As we leave behind a successful 2022 and embark on the new year, the Partnership is preparing for a fresh start, focusing on opportunities in emerging economies such as Life Sciences, Semi-Conductor supply chain, and Clean Energy.  Globalization has connected communities and economies at unprecedented magnitudes.  Offshore manufacturing is changing, leading us to focus on new ways to aggressively recruit through leads–sector specific business recruitment efforts with an emphasis on geotargeted marketing, site selector interaction, and advocacy for site preparedness.

The Semi-Conductor and Chip Fab activity taking place along the I-90 Corridor may seem distant from Orange County, but in our discussions with site-selectors within those industry sectors and given our proximity between the Capital Region and NYC Metro, we are positioned well to attract significant supply chain projects that don’t need to be adjacent to a Chip Fab site. 

Federal support for Clean Energy products through the Inflation Reduction Act has led to more interest from companies in the clean energy sector.  We are already working leads with battery production, solar cells, offshore wind component manufacturing and other opportunities that we believe will escalate throughout 2023.

With the above opportunities in mind, site readiness is paramount. At this moment, we’re tracking in excess of 10 million sqyare feet of development in Orange County. New sites continue to come on the market of various sizes ranging from 80,000 to approximately 1 million square feet. The abundance of building product puts us, as economic developers, in a position to be proactive. As other regions fall behind in site inventory, we continue to see new product enter the market – allowing us to offer speed to help satisfy tenant demand.

In an effort to better understand exactly what we need to compete for transformational projects we are meeting with National Site Selectors who specialize in Advanced Technology, directly asking questions and making assessments on what we need to compete.  It always comes down to infrastructure and the need to make those investments our highest priority.   

We enter this year with a sense of optimistic urgency – the time to seize the opportunity to compete in innovative sectors is now.  More to come...