|
|
Post by Clipper on Jan 11, 2012 15:50:46 GMT -5
Looks like the Marcy "shovel ready" site is being passed over once again. The sad facts are that the Syracuse area has plenty of electronics oriented workers left over from the GE operations at Electronic's Park, a bigger lobby in Albany, is at the crossroads of two interstates, has an active airport, and is simply more desireable to a company looking to locate in upstate NY. I don't know the answer to getting the site in Marcy ready and marketable, but somewhere along the line, it has been mishandled, underfunded, incomplete, and a sad tribute to the ineffectiveness of EDGE and local politicians.
A nanotechnology company is looking at Salina to start a new manufacturing initiative, officials with knowledge of the project said Wednesday.
Los Angeles-based APIC Corp is considering a site at Electronics Park in Salina, just west of Syracuse, a statement from U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer’s office said.
The move is contingent upon federal Defense Department funding for chips to be used by the Navy. The initiative is part of a partnership with the Albany College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, which is also partnering with SUNYIT to create a Computer Chip Commercialization Center and a Center for Advanced Technology in Marcy.
Locally, Mohawk Valley EDGE economic development agency has been working to secure nanotech manufacturing plant for a site in Marcy.
Check back later for more in this story.
Copyright 2012 The Observer-Dispatch, Utica, New York. Some rights reserved
|
|
|
|
Post by chris on Jan 11, 2012 16:08:43 GMT -5
Who would fill the jobs if they were in Marcy. You go where the talent is and SU is there along with an airport close by. What the mayor of Uitca needs to do is work on stuff like that to help bring jobs back and do something with that image on Bleecker St (which is right downtown) Not a pretty sight to attract potential prospects to move there. So what do they do spend money on ........a roundabout like there wasn't better things to do with those funds.
Utica will never move forward unless these things are addressed for their future.
|
|
|
|
Post by Clipper on Jan 11, 2012 16:29:46 GMT -5
They should tear down those buildings on Bleecker Street and make it the much needed downtown parking area. Wouldn't it be novel to see people forced to go back to carrying an umbrella, and having to actually WALK a block or so? Put a small shuttle bus in service in that area, with a 50 cent fare box, constantly traveling a circuitous route from Bleecker up Genessee to Deveraux, over to Charlotte, over Elizabeth to John, down to Union Station and back around, running about a 20 minute circuit. Add a couple buses during rush hours. You could run that shuttle for a long time for the millions they project to be needed to build a parking structure and transporation center. All this would require is some blacktop and a few bus shelters, Centro could provide the service.
|
|
|
|
Post by JGRobinson on Jan 12, 2012 15:27:47 GMT -5
Yup, NoNo chips is more like it, we would be better off making Tater Chips than Hoping and praying that anyone will move into Marcy's shovel full of manure plan.
|
|
|
|
Post by firstamendment on Jan 14, 2012 7:22:19 GMT -5
Shovel ready yet the Army Corp of Engineers won't let anything proceed until someone has committed to the site. Shovel ready seems like a political term who's meaning is bottomless pit of tax dollars destined for failure.
Where's Ralph? Wondering how surprised he is by this news. NOT!
Chris, Utica will never move forward because Utica keeps recycling the same names, same faces and same worn out ideas. Palmieri is supposedly considering hiring back Bob Sullivan and Linda Sullivan-Fatata for crying out loud. Bob Sullivan who was fired by Roefaro no less over the GroWest debacle. And they want to hire him back? From where I sit, I think if I had that much stink on me, I'd be run out of town. But not in Utica. Funny because my mom and I were just talking about this on the commute to work the other day. Utica politics and city jobs are like musical chairs only no chairs are removed. The same names keep inhabiting city jobs in different positions at different times. Its like each election cycle, when the music stops everyone takes the chair (city job) right by them. How do you think Utica will ever evolve when more of the same is tradition?
On that note, check out the latest OD articles about the Hotel Utica and the new place, Piers and Blake. I believe one of the posters commenting is Bob Sullivan. What is ironic is the ultra similar patterns Piers and Blake is taking in comparison to Hotel Utica. More tax dollars propping up private businesses while the tax payer gets an IOU worth NOTHING. There is no accountability, there is no morals. Just hand out money and hope they pay it back.
|
|
|
|
Post by Clipper on Jan 14, 2012 12:45:55 GMT -5
The Piers and Blake, and Hotel Utica debacles just leave me shaking my head in disbelief. How many times does the city have to get burned before they wake the hell up and quit spending taxpayer money on private developer's projects that are like a crap shoot? Hanna started the trend with the Marina building that is only recently housing a SUCCESSFUL restaurant business, that is paying it's rent.
It has happened here also. Bristol Va paid over a million dollars for a parcel near an interstate exit, GAVE it to a developer, with the idea in mind that tax generating business would flock there. So far there is a Cracker Barrel there, several years later. A Bob Evans restaurant was built and lasted less than a year. The rest of the huge parcel is growing an annual crop of weeds and not generating much in the line of tax revenue. All the development so far has taken place on the opposite side of the interstate.
Personally I have to think that there are ways to provide incentive, without taking it out of the pockets of the taxpayers in loan guarantees or land give-aways. Tax incentives are costly enough, without taking on loan debt in the name of an unsuccessful commercial operation by a private party.
|
|
|
|
Post by Ralph on Jan 14, 2012 13:45:50 GMT -5
Surprised? Not in the least. I long ago realized that this is the norm for this area.
We the taxpayers are going about what could be known as Speculation Investment, much against our will.
If you build it they will come doesn’t even come close. More like if you think about what could be there and let people know they will flock to watch nothing happen and then invest elsewhere.
These are our tax dollars going to support fields of not dreams, but of speculative possibilities that are the equivalent of wishing we could be Peter Pan and fly off to never-never land. The folks that are pulling (sucking our tax dollars to support their whims) this off, and rather well I may add, need to grow up and realize they won’t fly.
Everything around here I equate to the “ripple principal”. Do it right and it is like throwing a rock into a still pond……….one big splash and the ripples do the rest.
Here………..it’s like tossing a rock into the cat box……there is a big plop, a little dust rises and then when all is said and done, it still smells like shit.
|
|
|
|
Post by Clipper on Jan 14, 2012 14:22:13 GMT -5
Rather vivid picture Ralph. I can almost smell the catbox. You are just such a silver tongued devil, hahahaa.  |
|
|
|
Post by JGRobinson on Jan 14, 2012 16:05:08 GMT -5
Man I smell what your steppin in!
|
|
|
|
Post by firstamendment on Jan 15, 2012 10:09:42 GMT -5
Ya know, I am at a loss on these HUD loans and what not. Where is the accountability? Where are the legal ramifications and recourse when the borrower doesn't pay? We simply forgive thousands of dollars of taxpayer money when these ideas roll over like a dead dog? Really? If this is the case, it is no wonder why we are going broke by the way government hands out money and doesn't get it back. Wow.
|
|
|
|
Post by Ralph on Jan 15, 2012 14:06:56 GMT -5
HUD loans, such as the case of Hotel Utica, are usually guaranteed by the municipality in which the borrower is located. Since Hotel Utica has reneged on its payments, the monies are paid by the City from its Urban and Economic Development budget.
In other words, we are paying to keep it alive while Gaetano is skating.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 15, 2012 18:41:39 GMT -5
We do have a major manufacturer that is expanding, Chobani Yogurt. We have worker's who can do those jobs. It’s the year of yogurt, as existing plants in Upstate New York plan to expand and perhaps another looks to join the fray. And the increased competition brings hope of big business for local dairy farmers and could nourish a recessed economy. ◦Agro Farma Inc., the Chenango County-based company behind the Chobani yogurt brand, announced in early August plans to expand its facilities. ◦Fage USA, another contender in the Greek yogurt industry, recently announced plans to expand its plant in Johnstown. ◦A third company, PepsiCo Inc., also might be looking to construct a yogurt plant in Batavia, though the company would not confirm it. Read more www.uticaod.com/features/x58615511/Plant-expansions-have-farmers-saying-Yippee-for-yogurt |
|
|
|
Post by firstamendment on Jan 15, 2012 21:31:10 GMT -5
HUD loans, such as the case of Hotel Utica, are usually guaranteed by the municipality in which the borrower is located. Since Hotel Utica has reneged on its payments, the monies are paid by the City from its Urban and Economic Development budget. In other words, we are paying to keep it alive while Gaetano is skating. I knew how these loans are guaranteed by the municipality. What I am at a loss on is how those who take these monies can skate like nothing can happen to them. That is the bothersome aspect to it. Loretto did that also. Ironic because my dad and I were talking about how Loretto sold out the nursing home and left all the employees high and dry. What is ironic about it is that he informed me that Loretto ran the Hunter House that operated out of the Hotel Utica before it was remodeled. I knew the Hunter House was there when I was a kid, I just never knew it was Loretto who ran it. Not that I would advocate any government taking over a private business, but seeing how the Hotel Utica more or less is owned by the City anyway, they should finally take the legal step and foreclose on it. Shit, hire someone to manage the place like they do with Valley View. At least make sure someone like Gaetano CAN'T profit from it while NOT meeting his obligations. I am tempted to put together a business plan for a high tech Lemonade stand with a skating rink to see if I can get some free HUD money from the City. Whatda y'all think? *not serious, just sarcasm so don't get your hopes up! ;D |
|
|
|
Post by clarencebunsen on Jan 15, 2012 22:52:33 GMT -5
I don't see any mechanism for the city to foreclose on Hotel Utica. The Bank of Utica is in first position. From what I've read, that loan has been kept up. In any case it's a private matter between the hotel & the bank, the city did not participate in that transaction.
HUD is in second position. The city is not a mortgage holder but a co-signer on the loan. From what I've read, the city gained no rights only obligations in that deal. Whatever may seem moral or ethical, the city is obligated to pay if the hotel doesn't and HUD can take the money off the top from its payments to the city but Utica gains no ownership share from that.
The hotel has often been behind on its taxes but not so far behind that it triggered seizure. It does appear that at least once the hotel got far enough behind to cause a problem but the city negotiated a payment plan and as long as that remains current, Utica has no leverage.
The hotel is not more or less owned by the city, Utica has no ownership. It can't seize assets or force a management change. The deal may have been a bad one for Utica but it was lawfully entered into by the city's elected leadership. Utica appears to be stuck with it.
|
|
|
|
Post by firstamendment on Jan 15, 2012 23:08:14 GMT -5
ahh but they could take it for unpaid taxes
|
|
