ESD board approves funding for Mohawk Valley, North Country projects

The Fort Schuyler Management Corp. (FSMC) will use a grant of up to $15 million for a portion of the cost of construction of the first phase of the computer-chip commercialization center in Marcy.

The center is adjacent to the campus of the State University of New York Institute of Technology (SUNYIT).

The grant is part of more than $40 million in funding that the Empire State Development (ESD) board of directors on Monday approved during its meeting in New York City.

The grant funding is part of the Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Regional Economic Development Council (REDC) process, according to ESD.

FSMC, which the SUNY Research Foundation (RF) formed in partnership with SUNYIT, has a ground lease from SUNY for the Marcy Technology Complex to establish public-private partnerships in support of SUNYIT’s research, educational, and economic-development activities, according to ESD.

FSMC is authorized to purchase, construct, develop, and manage facilities co-located with the SUNYIT educational campus at the SUNYIT Marcy Technology Complex.

It can also ground sub-lease the property west of Edic Road constituting the Marcy NanoCenter project to Mohawk Valley EDGE to attract a commercial partner for nanomanufacturing operations, according to ESD.

FSMC advances the growth of the emerging nanotechnology and semiconductor research and development cluster in New York that includes the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) at the University at Albany, ESD said.

The project involves the construction of the building envelope and non-clean room areas of the Quad C (Phase I), a 253,000-square-foot facility that will contain flex space, clean rooms, laboratories, offices, a lecture center and related utilities.

Quad C will enable the attraction of high-tech partners that, in turn, will work to develop and commercialize advanced nanoscale-semiconductor products and solutions, according to ESD.

An architect completed the design of Quad C in March, construction started in June, officials anticipate completing the project’s Phase I by December 2014, ESD said.

FSMC at SUNYIT will construct, own, and operate the Quad C. It will house a “state-of-the-art” office and clean room “business incubator/technology accelerator” to act as the “focal point” for the assembly and integration of the system-on-a-chip (SOC) that CNSE is developing, ESD said in its news release.

Quad C will enable the attraction of high-tech partners seeking to integrate and commercialize SOC devices and products, in partnership with global computer-chip equipment, material, and chemical suppliers and contractors.

Quad C will serve as a “magnet” to attract global computer-chip equipment, material, and chemical suppliers and contractors to upstate New York, according to ESD.

DANC award

The ESD board also approved two REDC awards for the Development Authority of the North Country (DANC).

DANC is a New York public-benefit corporation that provides management, services, and financing assistance in the North Country for regional-economic development, will use a grant of up to $2 million to establish a revolving-loan fund to develop tourism facilities in the North Country region.

DANC will establish and manage the community-tourism transformation fund as a regional revolving-loan program. New and existing businesses can apply for funding to develop tourism infrastructure, including lodging, restaurants, retail, recreation, and arts and cultural venues, ESD said.

The community-tourism transformation fund will advance projects that increase the “quantity and quality” of lodging, hospitality, and tourism-related facilities, the agency added.

DANC will also use a grant of up to $400,000 to establish a revolving-loan fund for North Country movie theaters to purchase digital-film projection equipment.

DANC will establish and manage the digital-film conversion fund as a regional revolving-loan program, ESD said.

This fund will help North Country movie-theater owners with the purchase of digital-film projection equipment.

The digital-film conversion fund is intended as a financing source for North Country movie theaters to convert their film-projection equipment from film to digital format so they can continue operations, according to ESD.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com