IBM and state in $90M talks - Westfair Communications

State officials and IBM Corp. are working on a deal to invest $90 million in state aid to spur more than $2 billion in private-sector investment over five years at IBM facilities in East Fishkill and Albany, seeking to retain and possibly expand the number of high-tech jobs at the IBM semiconductor facility in East Fishkill, and perhaps to boost IBM”™s presence at the College of Nanoscale Engineering in Albany.

The IBM plants in Fishkill and Poughkeepsie combine to employ about 11,500 workers and are Dutchess County”™s largest employer and a key economic hub for the entire Hudson Valley.

Though officials are not talking about the deal in any detail, an announcement on a package was expected as early as July 4.

Jeff Couture, a spokesman at IBM’s Vermont semiconductor plant, had no comment on the talks of the proposed deal.

Anne Conroy, president of the Dutchess County Economic Development Corp., said IBM’s future is vital to the future of the county. “They are critical to our economy, and we believe their job retention is absolutely essential,” she said. “Their reinvestment is what we are working toward.”

The lack of specifics in the talk of the deal raises the question of what IBM may want to do with space at the East Fishkill campus, known as the Hudson Valley Research Park.

There’s plenty of space at the park, which has about 6 million square feet of buildings. About 500,000 square feet of it is empty and for lease, according to IBM figures.