SYRACUSE  —  The Central New York Regional Economic Development Council couldn’t quite claim a perfect record in a recent one-year progress report to the state, but it posted a high success rate nonetheless, the council’s co-chair contends.

The one-year report, which the council submitted Sept. 14, showed that nearly all of the capital projects approved for state funding in Central New York under last year’s regional-council initiative are proceeding as planned. The state awarded funding packages totaling $103.7 million to 74 projects in Central New York — Cayuga, Cortland, Madison, Onondaga, and Oswego counties — last year. That was the largest amount sent to any of the state’s 10 economic-development regions.

Of the 74 Central New York projects receiving funding, 69 have executed contracts with New York State, according to the report. Among those projects, 51 have started and are on track for completion by the end of 2013.

That leaves two projects that have yet to begin but are still in the pipeline, along with three whose applicants declined to accept funding.

United HealthCare Services, Inc. decided not to accept $1.9 million in aid for relocating its regional center to 30,000 square feet in downtown Syracuse. Huhtamaki, Inc. opted not to take $152,741 to purchase new cup-forming machines for its facility in Fulton, and Grassman Performance Energy, LLC of Port Byron chose to turn down $716,500 earmarked for supporting the development and manufacturing of wind turbines.

 “We would have loved to have been 74 out of 74, but when you have companies whose plans change, and they decide to turn down funding for one reason or another, it’s beyond our control,” says Robert Simpson, president and CEO of CenterState CEO and co-chair of the Central New York Regional Economic Development Council. Syracuse University Chancellor Nancy Cantor is the other co-chair.

 “We feel positive about the fact that such a high percentage of our projects are on track,” Simpson says. “I think it is a reflection of the way that our council here in Central New York has taken ownership of these projects. We check in with the project sponsors on a regular basis. We troubleshoot. The different state agencies understand that these are priorities.”

Projects given the state’s thumbs-up for funding last year completed a Consolidated Funding Application, putting their names in for assistance from a range of state agencies. They competed for $785 million in economic-development aid New York spread across the state.

The Central New York Regional Economic Development Council reviewed applications from Cayuga, Cortland, Madison, Onondaga, and Oswego counties. It then scored the projects and sent recommendations to the state, which had the final say in doling out funding.

New York continued the Consolidated Funding Application and regional-council initiative for a second year, putting a total of $750 million in aid up for grabs. Consolidated Funding Applications were due in July.

Central New York’s regional council has reviewed projects applying for funding this year and sent its recommendations to the state, Simpson says. The council received 99 applications seeking a total of nearly $28 million this year, according to its one-year report. It recommended 51 projects looking for a total of $16.7 million, the report said.

The state expects to announce projects receiving funding sometime this fall. An exact date is not known, according to Simpson.

“There’s a committee, a review team of experts that the governor empowers to review these applications,” he says. “They will probably be here in Central New York sometime in the next couple of weeks. We’ll have a chance to make a presentation for our projects.”

The Central New York Regional Economic Development Council has also submitted priority projects to the state for second-round funding. This year, priority projects vie for up to $25 million in capital funding per region, along with an additional $10 million in Excelsior Tax Credits.

A total of 34 priority projects received the Central New York Council’s endorsement. If they receive all of the recommended funding, those 34 projects would be in line for $33.3 million in aid.

“I’d be lying if I didn’t say we were excited about all the projects that got put out there,” Simpson says. “One thing that the Central New York Regional Economic Development Council has done really well, and one thing we got positive feedback on from the governor’s office last time around, is we rejected the silver-bullet approach to economic development. We’ve taken a
more strategic and holistic approach by trying to identify a lot of projects that are realistic in nature.”

Priority projects the council recommended for funding this year include a new 20,000-square-foot agricultural and brewing facility in Cazenovia called Empire Farmstead Brewery, Inc. The council asked for a grant of just over $1 million for that undertaking, which has an estimated total project cost of $5.3 million. 

Other priority-project funding requests the council marked included $100,000 for an expansion at Bo-Mer Plastics, LLC of Auburn and $500,000 toward revamping the former Camillus Cutlery Co. plant into a mixed-use medical center to be known as Camillus Mills. The Camillus Mills project has a total cost of $8.8 million, while the Bo-Mer expansion’s total cost is $560,000.

The council’s one-year report, which contains a list of all projects recommended for funding, is available online at http://regionalcouncils.ny.gov/themes/nyopenrc/rc-files/centralny/centralny_2012progressreport.pdf       

Contact Seltzer at rseltzer@cnybj.com