“We are focused on building a Capital Region economic ecosystem that is locally collaborative, globally competitive and economically vibrant,” said CREDC co-chair and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute President Shirley Ann Jackson.
The plan includes proposals for transformative projects that would sustain and grow jobs, leveraging $11 in private sector investment for every $1 invested by the state.
“Some of the transformative projects [include] GlobalFoundries Fab 8, which continues to be a large investment opportunity for industry here,” said Dennis Brobston, a member on the council as well as president of Saratoga Economic Development Council.
“There’s a company named Amkor that is looking to build a manufacturing site somewhere in Saratoga County, and that too was listed as a transformative project because of its connection to manufacturing in the semiconductor and nanotechnology industry,” Brobston added.
Other Capital Region resources, such as the Nanoscale School of Science and Engineering in Albany, and the Hudson Valley Community College Tech-Smart campus in Malta, are also key to the region’s success and the CREDC plan, said Brobston. Both schools will work to train students for the manufacturing tech positions in the industry, not just at GlobalFoundries, but at many of the support companies coming to the area as well.
“We’re also working on reinvigorating the Corinth International Paper site,” said Brobston. “We’re working with a company named Moncada Energy Group and also Waste Connections Inc. They’re actually working on an agreement right now to partner together and take over the site.”
Both companies, said Brobston, have a record of supporting the communities they are located in, and would bring hundreds of jobs to northern Saratoga County.
Now that the plans have been submitted to the state, the councils must wait to hear just how much funding will be approved for each of the different councils and the regions they represent. An announcement is expected either late this year or early next.
“I’m very pleased with the plan. I think we did a great job as a community of eight counties. We all worked hard to make sure every county was understood, and I was very pleased with the ability to listen that other members of the council displayed. They took it to heart,” said Brobston.
