The recipients of grants from New York's "Open for Business" program hve been announced. For the most part, the local media is concentrating on what money is being sent to its reading/viewing/listening areas, but broader look shows the scope of the grants.
Since I deal with food and drink, I culled from the list the following grants for enterprises in those fields.
One of the more interesting is three-quarters of a million dollars for a new brewery in Schoharie County. The largest item on my excerpt list is $29.5 million for a new food distribution facility at the Hunts Point Produce Market in the Bronx.
Herewith the excwrpt list, using wording taken from the grant applications.
Chautauqua County:
$200,000, Concord Grape Belt Heritage Association, Grape Discovery Center, final The The Center will educate visitors about the historic development of the region and the role grape growing played in the region's cultural landscape and communities. The plan proposes 19 exhibit panels in the display room and 14 exhibit displays, free standing and wall mounted, for the reception/gift shop space, as well as exterior exhibits and an orientation pavilion."
Erie County:
$14,400, Buffalo Blends Inc., industry specific equipment training. Will provide on-the-job-training to 12 long-term unemployed workers in the operation of an agglomerator/instantizer required for processing hot cocoa mix.
Niagara County:
$2 million, Niagara County Community College, hospitality and tourism center renovation of 90,000 square feet, including equipment for a world class center for training in hospitality, tourism and culinary arts along with an incubator and small business center to support growth of new tourism/culinary businesses.
Niagara and Orleans counties:
$30,000, Niagara Wine Trail. Purchase and installation of signs on designated Niagara Wine Trail route. Project also includes marketing and training.
Monroe County:
$50,000, Foodlink Inc. Training for 24 unemployed Rochester workers in Value Added Processing to prepare them for a career in the food processing industry.
Finger Lakes Region (multi-counties):
$200,000, Greater Rochester Enterprise, economic gardening. To initiate an
internal regional harvesting and economic gardening program for the nine Finger
Lakes counties.
Yates County:
$401,010, Mabrouka Properties II LLC, international food. Involves the purchase and
re-opening of a former foods facility. Mabrouka will purchase and install equipment necessary to support a large food manufacturing business. Activities will include receipt and storage of bulk shipments of raw material foods (olive oil, olives, capers, sardines, other specialty foods, wines, liqueurs and other raw materials) much of which will be imported from overseas.
Cayuga County:
$4,022,845, Cayuga Marketing LLC, DDiMAI training. Existing association of dairy producers will create a new company and construct a 106,000 square foot milk and dairy ingredients processing facility. New products will displace foreign imports, create new export opportunities, and increase profitability.
Madison County
$994,000, Owera Vineyards. Establishment of a new winery and community farm on 58 acres, including new construction, purchase of machinery and equipment, and site improvements to support wine production, tastings, farm and winery tours, and other
events to promote regional tourism and agribusiness.
$250,239, New York Beef Farmers Cooperative. Assist in the start-up of Cooperative’s operations in Madison County, creating 10 jobs, of which 60% will be made available to low-to-moderate income individuals.
Onondaga County:
$394,000, Southside Food Cooperative Project. Construction of a new 3,500 square foot facility to support creation of a new urban food cooperative to provide fresh and healthy food from local/regional farmers and distributors as needed and service an existing "food desert" on the City of Syracuse's South Side.
Fulton County:
$750,000, Fage USA Dairy. Assist in the expansion of Fage USA Dairy (Fage Yogurt) in the City of Johnstown, creating 100 jobs, of which 90% will be made available to
low-to-moderate income individuals.
Otsego County:
$140,000, Brouwerij Belame Ltd. Brewery Ommegang. Brewery located in Cooperstown is in the early stages of a 6-year $16,000,000+ expansion of the current facilities. This expansion involves the use of multiple architects to design new buildings, expand the current brewing and beer packaging operation, as well as construct a new water and waste treatment facility. The expansion of the brewery will include a
restaurant and an expanded store. These will add to the 30,000+ tourists that the brewery already draws annually. The restaurant will be serving local foods and promoting the local farmers. The current store sells local cheeses and condiments in addition to beer. The expanded store plans to provide a larger variety of locally produced products in addition to the beers produced on site.
Schoharie County:
$750,000, Cobleskill Brewery. Independently owned spin-off of Butternuts Beer and Ale, Inc. of Garrattsville will open a contract brewing manufacturing plant at the
site to be acquired from Schoharie County. The site is the long vacant industrial development park in Cobleskill. The contract brewing company will open with a capacity of 25,000 barrels per year and expand within five years to 100,000 barrels. Excess space in the industrial park will be offered to local for-profit and not-for-profit entities until the brewery can assume full occupancy of this 460,000 square foot building.
Greene County:
$280,000, New York Spring Water. Assist i the expansion of NY Spring Water, creating 23 new jobs, 91% of which will be made available to low-to-=moderate income individuals.
Putnam County:
$150,000, Hudson Valley Produce Farms LLC, HVP Farms. Establishment of hydroponic greenhouse generating fresh produce for local community and New York City market.
Bronx:
$29.5 million, Hunts Point Produce Market. Proposes a modern food distribution facility. The produce market occupies 105 acres within the Hunts Point Food
Distribution Center where more than 115 food wholesaling and processing firms generate more than $3 billion in sales annually. However, the inadequate and obsolete facilities have diminished the market’s ability to provide the community with affordable quality produce. The newly funded facility will incorporate
innovative green infrastructure practices for managing storm water and increase total storage capacity by 20%, allowing the wholesalers to eliminate temporary storage, expand their businesses, and improve air and food quality for residents and workers.
Suffolk County:
$500,000, EBCAL Agriculture Enterprise Park. Development of agri-business storage and processing capacity for local farmers on the East End of Long Island.
$1,469,429, United Baking Company, Uncle Wally's. This project includes the purchase of new equipment and renovations on existing equipment and buildings to increase
productivity. The company plans on acquiring a new building and purchasing a new oven line in the future.
