Week in Review: July 19 – July 30, 2021
Stay up-to-date on business and economic development happenings in the Capital Region with the CEG Economic Development Week in Review. Don’t miss out on the developments that are transforming the region by following us on:
CEG IN THE NEWS
Times Union: Statewide manufacturing program generated nearly $1 billion impact
Times Union: GlobalFoundries’ second fab sure to bring more jobs, tech prestige to Capital Region
Business Review: Startup IsoGuardian to produce isolation gown that can be washed 300 times
Troy Record: Rensselaer County boasts strongest wage growth in Northeast
REGIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT NEWS
Chas. G. Burch Supply Co. expands in Schenectady
“Chas. G. Burch Supply Co. is expanding in Schenectady’s Hamilton Hill neighborhood, providing more room to grow for the fifth-generation kitchen, bath and plumbing supplier — the oldest business in the city.
The company at 773 Albany St. will add 4,200 square feet in an adjoining lot for a new retail showroom and improve its facade.”
Champé Handcrafted Berkshire Bubbly prepares for upstate New York sales
“The Troy-based canned wine cocktail startup Champé Handcrafted Berkshire Bubbly has sold more than 10,000 cans since it released its first product in May.
That product — a bellini, made with sparkling wine and peach juice — can be found at more than 40 businesses in the Berkshires, including wine and liquor stores, restaurants, golf courses and limousine companies.”
RPI gets $500,000 to start MBA life sciences program with Mount Sinai
“Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy has been awarded a grant of up to $500,000 by Empire State Development to create an MBA program in partnership with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai that would focus on life science entrepreneurship.
ESD, New York state’s economic development arm, has been handing out similar grants to other schools with MBA programs in order to develop new business programs that foster growth in the biotech and life sciences sectors.”
AngioDynamics flips the script on Catheter Valley
“AngioDynamics is proud of its place in the history of what’s known as Catheter Valley – the array of catheter companies that were once centered in the Glens Falls region but which have been reduced over the years through mergers and acquisitions.
But they don’t want to be defined just as a catheter company going forward. They are chasing ambitious revenue and profit goals by charging into the medical technology sphere – with potentially billions of dollars at stake.”
Curia, formerly Albany Molecular, acquires another pharma firm
“Curia, which until recently was known as Albany Molecular Research, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire LakePharma Inc., a privately held company that deals in biologics drug discovery, clinical research, development and manufacturing that has operations in California, Massachusetts, and Texas.
Established in 2009 in the Bay Area, LakePharma applies its range of technology platforms to advance projects from discovery to development to manufacturing, namely cell-line development, bioexpression systems and viral vector production systems. Almost a quarter of its employees hold Ph.D.s, bringing expertise in all major biologics segments: mammalian, microbial, plasmid DNA, mRNA, monoclonal antibodies, and viral vector, including cell and gene therapy.”
Kitware works to promote its artificial intelligence capabilities to private-sector clients
“Artificial intelligence is the future of software, and companies want to get ahead of that to maintain a competitive edge. That desire has contract software developer Kitware emphasizing its AI capabilities as it pushes to increase its ranks of commercial clients.
Most of Kitware’s work is for the federal government. About 15% of the company’s revenue right now comes from contract projects for commercial clients. Headquartered in Clifton Park, Kitware specializes in areas such as computer vision — a field of artificial intelligence that trains computers to derive information from the analysis of photos and video — as well as data analytics and scientific and medical computing.
GlobalFoundries is building second factory in Malta, Saratoga County
“Computer chip maker GlobalFoundries on Monday confirmed plans to invest billions of dollars building a second factory next to its Saratoga County manufacturing complex.
The company expects the new plant will increase payroll from 3,000 to 4,000 in Saratoga County. Chief executive Tom Caulfield also announced that GlobalFoundries is investing $1 billion to increase capacity at its current $15 billion manufacturing plant in Malta.”
GlobalFoundries analyst on what billion-dollar investments say about chipmaker’s future
“GlobalFoundries is spending $1 billion to add capacity at its $15 billion computer chip manufacturing plant in Malta. The company will construct a second multibillion-dollar factory next door.”
Schumer met behind scenes with IBM on national chip lab
“U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer paid a visit last week not only to GlobalFoundries’ Fab 8 factory in Saratoga County as he seeks swift Congressional passage of his $52 billion U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) that will subsidize the construction of new computer chip factories in the United States.
Schumer also stopped without much fanfare at Albany Nanotech to meet with officials from IBM, NY-CREATES, which operates Albany Nanotech, along with officials from Applied Materials, a manufacturer of equipment used in chip fabs, and the New York State Economic Development Council.”
New York’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative returns for 2021
“New York is bringing back its downtown revitalization competition in 2021 with $20 million — instead of the usual $10 million — for each region to spend on one or two downtowns.
It will be the fifth round of the Downtown Revitalization Initiative, which normally grants $10 million to one community in each of the 10 Regional Economic Development Council regions. The program was canceled last year as the state was dealing with the worst of the pandemic.”
Life sciences startups a focus of Capital Region economic development
“One of the budding industries in the Capital Region is life sciences.
It’s a main area of research in the region, and it’s one of the focuses of the Capital Region Economic Development Council in its effort to win state money.
There’s a push to move the wealth of research in the region toward commercialization, which is why there’s a collective effort to spur entrepreneurship in that industry.”
GlobalFoundries and UAlbany forge educational partnership
“GlobalFoundries and the University at Albany have created a new educational program that will allow GlobalFoundries employees to take classes and earn degrees with lower fees and priority application reviews.
There are 120 UAlbany alumni working for GlobalFoundries, which employs 3,000 people at its Fab 8 computer chip factory in Malta. GlobalFoundries also provides a tuition reimbursement program to its employees. This is the first of its kind of corporate program at UAlbany.”
Co-owner of plastic bag company’s journey to sustainability
“The cover photo of the June 2018 National Geographic clearly showed the growing problem with plastics: It displayed a profile of the ocean with an enormous iceberg in the shape of a plastic bag. The cover story referred to our world obsession with the practicality of plastic — and also that 8 million tons of it wind up in the ocean each year killing plants, fish, organisms and creating vast pollution.
The article deeply disturbed Trent Romer, a third-generation co-owner of Clear View Bag Co., a family-owned and operated plastic bag manufacturing company in Albany. It forced him to wrestle with the idea of what kind of industry he was in.”
