. This viewpoint is drawn and edited from the “CEO Focus” email newsletter that the organization sent to members on Oct. 3.