Just a bit outside...Companies that almost came to WNY

[leftWNYbecauseofBS]

Just wanted to start a thread that made sense based on an idea from the purple one.


This is to discuss what companies almost came to WNY and why it did not happen.

Please note if the decision is final or pending.

[Timmy]

Barilla Pasta (600) chose Rochester suburb over Buffalo

Wacker Chemical (1200 jobs)

Clinical Research Center for Excellence (600 jobs) in rochester not Buffalo (though Buffalo could create a similar center and create 600 jobs here)

2 ethanol plants built in suburbs of rochester instead of Buffalo's unused grain silos or Buffalo suburbs

three I can think of

[WNYresident]

What stood in the way of these projects or most projects in WNY?

[leftWNYbecauseofBS]

Barilla Pasta (600) chose Rochester suburb over Buffalo

Wacker Chemical (1200 jobs)

Clinical Research Center for Excellence (600 jobs) in rochester not Buffalo (though Buffalo could create a similar center and create 600 jobs here)

2 ethanol plants built in suburbs of rochester instead of Buffalo's unused grain silos or Buffalo suburbs

three I can think of

Well for you to list them as misses, there must have been serious consideration for Buffalo.


Why did we miss out or was it never even possible.

[Timmy]

well Barilla Pasta very simply found Buffalo and Erie County to unstable and to complicated to conduct business

Wacker Chemical wanted 70 MW of low cost power but Albany and NYPA had already redistributed that power allocated to us to downstate and refused to give it back. After repeated refusals and delays Wacker threw up its hands and said goodbye and after repeated apologies by the BNE/BNP, Slaughter, Clinton, Schumer, Pataki no one could get them to reconsider NYS.

Ethanol plants, well have you heard of the complaints about just one ethanol plant and one potential biodiesel plant on the waterfront using the unused silos.

Its the same problem over and over! Buffalo, Erie County, BNE/BNP, IDAs, NYPA (low cost power), local anti-business groups make Buffalo and WNY to unstable and to complicated and in many ways anti-business. New business just isnt embraced and welcomed as it is in Rochester (look at the convention center, tourism and all the other industries that need to be supported that arent).....and that is an entrenched reputation well known outside Buffalo & WNY.

[leftWNYbecauseofBS]

Wacker Chemical wanted 70 MW of low cost power but Albany and NYPA had already redistributed that power allocated to us to downstate and refused to give it back. After repeated refusals and delays Wacker threw up its hands and said goodbye and after repeated apologies by the BNE/BNP, Slaughter, Clinton, Schumer, Pataki no one could get them to reconsider NYS.

I read this and wanted to cry.....


" Schroeder says cheap hydropower
should have been used to court jobs

German company was the perfect candidate for cheap hydropower, he says

New York State Assemblyman Mark J.F. Schroeder said that the decision to give away Western New York’s hydropower to other parts of the state – a move that he protested on the Assembly floor – has cost the region 1,000 jobs.

“A German company called Wacker Chemical requested 70 megawatts – the same amount of hydropower that was meant for Western New York but was instead sent outside of the region,” said Schroeder.

The 70 megawatts is a part of the 445 megawatts of hydropower, known as replacement power, that was set aside for industrial use by Western New York after a landslide destroyed the Schoellkopf Power station in 1957. Due to loss of industry, Western New York was not using all of the 445 megawatts of hydropower, and the remaining 70 megawatts of replacement power was sent to other parts of the state.

“Now we do have a company that wants to use that power, but we can’t sell it to them because it has been given away to other parts of the state,” he said. “I predicted that this would happen and I urged my colleagues in the Assembly against giving the replacement power away, but it was done anyway.”

Schroeder said that he met with every member of the Western New York Delegation in May of 2005 – more than a month before the legislation that gave away the replacement power was voted on. In those meetings, he warned against letting this hydropower leave the area.

“It was misguided legislation,” Schroeder said of Assembly Bill #8960, sponsored by Assemblyman Paul Tonko and originating from the Assembly’s Energy Committee. “Everyone in the Assembly – myself included – shares part of the blame for letting it pass the way that it did.”

Schroeder said that he reluctantly voted for the bill because of its retention of 44,000 jobs – but not before he protested the portion of the bill that gave away the “Loose Juice” on the Assembly floor.

Schroeder said that the blame does not lie with the Assembly alone – he said that Governor George Pataki, the Senate, and the New York Power Authority encouraged a statewide “feeding frenzy” of Western New York’s replacement power in order to cover up their own waste and mismanagement. He also said that the deal should and could have been made even without the replacement power.

“There is hydropower available that NYPA sells so they can waste money on things such as corporate jets, $70 million worth of refrigerators for New York City housing projects, $25,000 golf carts, and several power plants across the state that lose hundreds of millions of dollars,” said Schroeder.

“NYPA also spent $25,000 to join the Buffalo Niagara Partnership’s Leadership Circle,” said Schroeder. “Apparently the money did not buy loyalty – the Partnership publicly blasted NYPA in a desperate attempt to deflect any blame from falling on its shoulders for its role in this debacle,” he said.

[leftWNYbecauseofBS]

Barilla Pasta (600) chose Rochester suburb over Buffalo

I think your a little full of it on this one.

"Barilla Makes Big News in Livingston County, NY
Barilla America Inc., the largest pasta producer in the United States and Jacobson Warehouse Co. Inc. intend to invest $96.2 million to build a pasta plant and distribution center in the village of Avon in Livingston County, approximately 10 miles south of Rochester. The center will handle Barilla's northeastern U.S. distribution and manufacture more than 40 varieties of Barilla's pasta products. According to the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, the companies plan to create at least 121 permanent jobs over the next three years. Livingston County's new designation as an Empire Zone was a deciding factor in Barilla picking Avon over Altoona, PA. The companies plan to break ground in June, pending approval by the town of Avon, and expect to start production in June 2007. Read the Barilla press release and the Democrat & Chronicle stories here and here."


Never was Buffalo considered and it is 121 jobs not 600.


This is for serious discussion Timmy, not what you think should have happened.

[Timmy]

so I got the number wrong and it was 125 instead of 600.

and your wrong Buffalo was considered and ruled out...google till your eyes fall out but I happen to know that Buffalo was considered and ruled out.

but hey if you need to belittle me and nitpick to make yourself a bigger person then here let me pat you on the back

[Linda_D]

Avon is a small village in a rural area about 20 miles south of Rochester (see Avon). It's only a "suburb" of Rochester in the way that North Collins is a suburb of Buffalo. Obviously, Barilla was looking for an area with inexpensive, developable land and a reliable workforce with easy access to the Thruway and a "welcome" sign on the town hall, so saying that Buffalo was rejected is silly. Maybe North Collins was rejected, but neither Rochester nor Buffalo was in this company's sights.

[leftWNYbecauseofBS]

Avon is a small village in a rural area about 20 miles south of Rochester (see Avon). It's only a "suburb" of Rochester in the way that North Collins is a suburb of Buffalo. Obviously, Barilla was looking for an area with inexpensive, developable land and a reliable workforce with easy access to the Thruway and a "welcome" sign on the town hall, so saying that Buffalo was rejected is silly. Maybe North Collins was rejected, but neither Rochester nor Buffalo was in this company's sights.

Thank you. Just what I was thinking.

[CSense]

Because of the Allentown Nazis we lost a....

Wyndham Hotel on Elmwood and Forest
GAP on Elmwood (next door to Wilson Farms)


On a larger note, when Toyota Motor Corp. announced June 30, 2005 that it will build a new assembly plant near Woodstock, Ont., Buffalo was being considered.

But unions, taxes, etc killed it

[wnyerlaughs]

Just wanted to start a thread that made sense based on an idea from the purple one.


This is to discuss what companies almost came to WNY and why it did not happen.

Please note if the decision is final or pending.

didn't know where to post this...but it sort of ties in with thie thread of what's NOT happening with Life Sciences in Buffalo/Erie Cty, not yet anyway.

Copycat the success of other areas that are doing it right. There's a reason why NJ is the home of some of the wealthiest counties in USA: No chicken and egg syndrome. Make the environment friendly for business...and it will come...and the population will prosper with job opportunities in growth industries. Medical corridor in Buffalo is small potatos when one looks at the bigger picture potential...

I think some of you will enjoy this:

http://www.locationnj.com/LifeScienc...gy_Profile.asp