The economic development efforts of Genesee County and the region and the state are closely aligned, said two officials who spoke at GCEDC's annual meeting Friday at Batavia Downs.
Ryan Silva, executive director of the NYS Economic Development Council (top photo), first gave an overview of the investments New York made in 2022 in economic development. Among them:
- A $200 million investment program;
- A $250 brownfield development program;
- A $500 million tax recredit program designed to attract semiconductor manufacturers.
"All told, over the last 12 months, there has been $1.2 billion dollars in new economic development initiatives and funding dedicated to New York State," Silva said.
Silva applauded the accomplishments of GCEDC.
"Since the Steve Hyde era began in 2003, I was just amazed to hear some of those stats that you referenced, Steve -- 527 projects, $2 billion in capital, $5 million square feet of space and 5,000 jobs."
He added, "What does that say about how we can grow our economies? What we have to do is continue to build shovel-ready sites all across the state to attract and grow key industries. What does that say about Genesee County? To me, it says you're leveraging your strengths and your assets. Communities are stepping up and helping achieve their own goals, and GCEDC is setting the way. And then what does this mean for our future? It means better careers and outcomes for the families and the communities that we serve and remains revitalized downtown that will attract the next generation of workforce."
Laura Fox O'Sullivan, regional director of Empire State Development’s Finger Lakes Regional Office (second photo), visited Downtown Batavia during her visit to Genesee County and took note of the efforts to revitalize the city core during a lunch at Eli Fish, where she heard more about how the city is putting to work its $10 million in Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant award.
"The Batavia DRI project to me felt like such a microcosm of how Genesee County works," O'Sullivan said. "There are really strong partnerships, people know each other, and they really care about each other. And something that I've really been impressed by with Genesee County is that they have these long-standing partnerships, and they're really coming to fruition right now. It's such an exciting time to be here."
Photos by Howard Owens.
During his speech Steve Hyde, CEO of GCEDC, thanked all of the agencies partners, such as the Town of Alabama, Town of Pembroke, Town of Batavia, the City of Batavia and the Genesee County Legislature, as well as the agencies throughout the state that help the agency attract businesses to the county's shovel-ready industrial parks.
"It's also important to keep this growing," Hyde said. "Industrial development agencies oftentimes specifically are under attack legislatively at the state level, because they have legislation that gets launched that's narrowly focused and misguided. And that, if it passed, actually negatively impacts the competitiveness in New York State."
The Town of Pembroke, represented by Supervisor Thomas Schneider Jr., was honored as GCEDC development partner of the year.
We appreciate it greatly, but we also don't do what we do in Pembroke for accolades," Schneider said. "We do it for the betterment of the community. We do appreciate it. We've got a strong team behind us that also deserve recognition for getting the award. With all the development going on -- it's just all of the sudden sparked off like I couldn't imagine within a year."
Middle of the photo, Pete Zeliff, chairman of the GCEDC board of directors, and Shelley Stein, chair of the Genesee County Legislature.
When Steve Hyde asked audience members partnering with the county's workforce development efforts to raise their hands, among them Kevin MacDonald, superintendent of Genesee Valley BOCES.
