DeWITT, N.Y. — Soraa, a firm that specializes in light-emitting diode (LED) lighting, has plans to relocate its manufacturing and research and development operations from Fremont, California to DeWitt and create 420 jobs.
The state plans to build the firm an 82,000-square-foot facility on Collamer Road next to the CNY Hub of Emerging Nano Technologies in DeWitt. The project will “leverage at least $1.3 billion in private-sector investment over the next 10 years,” according to a news release posted at the website of Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
The facility is located at 24 Aspen Park Blvd. in DeWitt.
New York will offer the firm about $90 million in construction incentives to make the move, according to Cuomo’s news release.
Jeff Parker, the firm’s CEO, joined state officials at the DeWitt facility to make the announcement Thursday morning.
“I was born, grew up, went to school, started my first tech company in the Northeast, and I’m very happy to get back here,” said Parker.
CNYBJ monitored the announcement on Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s website.
Soraa is an LED lighting company that is making products based on GaN on GaN silicon chip, said Parker.
“It’s a very unique, proprietary silicon chip,” he added.
Parker is moving the company to DeWitt for three reasons. He cited the “innovative strategy and vision of Gov. Cuomo to set up the surroundings that can really help our company and help us grow and innovate.”
Parker also believes his company can attract the “best and brightest” scientists and engineers to Central New York. In addition, he contends Soraa has a “proprietary, high tech” product, and the firm needs to control its quality, intellectual property, and its production, he said.
“We believe our partnership with SUNY Poly will help that,” Parker added.
Alain Kaloyeros, founding president and CEO of SUNY Polytechnic Institute (SUNY Poly) called Soraa “the industry leader in ultra high performance lighting and LED technologies.”
“It will build on the … recent research and workforce training collaboration recently announced between SUNY Poly students and faculty and Le Moyne [College] students and faculty,” Kaloyeros said in his remarks.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com
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