P-J photo by Gregory Bacon Maplevale Chief Executive Officer Keith Rogers explains that National Grid is unable to provide the power the company needs for an additional 18 months.

The construction of a food distribution center in the Findley Lake area has been delayed due to issues with Niagara Grid.

The issues nearly caused the project to be killed, but Chautauqua County is stepping up providing additional tax breaks, since the company has to spend additional funds on power.

In September, the Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency’s Board of Directors approved tax incentives for Maplevale Farms to construct a new 150,000 square foot $41.3 million refrigerated warehouse facility and distribution center at 3196 Route 426, in the town of Mina.

Following approval of a Payment In Lieu Of Taxes agreement, Maplevale planned on starting construction Oct. 1. However, they were unable to do so because they couldn’t get the power they needed.

Maplevale Chief Executive Officer Keith Rogers appeared at this week’s county IDA meeting to discuss the issues.

Rogers noted that they’ve been needing to relocate out of their Falconer area facility due to its size and inability to expand there.

They originally purchased land in Pennsylvania, however after being offered financial incentives by the county and the state, they chose to purchase an old farm in Mina with 194 acres of land, where they planned to build their new center.

“When we acquired that property, part of that due diligence was working with National Grid to make sure that we could get the power that we needed, which they said they could do. That was about two years ago. As of October 1, they still couldn’t tell us when they could bring us power officially and how much,” he said.

Rogers said he began working with county and state leaders to get National Grid to give a timeline, which came to be two years.

“Obviously, that was a big pause moment for us in our decision-making and we needed to reconsider should Pennsylvania be our decision,” Rogers said.

The county IDA was able to propose some additional tax breaks and National Grid was able to reduce the timeline to 18 months, so Rogers said they decided to continue with plans in Mina.

“This is where our heart is. As you know, I was raised here. I moved back to this area as part of the passion for the revitalization of this area. I raised my family here,” he said.

With this decision, Rogers said their construction costs are going up.

“Obviously, without power it’s hard to operate, so we’ve been working on costing out primary source generators,” he said.

A primary source generator, Rogers explained, can operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, but is much more expensive to run. It’s also quite costly to purchase.

Rogers said the plan right now is to get a primary source generator and then make it their backup generator once National Grid puts in the lines needed for Maplevale.

Rogers said had they walked away from the project, the town of Mina would still need additional power because of the wastewater treatment plant and some other proposed projects for the community.

“This really exposed the issue of our infrastructure from an electricity basis. Regardless if we were there or not, I was battling to make sure Mina got the power it needed,” he said.

Rogers thanked the local state representatives, as well as County Executive PJ Wendel for lobbying for them to National Grid.

The other issue right now is the weather. Since they didn’t start construction Oct. 1, a lot of snow has fallen and Rogers said he is unsure of when they can actually begin to do the work.

“Depending on the kind of winter we have, that (additional cost) could be anywhere from one and half million to three million, depending on all the things we need to import and do. That doesn’t count the generator and other issues that are involved,” he said.

To help Maplevale reduce costs, the county IDA Board of Directors agreed to increase the original Payment In Lieu Of Taxes agreement from 10 years to 15 years.

According to the resolution, the new 15-year PILOT will produce payments to the affected taxing jurisdiction, over the life of the project, in the amount of $2,182,080, with property tax exemptions totaling approximately $3,769,048. Sales tax savings will be approximately $2 million and mortgage recording tax savings will be approximately $465,340.

The project is expected to generate 300-400 construction jobs, retain 213 jobs and create an additional 23 full-time positions.

Rogers thanked the IDA for all its assistance.

“We’re a multi-generational company. I think when the history books are written, this will be a fun part of the story of how the county came to bat for us,” he said.