NY taxpayers built $90M factory in DeWitt for firm that walked away, didn't create a job

Post Standard, Syracuse NY ^ | 01/04/18 | By Rick Moriarty rmoriarty@syracuse.com,

[Behind Liberal Lines]

DeWitt, N.Y. -- In 2014, the development arm of SUNY Polytechnic Institute agreed to build, with $90 million in state money, a factory in DeWitt for an LED light bulb manufacturer.

The company, California-based Soraa, agreed to create 250 full-time, high-tech jobs at Collamer Crossing Business Park and to encourage Soraa contractors and suppliers to create another 170 jobs in Central New York.

In return, the company would be allowed to lease the factory for $1 a month for 10 years.

But the deal with SUNY Poly's Fort Schuyler Management Corp. did not require Soraa to spend any of its own money to build or equip the factory. And it contained no penalties if the company did not occupy the building or create the promised jobs. The company never even signed a lease.

So when Soraa recently said it no longer needed the factory and pulled out of the deal just as the state was completing construction of the 82,000-square-foot building, there was nothing the state could do about it.

The state was left with a factory, nearly fully equipped, but no company to use it....

[ConservaTeen]

People need to lose their political job for this? Are the taxpayers upset?

[fella]

The government should move a bunch of their employees there and run that factory and go into direct competition with the evil capitalists.

They could show the rest of the country how great their socialist dreams work.

Of course they would have to mandate that all of New York would have to buy their product no matter the cost or quality. Kind of like auto and health insurance.

[M Kehoe]

I’d wager that no politicians in this fiasco lost their jobs.

5.56mm

[FreedomNotSafety]

I agree. I like them especially for rugged use. But indoor especially in a heating climate incandescent are still the best and cheapest.

[polymuser]

Who are/were the players and construction companies linked to?

[Renkluaf]

Randy Andy will be touting his economic development programs when he runs for President in 2020.

[griswold3]

An empty ‘fully equipped’ factory?
In New York, you’d think they’d Unite the Workers and let them run it.

[Slyfox]

That would be interesting to find out. And, what banks handled the cash?

[wetgundog]

Moving New York State backwards...

Very glad I don’t live in this corrupt DemoRAT state.

[Jimmy Valentine's brother]

Once again proving that the government can’t pick winners and losers. Nobody talked with Generous Electric. Guess Immelt was too busy sucking up to Preezy Zero at the time.

[marktwain]

The company did not get any money. They never occupied the building.

The people/person who got the money were the contractors/contractor who built the building for 5X normal costs.

I wonder if any of those “costs” went back in the pockets of the politicians who approved the project.

70 million in “extra” money is a lot to spread about.

[Ouderkirk]

They built it off 298 & 481 headed down towards the 481 Thruway toll plaza.

$90 Million down the drain.....

[Ouderkirk]

GE departed Syracuse in 1993 when they sold what was left of Aerospace to Martin Marietta and what is now Lockheed Martin.

GE had 20,000 people working in Syracuse when I went to work for them. There was less than 1500 when I left in 1995.

I went to Rochester and Kodak. The same thing happened to Kodak. The taxes and environmental regs drove them into bankruptcy.

[metmom]

I saw that on the map that Steely Tom posted.

No wonder I never saw it, though, tuck3ed way back in there.

[Steely Tom]

GE departed Syracuse in 1993 when they sold what was left of Aerospace to Martin Marietta and what is now Lockheed Martin.

GE had 20,000 people working in Syracuse when I went to work for them. There was less than 1500 when I left in 1995.

Another department of GE's HMED (Heavy Military Equipment Division) got spun off and became Sensis, which a few years ago was purchased by Sweden's Saab Group. It is now called "Saab Sensis," and is located very close to the building in question.

[richmondtommy53]

Ain’t that the truth.

[csvset]

Cuomo, eh? I’ll see you a Cuomo and raise you a McAuliffe. Here he is with Virginia Beach’s corrupt mayor, ( a Republican or so they say). Oh yeah, this is a home run /s. Let’s see, green energy, we’re going to hire Negroes, etc.

"Green" battery maker to buy Owl's Creek Golf course land and receive $1.8M from Virginia Beach

VIRGINIA BEACH

A company that wants to build a new manufacturing facility on part of a former golf course plans to add 1,100 jobs with an average annual salary of $74,000. It will receive millions in state incentives for the project, Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced Tuesday at the company’s offices on Lynnhaven Parkway.

A 540,000-square-foot building would be built on 30 acres currently owned by the city that once was part of Owl’s Creek Golf Center.

The city plans to transfer the land to the Virginia Beach Development Authority, which would sell the site to Global Technical Systems for $1.2 million. The company would pay about $282,000 annually in real estate taxes to the city. It also plans to invest $54.7 million in the project.

Once the factory is running – the plan is to open it in March 2019 – the company will be eligible for $7.8 million in state grants and incentives. The Development Authority could kick in another $1.8 million if the company meets its investment and job creation goals, bringing the total incentives to nearly $10 million.

The company will make batteries that can store and produce energy. Its scientists have developed a flywheel rotor system that is capable of storing large amounts of kinetic energy for 50 to 100 years, said Terry Spitzer, who owns the company with his wife, Yusun. The energy comes from electricity, sun or wind and is stored – and later released – by the battery’s technology, he said.

He compared it to the cast-iron flywheel first used to power steam engines in the late 1880s.

The batteries will vary in size and capability – they can fit in a soda can or a semitruck – with the most advanced able to power ships, Spitzer said.

“Think of it as an extreme battery,” he said. “Stored energy waiting and ready when you need it.”

They can be used to power machinery, data centers or even cities, Spitzer said.

Global Technical Systems has mainly focused on government contracts until now.

Its customer list has included the Navy, the Department of Homeland Security, Coast Guard and Special Operations Command.

Last year, Spitzer’s company received an Economic Development grant for an expansion of its headquarters on Lynnhaven Parkway.

“Virginia Beach has been good to us,” he said.

With the Birdneck Road factory, the company wants to turn its focus to commercial clients, including energy providers and data centers. Virginia Beach has a new transatlantic cable, Marea, built by Microsoft and Facebook, connecting to Bilbao, Spain, for faster data transfers between the U.S. and Europe.

“We’re moving into more of a commercial direction to what we’ve been doing,” Spitzer said.

The property is in a historically underutilized business zone, a designation of the Small Business Administration. The company plans to train and hire Seatack residents, and the community’s civic league has supported the redevelopment. As an employer in such a zone, it would get a leg up on future federal contracts.

Some residents who live across the street recently told The Virginian-Pilot they have concerns about the transparency of the deal, noting that the city withheld the name of the company looking to redevelop the site and potential environmental impacts to the land and added traffic near their homes.

Spitzer said he wants to keep three sides of the building clear from development with a natural setting. He’s also considering leasing some of the adjacent golf course property, which is owned by Nancy Braithwaite.

“This is not going to be an ugly factory,” Spitzer said. “I want it to look beautiful.”

[dennisw]

Bribes, payoffs, stupidity. Who negotiated this deal? Lock him up.