State approves SUNY Oswego campus plan for START-UP NY

OSWEGO, N.Y. — Empire State Development has approved the plan by the State University of New York at Oswego (SUNY Oswego) for the START-UP NY initiative.

Empire State Development is New York’s chief economic-development agency.

The approval means the university can begin reviewing applications from businesses interested in partnering with it in START-UP NY, SUNY Oswego said in a news release.

The initiative provides incentives for qualifying businesses to relocate or expand through affiliations with colleges and universities.

Companies will have the chance to operate free of state and local taxes on or near academic campuses. Their employees will pay no state or local income taxes for 10 years.

In return, the businesses must add new jobs, providing an “economic lift” to the surrounding community without endangering nearby competitors, SUNY Oswego said.

SUNY Oswego’s newly approved plan designates more than nine acres of land and nearly 10,500 square feet of office space as START-UP NY tax-free zones for business development.

Its initial efforts to attract new or expanding businesses include parcels along Route 104 near Romney Field House and near the Lake Ontario shore to the west of the main campus in Oswego. In addition, the plan includes space in the SUNY Oswego Phoenix Center and in the Syracuse Tech Garden, the school said.

SUNY Oswego’s START-UP NY plan also lists future parcels and office spaces that the college may seek to designate as tax free.

They include land in Oswego’s Intermodal Center and Port Expansion Center; the city’s Lake Ontario Industrial Park; the Oswego County Industrial Park in the town of Schroeppel; along with space in SUNY Oswego’s Mackin Hall and in office buildings around the city and county.

“Advancing our academic mission while creating jobs for our region is an exciting opportunity for our college, which is already an economic anchor in Central New York and the largest employer in Oswego County,” Deborah Stanley, president of SUNY Oswego, said in the news release.

SUNY Oswego plans to target “innovation-oriented” industry sectors, including advanced manufacturing, robotics, information technology, automation-control systems, sustainable and green processes, energy-related manufacturing, electronics and computer software, telecommunications, and telemedicine.

The college’s plan establishes a review process for business-college partnership proposals that includes input from students, faculty, and staff members.

Following Stanley’s approval, SUNY Oswego will submit partnership proposals to Empire State Development for final approval, the school said.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com