The Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York), July 11, 2008, Friday
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The Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York)
July 11, 2008, Friday
FINAL EDITION
HEADLINE: ULTRA DAIRY SECURES TAX BREAK FOR ADDITION; OCIDA ALSO SCHEDULES AUG.5 PUBLIC HEARING ON TAX EXEMPTIONS FOR WELCH ALLYN.
BYLINE: By Rick Moriarty Staff writer
BODY:
The Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency voted 4-0 Thursday to approve tax exemptions for a $9.5 million addition that will more than double the size of Ultra Dairy LLC's dairy plant in DeWitt.
The project will receive $474,830 in sales and use tax exemptions and a $93,457 mortgage recording tax reduction.
It also qualifies for property tax exemptions because it is a manufacturing facility. They will be included in a payment-in-lieu-of-tax agreement that is to be negotiated, said Carolyn May, interim director of the development agency.
Ultra Dairy, an offshoot of Byrne Dairy, opened the plant at 6750 Benedict Road in 2004 to make ultra-pasteurized milk, creams and ice cream mixes with a shelf life of 60 to 90 days. It built a small addition in 2006 and site work has already begun on a 44,000-square-foot addition to the 37,000-square-foot building to further increase capacity.
The company says 80 percent of the products made at the plant are sold out of state, as far away as Florida and Texas. The plant employs 90 people, and company officials say they expect to hire 70 more within three years.
In other business, the agency:
Voted 6-0 to schedule a public hearing for 2:30 p.m. Aug. 5 at Skaneateles Town Hall on proposed tax exemptions for a $33.67 million addition and renovation to Welch Allyn Inc.'s headquarters and manufacturing building on State Street Road in the town of Skaneateles.
The medical equipment maker plans to build a 124,000-square-foot addition and renovate 50,000 square feet of existing space.
Proposed financial assistance to the project includes $877,600 in sales and use tax exemptions, $100,000 for training and $544,000 in property tax exemptions.
Voted 6-0 to spend $27,000 on a Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations study that will identify programs to provide transportation for employees of manufacturers in Syracuse suburbs.
Yael Livette, a senior research associate at Cornell, said companies outside of the city are having trouble finding entry-level workers because there is limited or no public transportation for them late at night and on weekends.
Voted 6-0 to provide $200,000, to be paid in the 2008-09 fiscal year, to the Greater Syracuse Business Development Corp.'s quasi-equity loan fund, which loans money to emerging companies. The agency will be reimbursed as companies repay the loans.
The agency also agreed to provide a $50,000 grant to build a Web-based marketing tool and campaign to market the fund to Central New York companies, and to commit $300,000 to the fund for the fiscal 2009-10 and 2010-11 years. The commitments will join a recent state grant of $400,000 and create a fund with an asset base of $1 million.
Six businesses have received $1.04 million in loans from the fund, and none has defaulted on payments, said Peggy Adams, executive director of the Greater Syracuse Business Development Corp., the lending arm of the Greater Syracuse Chamber of Commerce.
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