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Business Agency Sweetens the Pot

Aim is to woo more companies to Elmira area.

By Kati Phillips
Star-Gazette
June 11, 2000

Doing business in the Elmira area just got more attractive

Southern Tier Economic Growth Inc., a local agency that helps lure corporations to the area, has a new bag of discounts to offer companies that locate in a designated area called the Elmira Economic Development Zone. The new incentives could bring more jobs and create a bigger tax base for the area after Jan. 1, 2001.

STEG, which oversees the development program, says the changes include:

- A property tax credit for county, town and school taxes. The state will reimburse companies to keep the tax base from shrinking.
- A state sales tax exemption on the purchase of services and equipment, such as furniture and computers. Currently, businesses within the development zone receive exemptions only on construction materials.
- A new configuration. Elmira’s economic development zone will no longer have to be contiguous. That means the two square miles designated for development can be distributed throughout Elmira and the county.

This will allow the agency to include in the zone the Southside of downtown Elmira, the west side of Clemens Center Parkway near Wegmans Plaza, a block of land on College Avenue across from Trinity Industrial Park, the Sysco Food Services building in Horseheads and Schweizer Aircraft Corp. in Big Flats.

The goal is to fit every manufacturer and vacant site in the county into the zone, agency officials said.

"This took a lot of people by surprise, the amount of change to come to the program," said local development zone coordinator Jamie Johnson.

"Locally, the funds will improve how we compete with other states," some of which copied New York’s economic plan to lure businesses away, Johnson said.

Elmira’s Economic Development zone was created in 1988 to recruit new businesses and to help existing businesses by offering them tax breaks, utility refunds and other incentives.

The new legislature will reduce the tax burden on businesses in the development zone. They will reap greater profits and will be able to reinvest more money in their businesses, said George Miner, the development agency’s president.

Eight new businesses joined the development zone last year, making a total of 159 certified businesses in the zone. The city of Elmira is home to 132 of those businesses.

The Nucor Corp. site in the town of Chemung will be a new addition to the zone. County officials and developers at Southern Tier Economic Growth tapped into Industrial Development Agency and STEG funds by rearranging the development zone to provide tax and utility incentives to Nucor. The development agency even figured out a way to seek state and federal money for an $800,000 on-site sewage facility.

Nucor, headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., announced April 19 that it will build a Vulcraft plant on a 100-acre site on county Route 60 in Chemung. The plant will make steel joists and decks used in the construction of floors and ceilings in large buildings such as schools, shopping malls and warehouses.

"We get more aid by being in the zone and that helps Nucor," said Chemung Supervisor Bob Miller. "Whatever helps Nucor helps the people of Chemung."

With about 300 jobs planned for the $50 million Nucor facility, many going to local workers, Miller said the end result will mean more tax dollars and better roads for the town.

The state and local development zone officials are digesting the new legislation and are figuring out how lawmakers want to handle the changes for the 50 economic development zones in the state.

The Elmira development zone includes less than two square miles of property in the city, towns of Southport, Elmira, Horseheads and Big Flats, as well as the villages of Elmira Heights and Horseheads.

The 24-member development zone board includes government and economic officials. The board works with other economic development agencies, such as Empire State Development Corp. and the Industrial Development Agency, to create incentive packages.

Helping firms grow

Last year, businesses in Elmira’s development one created 1,000 full-time jobs and more than 300 part-time jobs, according to the agency’s annual report. An additional 455 jobs were saved in the development zone by businesses that decided to stay in the area because of incentives offered to them.

Private industries invested almost $46 million in the local development zone in 1999, the report states.

Four of the five most significant projects that took place last year in the development zone were in the city of Elmira, according to the report.

Incentive packages from public and private sources paved the way for these projects:
• Construction of a 50,000-square-foot building at Trinity Industrial Park, creating one building, retaining 41 jobs and hiring 10 new employees.
•Relocation of Travelers Insurance Co. to Eastowne Mall from the former post office building in downtown Elmira. The move retained 59 jobs and created 147 jobs.
• Construction of the Coach USA Center, which is projected to revitalize downtown and create 200 jobs.
•Construction of the second phase of the arterial, opening up four lanes of traffic and a truck route between Elmira and Southport.

The next step is for Southern Tier Economic Growth members to ask the city and other area governments to approve the proposed development zone, Johnson said.

Johnson and Miner expect municipalities, even if they are losing acreage, to comply. The lost acreage involved strips of land that made separated areas contiguous but could not be developed. They are no longer needed.

Johnson said he plans to meet with the Elmira City Council this month.

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