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Finger Lakes/Rochester

Major location moves in the Finger Lakes/Rochester region include PaeTec Communications' selection of Perinton for an $11 million, 100,000-sq.-ft. (9,290-sq.-m.) corporate headquarters that will create 220 high-tech communications jobs.

"New York state's tax cuts and pro-business policies combined with Rochester's talented work force to create an irresistible package that PaeTec simply could not find anywhere else," Gov. Pataki says.

PaeTec Communications offers local, long distance, high-speed Internet access, e-commerce and other data services to businesses, colleges and universities, hospitals and affinity groups throughout the United States. Formed in 1998, the company has in excess of 55,000 customers and more than 550 employees nationwide.

"We are delighted by the support we have received from both the state of New York and our local community," says Arunas Chesonis, chairman and CEO.

About 150 new jobs are being added in Ogden, N.Y., near Rochester, where Hover-Davis is building a 60,000-sq.-ft. (5,574-sq.-m.) engineering and manufacturing facility. The company has some 100 employees at its nearby Spenceport headquarters. "Without the support of Empire State Development, Hover-Davis would not have made the decision to stay in New York," says company President John Hover.

The company manufactures precision tape feeder machines that make microchips for installation on circuit board applications. John Hover and Peter Davis founded the firm in 1989 after Hover, a former Eastman Kodak engineer, recognized the need for a competitive aftermarket tape feeder supplier. Hover-Davis's Direct Die Feeder was the 1999 winner of the Grand Award of Excellence presented by Electronic Packaging and Production magazine.

Other notable developments include expansions by Metalade, an industrial metals finisher, and Taylor-Pohlman, an aluminum castings maker. Metalade's $2.1 million Rochester facility creates 30 jobs and retains 65, while Taylor-Pohlman's new Arcade plant creates 90 jobs and retains 180.

Both new and expanding manufacturing firms in the Rochester area will benefit from Rochester Gas & Electric Corp.'s special rate for facilities that involve an electric load of 50 kw or higher. "We're able to offer these companies a deeply discounted rate that pretty much matches the national average," explains Director of Economic Development Clyde Forbes. "This is part of our restructuring settlement with the PSC to provide a rate that would be able to expand our manufacturing base during the time of transition to an open market. We now have power below 5 cents for new loads through June 2002. To qualify, companies have to construct a new facility, expand an existing facility, add equipment to an existing site or add facilities through development of an existing site that's been vacant for at least six months."