CAZENOVIA  —  Cazenovia Equipment Co. is plowing ahead toward growth despite having to build a new base of operations after a fire decimated its headquarters last year.

The farm and landscaping equipment dealer is on pace to generate about $80 million in sales in its current fiscal year, which ends Nov. 1 — up from $68 million in the previous year. It also wants to add 15 employees across its nine locations within the next calendar year, a move that would bring its total employee count to 185.

Cazenovia Equipment, which is a John Deere dealership, has already hired employees to fill 25 new positions since the start of 2012, according to Michael Frazee, the company’s president and co-owner. But the dealer’s current revenue projections of 

$80 million are behind its initial forecasts, which called for it to generate $84 million in this fiscal year, he says.

“It was a very aggressive growth goal, even in a normal year,” Frazee says. “The dairy market is softening a little bit, and the dry weather isn’t helping us at all. That, coupled with a very mild winter — those are some things impacting the forecast.”

And Cazenovia Equipment spent much of its current fiscal year contending with the aftermath of an August 12, 2011 blaze that destroyed its 16,000-square-foot headquarters at 3200 U.S. Route 20 in Nelson. Investigators could not reach a conclusion on the cause of the fire, instead stating it may have been caused by “spontaneous combustion” in a trash can or by an electrical issue,
Frazee says.

“The damage was pretty extensive,” Frazee says. “They do know, based on the way some things melted, that it was over 2,000 degrees inside the building during the fire. So it was hot. There was not a lot left.”

A detached 2,000-square-foot warehouse and an office trailer were all that survived the flames. The fire caused about $3 million in damage, including equipment, and left Cazenovia Equipment running its Cazenovia–area operations from the surviving trailer. The company also brought in a second trailer to house sales and parts pickups.

The dealer decided to build a new, larger headquarters a few miles up the road at 2 Remington Park Drive in Cazenovia. Company leaders previously considered constructing a new home there, and had even optioned the purchase of nearly 70 acres at that address, says Frazee. Still, they had not intended to pursue that project for several years, he says.

They decided not to rebuild at 3200 U.S. Route 20 because Cazenovia Equipment did not have enough space there, he adds. While the equipment dealer does not need all of the acreage it purchased at 2 Remington Park Drive, the land gave it the ability to build its new home on a larger scale.

Crews broke ground on the new facility last October and opened it for business on April 9 of this year. Dalpos Architects & Integrators of Syracuse designed the building, which stands at 28,500 square feet, and Nelson–based Patriot Enterprises of NY, LLC filled the role of general contractor.

Cazenovia Equipment opened the building early to be ready for the spring planting season, Frazee says. Contractors put finishing touches on the facility for about a month after it opened, and Cazenovia Equipment hosted its grand opening July 19, he continues.

Construction cost about $2.3 million, Frazee says. Cazenovia Equipment financed the project with insurance payments for its burned-out former headquarters along with a loan from Farm Credit East.

A total of 39 employees work at the new building. That’s up from 31 at Cazenovia Equipment’s former headquarters. The new facility’s additional employees were relocated from the company’s other locations, Frazee says. 

However, the equipment dealer would like to add about five new positions at its new headquarters in the next year. It eventually wants to boost staffing at the facility to 50 people.

The land on which the new headquarters sits cost about $10,000 per acre, according to Frazee. A holding company, Love Frazee Associates, LLC, purchased the land from a private owner without a broker, he says. Frazee’s father, Robert Frazee, owns the holding company, which leases the land to Cazenovia Equipment. Michael Frazee co-owns the equipment company along with his father and brother, James Frazee.

Love Frazee Associates, LLC is selling Cazenovia Equipment’s former headquarters site at 3200 U.S. Route 20, Michael Frazee says. It is almost ready to close on a deal with a private buyer, he adds, declining to discuss the transaction’s specifics.

Cazenovia Equipment also operates locations in Chittenango, Cortland, Clinton, Oneonta, LaFayette, Sandy Creek, Lowville, and Watertown.

Its products include tractors, combines, commercial mowers, hay and forage machines, and planting and tillage equipment.

AURELIUS — Work could begin soon on a new milk-processing plant that will employ more than 50 people initially and could attract other new businesses to Cayuga County.

A group of 26 dairy farmers in Cayuga, Onondaga, Tompkins, and Wayne counties formed a company, Cayuga Milk Ingredients, to build and run the planned plant. The $87 million project will transform the farmers’ raw milk into products like milk protein isolates and powders.

Those powders and isolates are subsequently used in production of items like cheese, yogurt, and nutritional products.

Work on the plant could begin as soon as September, Cayuga Milk Ingredients CEO Kevin Ellis says.

The goal is for the facility to be up and running by January 2014. The Cayuga Economic Development Agency is working on an incentive plan for the project and the plant was included in the Central New York Regional Economic Development Council’s strategic plan for the area last year.

The milk-processing plant received $4 million as part of that plan, according to the state. Cayuga Milk Ingredients is finalizing additional financing now, Ellis says. 

The facility will be built on a 125-acre industrial site in Aurelius, says Terence Masterson, executive director at the Cayuga Economic Development Agency. The plant will occupy about 35 acres.

The hope, Masterson says, is that other dairy-related businesses and processors will eventually set up shop near the site to take advantage of the milk produced by the farmers and the new products the plant will create.

“I think it’s huge,” Masterson says of the plant’s potential impact. “These are high-value jobs. It’s an entire new industry for the
county.”

The 108,000-square-foot plant will initially employ 52 people and have an estimated economic impact of more than $220 million in its first year, Ellis says. 

The dairy farmers involved in the project were looking for a way to add value to their milk supply. The new products produced at the plant will create a new revenue stream for the farms, Ellis says.

Having a milk-processing plant in the area will also help cut transportation costs. Ellis says farmers can spend as much as 10 percent for their gross revenue annually to transport their milk to processors.

The farmers involved in the plant project currently send their milk to 43 different destinations throughout the Northeast for processing, Ellis says.

“They want to remove food miles,” he says.

In addition to creating milk powders and other products, the plant will remove water from skim milk, Ellis says. The result will allow for more efficient transportation over longer distances.

In addition to the business reasons for the plant, the farmers want to see growth in Central New York, Ellis says.

The construction project will employ about 285 people and take about 15 months, he adds.

Cayuga Milk Ingredients is in the process of finalizing the construction companies that will work on the project.