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Conference highlights development opportunities

Dozens of developers, many from outside of Chautauqua County, gathered at the State University at Fredonia campus to hear about potential opportunities locally.

On Thursday, the Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency and the Chautauqua County Partnership for Economic Development held a Chautauqua County Developers Forum, where about 150 people attended, including about 50 developers.

"We're trying to be very proactive about development. As opposed to just sitting here waiting for the phone to ring or knock on the door, we're inviting developers from throughout the region to come and hear about all the great stuff going on," IDA Chief Executive Officer Mark Geise said.

Geise noted they listed the top sites available and possible opportunities for them. Those included: Mason Industrial Park in the town of Ellicott, I-90 Veterans Memorial Commerce Park in Ripley, former Dunkirk School 10, Waterfront Block on Route 5 in Dunkirk, Blackstone-Ney Ultrasonics Building on North Main Street in Jamestown, Pearl City Arts Building on Cherry Street in Jamestown, East First Street Complex on East First Street in Jamestown, JCC Annex Building, JCC North Building, Battery Point Land on Lake Shore Drive East in Dunkirk, downtown Celoron land, and the former Westfield nursing home building on Cass Street.

Each site had a poster, fact sheet, QR code and more so developers could learn about the potential for each location.

Geise noted there's been a couple of billion dollars worth of investment in the county over the last few years.

"We have really good momentum here," he said.

The keynote speaker of the conference was Christian Mercurio, the senior director of site development with Empire State Development. Mercurio acknowledged that there may be housing developers in the mix, but his focus is strictly industrial development. He said across the nation and even the globe, developers want sites that are ready to be used.

"It used to be incentives were number one. It used to be the workforce was number one. But really, right now product is number one - and when I say product I mean a really enabled site, something that can get you to market more quickly than the next state over," he said.

Because of this, the state has $800 million for site development.

Mercurio shared a number of sites across the state that are primed for development. He said one of the best is the I-90 Veterans Memorial Commerce Park in Ripley, in which New York has invested $5.25 million. Mercurio said the state is also working hard at improving electrical infrastructure, citing New York's Power Up program, which the Jamestown BPU has utilized. Mercurio also said the possible 500 acre Eagle Bay site in Sheridan could be a game changer as well. Right now there are eight sites across the state, including Eagle Bay, that are viewed as in the "site pipeline" to possibly become shovel-ready sites.

"I know it's early and I know there's a lot to be discussed with the community and all its partners but it (Eagle Bay) .. has a lot of advantages," he said.

Following the conference, County Executive PJ Wendel said he felt the conference, and similar events are helping move the county forward.

"This is opening up Chautauqua County for a lot of developers," he said.

Wendel noted some of the developers have a history of doing projects locally and others are simply exploring what opportunities are available.

"We're going to keep pushing," he said.

Wendel also shared that Chautauqua County's reputation is growing positively across the state.

"I put a lot of faith in the fact that the governor has commented on multiple occasions on how things have turned around here in the county," he said.