A Billion and a Half Finds its Way Upstate

A partnership between IBM and the State of New York brings over 1 billion dollars and a thousand jobs to the upstate region. The Albany area is seeing record levels of growth thank to IBM.

There's big news upstate. Word just came down from on high that IBM will be building a new semiconductor facility somewhere upstate, rumored to be worth nearly 700 jobs. The facility, which is slated to be sized in the 120,000-square-foot range, doesn't have a defined location, yet, but you can bet that towns from the Catskills to Connecticut will be vying for the job of host. The Albany area has already seen massive amounts of investment from IBM in past years, and Albany Nanotech will own and manage the facility. IBM, based in Armonck, NY is the largest interest at Albany's College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering.

This venture, which is heralded as a cooperative venture between New York State and IBM, is ushering in a new era of public-private partnerships. While IBM will be providing the primary funding for the facilities, the state of NY has agreed to share some of the burden. The state of NY is going to be writing a 25 million dollar check for new equipment at the CNSE, and IBM will be adding over 300 new research positions in-house.

What did the state of NY have to do to earn such largesse from the electronics giant? Not much, as it turns out. IBM actually made concessions to earn the, all-told, 140 million dollars in assistance from the state for the upstate deal. IBM guarantees that, even amid cutbacks and layoffs at their other North American facilities, they will leave their 1,000 employees in Dutchess County alone.