Summing up 2007 - Westfair Communications

Hudson Valley Business asked Lance Matteson, president and CEO of the Ulster County Development Corp., and Anne Conroy, president and CEO of the Dutchess County Economic Development Corp., to sum up the chief accomplishments and challenges of their offices in 2007 and their expectations for 2008.

HVB (to Matteson): What were the highlights of 2007?

LM: “The Solar Energy Consortium is one. There were a lot of milestones ”“ the launch itself, the funds lined up by (U.S. Rep. Maurice) Hinchey and set aside by the state for incentives for solar companies. We”™ve got the research consortium announced. A definite milestone is the Ulster County Legislature stepping up to the plate for a budget allocation of $200,000. This took real commitment and understanding. It”™s for operations, and that”™s the hardest kind of money to find. It”™s going to help a lot.

“Right now the solar consortium is working out of Fala Technologies”™ facility. It will need a lot more space and facilities moving forward. The discussions with TechCity are still very active and substantive. There are some other sites around the county and region that would love to be part of the discussion. We expect the entire region and county to benefit and hundreds of jobs in the near term.

“Ulster Tomorrow is up there. We”™ll roll out its basic deliverables and plan on Jan. 15. The biggest milestone is that the community as a whole came up with strategic goals, based on a lot of discussion and hard information. Phase 2 is drilling down on those action steps. We need to communicate these effectively to the community and get the buy-in support. We”™ve started that process.

“This year, the funding for UCDC doubled, with another $248,000 allotted from the county Legislature, based on performance. There”™s also the $200,000 for the Solar Consortium and another $100,000 for the Hudson Valley Center for Innovation. The Legislature in a tight time is stepping up to the plate and funding economic development.

“A significant accomplishment was King”™s Road, the shovel-ready site in Saugerties that got $1 million from the county. There are developers and companies looking at ramping up some development in that corridor. Just the fact that it”™s funded stimulates activity.

“We”™ve had more expansion activity than in the past five years, including (the senior and assisted-living facility) Woodland Pond. Committed or announced new projects represent over $373 million in investment and 545 new jobs. We”™re working on quite a few others.

“Another thing we can be proud of is assisting the Small Business Development Center. We anted up $10,000 to keep the Veteran Business Council in the county, which accounts for 40 percent of the seven-county activity. In Ulster it served 527 businesses and created 273 jobs and over $16 million in investment. That money from our IDA leveraged some really good service to the county”™s small business community.”

HVB: Are there types of UCDC activities that might surprise people?

LM: “We”™re very active with the Workforce Development Board, which was part of a regional Hudson Valley group that successfully got awarded a $200,000 grant for green work force development. We”™ve tried to be supportive of affordable-housing initiatives. I”™m on the board of the Ulster County Housing Consortium.”

HVB: What is your budget, and how big is your staff?

LM: “The overall budget is $600,000. That covers our expenses. The fees we get from the IDA vary from $100,000 to $200,000.Â Woodland Pond is a big project and our share of the fees was over $200,000. There are revolving loan funds. We also get $30,000 to $50,000 in donations. That”™s something we want to push.

“We have a staff of four, including me. We”™ve had to absorb a fifth position that oversees business development in revolving-loan funds and we”™re hoping to fill that gap. We”™re looking in the coming year at how we can expand our staff, reorganize and partner with others. We have many demands and commitments and not nearly the time or numbers to do them.”

HVB: What are the key challenges?

LM: “It is very tough to get underachieving sites like TechCity and the Schrade-Hydro Aluminum complex in Ellenville moving again with new jobs. We have fierce competition. There”™s many empty buildings in the state and valley. At TechCity the state remediation environmental permit is very restrictive. It doesn”™t allow clean parcels to be sold and marketed free and clear.

“The burden on the owners of TechCity to maintain the infrastructure is huge. Part of the master plan is to tear portions of TechCity down. We have to do it thoughtfully, because it”™s a hit to the town of Ulster. Maybe it”™ll be done in phases, or through promises that some renewal of the tax base would occur without delay.

“In Ellenville, more than 1,000 people have lost their jobs in the last few years. It”™s a major crisis. We really need to grow the job base. Companies know these are seasoned, skilled manufacturing workers, and I like to make that pitch.”

HVB: You have lived and worked in other states, before joining UCDC last April. Any thoughts on the way New York state approaches economic development, and how well we compete?

LM: “The New York system is a bit Byzantine. There are so many agencies and institutions on all levels. It”™s very complicated and a bit turfy. But there”™s a lot of experts and competence.

“Nobody has an easy ride in recruitment. You have to be careful not to judge too quickly when the results seem slim for our region. The market wants to be in other places. The numbers favor Orange, Westchester and places near Albany. Dutchess County has more resources than we have do, but they have as hard a time landing new companies.”

HVB: What are the county”™s strengths?

LM: “We have the Catskills and the river, a beautiful natural setting, a strong agricultural community. Agribusiness is also a tourist asset. We have a lot of clean water. We have great transportation access and a really terrific workforce. We have an inferiority complex in this county and we need to heal that. We have a chance to be the county in the Hudson Valley that does it right.”

HVB: What is your vision for the county?

LM: “We want to preserve the quality of life and grow in a sustainable way. My personal vision is to achieve that balance and get talent-based valued-added good paying jobs.

“We also need to pay attention to people who really need economic development the most. They are often the silent majority: people who are wondering if they can pay the mortgage or buy a house, period. Also we can”™t forget the people who are even worse off. People have to be employable to get jobs. There”™s a danger we can become too elitist. We need to remember people whose jobs we”™re arguing about aren”™t necessarily at the table. They really need a decent job, and to do that we need to grow.”

Anne Conroy

HVB (to Conroy): How would you rate 2007?

AC: “We don”™t actually add up the number of new jobs and investment amount until the end of the year, so I don”™t have the totals yet, but I”™m confident we have maintained a strong economy. There has been strong growth and some significant investment, including investment in leisure activities. We”™re working with several expensive projects that I”™m expecting will come to fruition in 2008. An example is Long Dock, the hotel development in Beacon on the waterfront being built with Scenic Hudson. St. Andrews Village, located opposite the Culinary Institute of America, is another, and so is Silo Ridge, a very expensive high-end development built around a golf course in Armenia.

“We”™ve also had a lot of institutional investment and $300 million worth of expansion around the schools, including the Anderson Center and Marist, which is assisted by the IDA. We”™ve also had investments in senior housing and assisted living facilities.”

HVB: What are Dutchess County”™s key economic development assets?

AC: “The existing high-tech industrial base. IBM has made investments and attracted partners to its facility in East Fishkill, which are tremendous assets. The number of jobs fluctuates, but at the end of the year there was a net gain. Another strength is data centers. Also this year there”™s been some interest in solar production facilities.

“One percent of companies here are classified as large businesses, meaning they have over 100 employees, but they account for the majority of employees overall in the county. A lot of job growth comes from small businesses, but they are still only a minority of employment. You need to have everything ”“ the 500 small businesses that create a bunch of jobs and the one or two big companies that represent most of the jobs in the community.

“We have a strong tourism program and look at is as an industry cluster. It has been successful and is very related to the leisure investments I mentioned earlier. We”™ve had a really strong tourism program and are looking for the opportunity for growth going forward.”

HVB: What are some specific initiatives?

AC: “We”™ve developed a message about balanced growth, which we have been kicking to village and town decision makers. We”™re trying to talk to them about balancing economic development with environmental amenities and their community”™s needs and wants, the role of economic development in terms of commercial development and building the tax base.

“There”™s a lot of misconception about the impacts on the tax base. If you want a good quality of life without higher taxes, you have to understand the implications. There”™s some areas where concentrated development should occur. One way is encouraging and supporting the planning message. Some areas are feeling threatened with overdevelopment and some areas are lacking a balance with development.

“The other thing we”™ve been trying to do is develop the ability of startups and growing businesses to have access to angel capital. That”™s evolving.”

HVB: What are your main challenges?

AC: “Having the resources to compete with globally competitive industries at a county level. It”™s very hard to do this for large-scale globally competitive industries; you need to have the political will, understanding or decision to support innovation and recognize the need for investment in these sectors. Investing in innovation technology is expensive. Other states and nations have made commitments to certain sectors, which includes public funding support. That is not happening here. We”™re trying to bring as much to the table as we can. It has to be approached as a local, regional and state team.

“Our balanced growth message is a challenge. Commercial development allows people to work locally and have jobs. We are participating in some of the bigger development plans, such as the Beacon Transportation District, which is around the train station.”

HVB: What is your budget, and staff numbers?

AC: “About $2 million, but more than half is for tourism, which is unusual. We feel (combining them) is a way of leveraging our administrative overhead. Our staff of 16 includes people in tourism and the Empire Zone. The funding is 50-50 public and private, with most of the public funding from the county and some support from the state, including a matching tourism grant. Also our empire zone program is fully supported by the state and local municipalities. We have support from the IDA and private companies, including ads they buy in our tourism brochures, straight donations, and matching external marketing ads.”

HVB: Is there an aspect of your job you feel is misunderstood?

AC: “We need to keep our existing industries globally competitive. If our multinationals or even small companies are outsourcing part of their labor force, what is staying here and what we need to be cognizant of is the higher skilled functions on the development side. Also, to stay on top and have the most advanced facilities in the world, we need to invest a lot of money. This may not create a lot of jobs, but it keeps the business competitive. People don”™t understand the implications of that.

“The global economy offers many opportunities. The markets for the small business that develops pollution-control mechanisms are in developing countries. I don”™t think there”™s a manufacturer in the county that isn”™t involved in international trade. We have a trade show program in which we provide matching grants to businesses to go to trade shows, and increasingly they”™re going overseas.

“People don”™t understand the commitment to innovation–what it means or how you to do that. It means angel and venture capital, but public support is extremely hard to manage.Â Innovation translates as risk, and no one wants to put public money into risk. We talk about investing in workforce education, but you still need to have resources and facilities. Training bright, skilled people to function only goes so far. Data centers require a substantial investment in infrastructure and energy, but there are very few jobs in relation to the square-footage dollar investment and machines and cost of operations.”

HVB: What are your goals for 2008?

AC: “First, to further support the high-tech sector, including data centers and solar and electronic manufacturing. Second, to continue to work one-on-one with the existing business community. That”™s where our bread and butter really is. Three, to continue our infrastructure development. Also to further our tourism clusters and help develop physical assets, like the hotels.”