Fruitful Activity

What juices New York's industrial economy is often found well beyond the Big Apple.

by ADAM BRUNS

O

n the same day that the upstate welcomed the first day of autumn, the Business Council of New York State welcomed a new chairman who wants innovation to color the state's economy.
   "It's urgent and necessary that we begin moving aggressively — and immediately — to restore New York as a leader in innovation, entrepreneurship and economic progress," Linda Sanford, a senior vice president at IBM, told the Council's annual meeting. "Innovation will be the engine. Innovation will be what creates high-paying, high-skill jobs for New York and provides all of New York with rising standards of living."

The 150-year partnership between Bausch & Lomb and Rochester is only growing stronger with the company's latest R&D investment, announced in the summer of 2005.

   Certainly IBM's own work and several other semiconductor projects simmering around the upstate lend credence to her claim, as do momentum-swinging deals in Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse. But they're all still fighting the state's high-maintenance image. Witness the state's recent disappearance from the Samsung short list for its rumored new chip fab, with the race now down to Texas, Oregon and Arizona.
   But that doesn't mean all the chips are down. One likely candidate for a semiconductor project is Luther Forest Technology Campus near Saratoga, where a recent $4.8-million state grant allowed the purchase of 1,186 acres (480 hectares) adjacent to the central 164 acres (66 hectares) that the Luther Forest Technology Campus Economic Development Corp., a subsidiary of Saratoga Economic Development Corp., already owned.
   "The Luther Forest campus is considered by people in the high technology industry to be the best location in the country for the development of chip fab facilities, and for good reason," said Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Brunswick). Senator Bruno said. "We will have plenty of water available for chip manufacturing, we will have a site that is shovel-ready, we already have a rapidly-developing core of high tech, biotech and nanotech businesses in the Capital Region and we've got some of the finest academic institutions in the country.
   His confidence is backed by technical studies by Abbie Gregg Inc. and M+W Zander that confirm the site's qualifications and potentially low costs.