Two chocolate companies may work out a unique arrangement to jointly occupy the former Nestlé factory in Fulton.

Lake Effect

While the giants of yesteryear are trimming back, their 21st century offspring – many of them located in smaller communities ringing Syracuse, near both the Finger Lakes and the Great Lakes – are seeing new and renewed corporate investment.
        In an echo of similar efforts at other food processing plants across the country, a newly formed venture – Fulton Chocolate Co. – will invest more than $6.3 million in reopening part of the 250,000-sq.-ft. (23,225-sq.-m.) former Nestlé factory in Fulton, creating up to 200 jobs (half of Nestlé's work force) over the next three years in this corner of Oswego County. Shut down in the spring of 2003 when Nestlé shifted production to Brazil, the plant was slated to return to production of low-carb chocolate bars by the beginning of 2004, thanks to the backing of Island Capital Ventures.
        The remainder of the complex will see investment by Lion Capital Management, a firm that had previously been eyeing the purchase of the whole plant, but whose proposal was rejected by Nestlé. Lion's operation will focus on the making of basic chocolate, chocolate powder and chocolate liqueur, supported by a unique partnership with cocoa bean growers from the Ivory Coast, who hold a 40-percent share of the global cocoa bean market. In fact, some of that cocoa bean supply may be sold to the Fulton Chocolate Co.

See the SITES Empire State Dev. Corp. www.nylovesbiz.com New York City Econ. Dev. Corp. www.newyorkbiz.com Niagara Mohawk www.niagaramohawk.com National Policy Research Council www.nprcouncil.com Albany Nanotech www.albanynanotech.org Greater Rochester Enterprise www.greaterrochesterenterprise.com Operation Oswego County www.oswegocounty.org Greater Syracuse Economic Growth Council www.syracusecentral.com Columbia Hudson Partnership www.chpartnership.com

        Just west of Syracuse, on the northern reaches of the Finger Lakes, one medical technology company is going against the common grain, choosing to relocate operations from North Carolina. But then again, Welch Allyn had a homegrown advantage, having been founded in Skaneateles Falls in 1915. The maker of medical diagnostic equipment, patient monitoring systems and miniature precision lamps also operates manufacturing facilities in San Diego, Calif.; Beaverton, Ore.; Jungingen, Germany and Navan, Ireland.

When in Rome?
As Soon As Possible

Between Syracuse and Utica, yet another classically named city is seeing some classic business development.
        Rome, situated in the Mohawk Valley and Oneida County, is home to the 3,500-acre (1,417-hectare) Griffiss Business and Technology Park that saw the late 2002 arrival of SCIENX's 505-employee high-tech manufacturing campus. The division of Georgia-based Orasee had also looked in its home state, Virginia and the U.K., but was lured to look in Rome by none other than Sen. Hillary Clinton.
        The information security specialists are starting out in a 55,000-sq.-ft. (5,110-sq.-m.) building with 45 people, planning to add 100 to 125 staff per year over the next several years. The firm's ties with federal programs were only reinforced by the Griffiss presence of the Air Force Research Laboratory in the same park, which is finishing out its own $24.8-million, 105,000-sq.-ft (9,755-sq.-m.) expansion. The lab specializes in IT R&D.
        The park is also seeing the construction of the $14-million Empire Air Center by Commodore Aviation, a division of Israel Aircraft Industries International, to house a relocation of its North American aircraft maintenance repair and overhaul facility from Miami, Fla. The investment will create a 28,000-sq.-ft. (2,601-sq.-m.) addition to Hangar 101, adjacent to the park's signature feature, a 2.23-mile (3.6-km.) runway that was part of the Griffiss Air Force base on the property. It will also create some 500 jobs. Locations in Florida, Arizona, North Carolina and Texas were also considered.
        Like Welch-Allyn in the Finger Lakes, Rome-based MGS Manufacturing is also moving some of its activity from North Carolina to New York. Following its purchase of England-based Northampton Machinery Co., wire and cable machinery maker MGS is moving that firm's manufacturing activity across the pond, as well as bringing a service center from Mooresville, N.C., into the New York fold.
        This increase of 45 jobs follows on a 2002 expansion into Griffiss Park that was the company's sixth since being founded in the city in 1969.