Typeset from the PDF of the official document (read by OCR) — headings, motions and recorded votes are detected automatically, so spacing may differ from the original. The official copy governs.
Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency Regular Meeting Minutes April 11, 2017 The regular meeting of the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency was held on Tuesday, April 11, 2017 at the 333 West Washington Street, Syracuse, New York in the large conference room on the first floor.
Patrick Hogan called the meeting to order at 8:01 am with the following:
PRESENT:
Patrick Hogan Janice Herzog Steve Morgan Susan Stanczyk Kevin Ryan
ABSENT:
Victor Ianno Fannie Villarreal
ALSO PRESENT:
Julie Cerio, OCIDA, Executive Director Isabelle Harris, Secretary Nate Stevens, Treasurer Karen Doster, Recording Secretary, Agency Brian Bartlett, Office of Economic Development Tony Rivizzigno, Gilberti Law Firm Sara Wisniewski, Gilberti Law Firm Bruce Malone, BlueRock Energy Jason Klaben, BlueRock Energy Steve Eckler, OBG Joe Porter, UJTF Aggie Lane, UJTF Stephen Scuderi, Pyramid Brokerage Company Cory LaDuke, Pyramid Brokerage Company APPROVAL OF REGULAR MEETING MINUTES — MARCH 7, 2017 Upon a motion by Janice Herzog, seconded by Steve Morgan, the OCIDA Board approved the regular meeting minutes of March 7, 2017. Motion was carried.
TREASURER’S REPORT Nate Stevens gave a brief review of the Treasurer’s Report for the month of March 2017. Steve Morgan stated the Agency is paying about $2,000 to $3,000 every 3 to 4 months. Nate Stevens stated it was mainly January, February and March until we got the website up and running. He stated now it should be about $100 here and there at most.
Patrick Hogan asked about the roof on North Salina Street. Isabelle Harris stated there was a delay because of asbestos and we are waiting for required State approval. She stated it‘s a couple thousand dollar’s difference.
Patrick Hogan asked if the damage inside the building was assessed. Julie Cerio stated the appraisal was done and the listing was signed then the Board will have to make a decision. Patrick Hogan asked if there were any calls yet. Isabelle Harris stated the contract was just signed yesterday. Julie Cerio stated we can’t let people in the building with a drippy asbestos roof. Isabelle Harris stated roofer is ready to go but they need approval from the State to start. Kevin Ryan asked who the listing agent is. Julie Cerio stated Paul Mackey.
Steve Morgan asked if the Spectra payment includes the hauling of the material removed. Isabelle Harris stated yes. She stated about $200,000 was approved collectively. She stated she can send him the individual bills. Steve Morgan stated he would like to see them. Upon a motion by Susan Stanczyk, seconded by Janice Herzog, the OCIDA Board approved the Treasurer’s Report for the month of March 2017. Motion was carried.
Nate Stevens gave a brief review of the Payment of Bills Schedule #405.
Upon a motion by Janice Herzog, seconded by Susan Stanezyk, the OCIDA Board approved the Payment of Bills Schedule #405 for $187,144.55. Motion was carried.
The Conflict of Interest statement was circulated and there were no comments.
Julie Cerio stated we ask for an estimate of what they think they will be spending so they are asking the Agency to amend the resolution.
Jason Klaben stated Bluerock is grateful for past two approvals. He stated they are looking for approval authorization of $120,000 which for signage outside the building. He stated they are a marketing company of energy so they are looking to make sure they get that out there. He stated they need additional furnishing, computers, cables and basically what is needed to finish the space. He stated they had a successful move in about 3 weeks ago. He stated they are looking forward to continued growth and success here in Syracuse.
Janice Herzog asked how long is the lease. Jason Klaben stated 10 years.
Janice Herzog asked if they will keep the existing space or moving everyone over. Jason Klaben stated they moved everyone over. He stated they were in the Franklin Square area and they had come to the end of the lease and had overgrown the space. He stated now they have about 35% space to grow and they do intend to do that.
Patrick Hogan stated they have 73 employees now and increasing to about 86. Jason Klaben stated that is the plan and mostly local folks.
Steve Morgan asked for an explanation of the 82% revenue generated outside Onondaga County. Jason Klaben stated they are a retailer of electric and natural gas with a solar subsidiary. He stated they are across the northeast but primarily in New York. He stated they sell electricity and natural gas down to NYC up to Buffalo. He stated although they have a great presence here in Onondaga County they are across the State. He stated they have sales in Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. He stated they sell the supply side of the bill and that is why the revenues are outside Onondaga County.
Steve Morgan asked if there is one region in the County that is more than the others. Jason Klaben stated they are pretty well spread out but obviously a lot of concentration around the cities. He stated they sponsor the Buffalo Bills so they have a lot out there and their headquarters is here in Syracuse so they have a lot good presence here. He stated Albany is very strong for them as well as NYC.
Upon a motion by Janice Herzog, seconded by Steve Morgan, the OCIDA Board approved a resolution describing the proposed BlueRock Energy project and the financial assistance the Agency may provide. Motion was carried.
Julie Cerio stated the Antonino project is a company that does give aways for casinos and at the time they didn’t come to the Agency for the mortgage recording tax exemption.
Tony Rivizzigno stated the Agency granted them sales tax exemption and they were originally going to finance themselves. He stated they now are going to get a mortgage and requesting mortgage recording tax exemption.
Susan Stanczyk asked if the exemption is $9,800. Tony Rivizzigno stated yes.
Upon a motion by Susan Stanczyk, seconded by Janice Herzog, the OCIDA Board approved a resolution authorizing the execution and delivery of certain mortgage transaction documents with respect to the Antonino Holdings, LLC project. Motion was carried.
Nate Stevens stated the RFP was completed and the Agency hired O’Brien and Gere. He stated Steve Eckler is the point person.
Steve Eckler thanked the Board for the support they have shown in selecting O’Brien and Gere. He stated they have a great team partnering with Abbie Gregg with a lot of experience on sites like this. He stated the contract was signed and their subcontractor agreement with Abbie Gregg is signed. He stated now that the subcontractor agreement is signed they will schedule vendor site visits for the vibration and electromagnetic study. He stated he hopes that will happen sometime in April or early May. He stated if the Board wishes he will come back monthly with updates and will update a schedule and provide to Nate and Isabelle. He stated the way the Corp operates is you can’t get a permit until you have an end user because if don’t have an end user, the Corp can’t necessarily say that someone would impact less or greater. He stated they start the work toward coming to an agreement on what mitigation might be. He stated partnering with Abbie Gregg they will come up with some layouts for the site that are based on industry standards. He stated semi-conductor sites all have basically the same foot print so they can come up with alternative layouts then they will look at the encroachments with the goal of sitting down with the Corp and DEC to determine an acceptable mitigation plan. He stated it might be creation of wetlands that we want to try and stay away from but also the Corp allows for in lieu of on federal wetlands. He stated the value of the land can be used as capital to purchase credits and that is what they are ultimately working toward. He stated the State doesn’t buy into the in lieu of mitigation and hasn’t approved wetland banks yet which is the reason we want to stay away from that as much as possible. He stated when you get into encroachments of upstate wetlands and buffer areas you are getting into an actual creation type environment which has time and monetary implications to it.
Steve Eckler stated this is about reducing time to market and showing that the IDA is in the game, has a site, understands the Nano industry, understands the musts and wants of the industry and the type of information needed to obtain ready to disseminate to potential clients. He stated answers need to be given out quickly. He stated they started compiling all the information and the best way to do that is to do it in today’s technology since it is a technology site. He stated they talked about reality capture technology, drones. He stated other instances they used drones to go out and not just take a video of the site but actually create a point cloud. He stated you can go in and attach different hardware to these drones in addition to taking the video of the land. He stated it creates a point cloud so a 3D representation of the site can be created. He stated anything you see in that model you can take out and put things up. He stated 3D models of certain types of site layouts can be created. He stated based on the industry standards you can plop down layouts showing how things fit on the site. He stated you can attach a GIS interface. He stated in the short term when staff is at SemiCon West you basically use that point cloud and the 3D renderings to create a video fly through of the site, stop at certain aspects of the site and bring up the GIS information you want to show them. He stated it does two things; one is it sets you up for the future in terms of having readily available information but it also sets you up for the short term that you will be showing people at the SemiCon conference that you know the industry, the questions they ask and you can show them how it fits on the site. He stated you will still have the brochures but staff will be showing them from a technology standpoint. He stated the goal is to get more calls. He stated as part of that we need to get the point cloud so that is why the action is in front of the Board today so the vendor can go out there, do the drone footage and create the point cloud. He stated that would be integrated into another proposal that will come before the Board. He stated Abbie Gregg will be at SemiCon West and the energy they have on this project has been great so part of that proposal would be Abbie Gregg support of the IDA at SemiCon West in terms of setting up meetings. He stated Abbie Gregg has been around a long time and have very good ties to the industry.
Steve Morgan asked if the drones can replace the land survey. Steve Eckler stated he will bring somebody in at the next meeting to talk about that but he thinks it probably can. Nate Stevens stated it is crucial to do it now because there are no leaves on the trees and we are trying to get the video without the interference.
Steve Morgan asked if this is additional money. Nate Stevens stated yes. He stated the original contract was around $100,000 and the $3,300 was not in the original scope because we were not aware this type of thing was out there. He stated he thinks this is going to have tremendous value for us.
Steve Morgan asked how the data is collected without the drone. Steve Eckler stated you can go out there and do a traditional survey and still do simulations. He stated the drone technology and point cloud technology is a really cost effective way to produce something.
Steve Eckler stated you don’t want to fail at a tech industry conference so they are proposing for the SemiCon West is to create these fly throughs and adding the GIS data. He stated we would probably want to do it in a canned way rather than relying on wifi that would be on a computer or a thumb drive so it won’t fail.
Janice Herzog asked about the cost just to do the fly over. Isabelle Harris stated $3,300. Janice Herzog asked if support after that would be additional payment to Abbie Grey to maintain. Steve Eckler stated there is not much in maintaining it after words. He stated the proposal the Board will ultimately get within the next week is taking that point cloud and taking it to the next step to create what we need for support at SemiCon West and adding the GIS interface to it. He stated the proposal they are putting together to take that to the level that the Agency needs for SemiCon West but the value of that it is not a standalone onetime thing, that information continues to grow and will be the system you continue to use, promote the site and to create and disseminate information.
Patrick Hogan asked if all the information like the vibration study be available for SemiCon West. Nate Stevens stated the studies are scheduled before SemiCon West which is in July. Patrick Hogan asked what kind of mitigation can be done for rail. Steve Eckler stated it gets into the foundation design.
Susan Stancezyk asked from a marketing standpoint once this is complete, where can someone access it. Steve Eckler stated there are two ways to go about it. He stated the information will be available to the Agency to control it and access the information. He stated it can be put on to the Agency website. He stated he stated it gets into a software issue on the host side but it’s not costly software. He stated the user doesn’t need the software and staff can control the level of information people see because you don’t want to show everything, you want calls. He stated its not in the current proposal because they wanted to bring it up to a point to support SemiCon West but that task is included.
Janice Herzog stated it might be possible to put it on an app because she knows the law school at SU did a similar project in terms of the 3D capture. She stated the dean brings it overseas for students who can’t easily travel to campus to see what the building looks like. Steve Eckler stated he will have to look into the type of app. He stated you can look at it on your phone without the app.
Steve Morgan stated for $3,300 it is ano brainer. Nate Stevens stated the $3,300 is just for the data collection. He stated what is going to drive the amount of money the Agency spends next is how far we want to customize things, what we actually want to show and how we will want to integrate the data that is collected. He stated we are still discussing that and there is no proposal yet but no matter what path we went down, having the data was absolutely critical. Steve Morgan asked what is the value of the site. Julie Cerio stated it would depend on what company wanted to go there. She stated it is hard to find a figure for it. She stated right now we know what needs to go in as far as the sewers, the roads need some work and it depends on what they are going to do. She stated if they are going to bring in the utilities or help with the road work, then it would make a difference in what the Agency would charge. She stated ultimately it is up to the Board what is charged for the land.
Janice Herzog stated from an employability standpoint looking at the University to see what their training programs are because companies looking to move somewhere want to be sure they are going to hire employees and where is that feeder going to be from.
Upon a motion by Susan Stanczyk, seconded by Kevin Ryan, the OCIDA Board approved a resolution for $3,300 for additional funding for additional services. Motion was carried. MAXWELL SCHOOL PROJECT — WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT DISCUSSION Nate Stevens stated there has been a lot of talk about workforce development and also because we are getting involved in projects like this it is a hot topic overall. He stated one of the things we are curious about is what other people are doing, how it can be applied to Onondaga County, is there a role for OCIDA and what it may look like. He stated one way to get a lot of good free research is from the Maxwell School. He stated Maxwell Students in the MPA program are assigned a capital project instead of doing a thesis. He stated they get together in groups and spend 4 weeks intensely focused on a client, essentially modeling a consulting firm. He stated the client works with the professor with the problem they are trying to solve and the students do nothing but work on this project. He stated it doesn’t cost anything to the client and at the end of it you get a 30-40 page report, a power point and some cool stuff. He stated he has been a sponsor in his previous job at parks and it is a really good way to start to get a feel for a landscape of something that you are not quite sure about. He stated he thinks workforce development is a perfect thing given that OCIDA is talking more about it and we have projects that integrate well to it. He stated there are 30 projects that are submitted to the students and the students bid on the ones they want to go to. He stated about 25 would be picked up and there is a chance we won’t get picked.
Patrick Hogan stated the focus is what we are going to need in the future. Nate Stevens stated yes. Isabelle Harris stated other counties are doing this already. She stated there are different organizations doing different workforce development things and it would be nice to have them work together.
Nate Steven stated the project sponsor is technically OCIDA so he wanted the Board to be aware.
Janice Herzog asked if it is possible to give a small stipend. Nate Stevens stated he has never seen that done. He stated the students don’t have to buy text books or anything like that. He stated the most he has seen a company do is offer to cover the printing costs of whatever gets bound and delivered to the client. He stated all the meetings are at SU.
Upon a motion by Susan Stanczyk, seconded by Janice Herzog, the OCIDA Board adjourned the meeting at 8:48 am. Motion was carried.
Ohralell Ora:
Isabelle Harris, Secretary