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Economic Development September 9, 2019

IDA eyes better (maybe not bigger) StartUp Connect

By GREGORY ZELLER // One of the hottest nights of the year at The Paramount is coming Oct. 3, with nobody whatsoever set to take the stage. But don’t let the lack of smoke machines, classic heavy metal bands or Jim Breuer fool you. It’ll be standing-room-only in the Founder’s Room when the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency stages its annual StartUp Connect event, an always-engaging moshpit of innovators and investors rocking with potential. Now…

Transportation July 11, 2019

Bethpage backs a new gear for Suffolk tourism

By GREGORY ZELLER // An ambitious “micro-mobility” program will look to change traffic patterns, pedestrian potential and carbon footprints in four Suffolk County communities. County Executive Steve Bellone announced this week that Bethpage Federal Credit Union will sponsor Bethpage Ride, Suffolk’s digitally enabled rent-a-bike program, coming this summer to downtowns in Patchogue, Babylon and other county hotspots. Billed as a first-of-its-kind for Long Island, Bethpage Ride – modeled after big-city bike-share efforts like Citi Bike…

Economic Development June 11, 2019

Stakeholders unite to support pharma/nutra’s future

By GREGORY ZELLER // With more than 150 companies and 9,800-plus employees, the pharmaceutical/nutraceutical industry is already a Long Island cornerstone – and some major regional stakeholders want to see it grow. On Tuesday, the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency and the Workforce Development Institute officially introduced “Driving Suffolk County’s Innovation Economy: The Pharmaceutical/Nutraceutical Growth Factor,” a 48-page report detailing pharma/nutra’s impressive growth over the last decade and the unique obstacles the industry faces on…

Economic Development April 24, 2019

Study: Park is the place for ‘tradeable’ opportunities

By GREGORY ZELLER // It already plays a central role in the Long Island economy, but the economic power of the Hauppauge Industrial Park has barely been scratched. So says a new “opportunity analysis” of the Northeast’s largest business park, prepared by the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency and the Hauppauge Industrial Association of Long Island and announced Wednesday by Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone. “Hauppauge Industrial Park: Regional Competitiveness and Growth Strategies” spends 160…

Government March 25, 2019

Cuomo, Island allies ready to rumble over tax cap

By GREGORY ZELLER // With one of his biggest legislative accomplishments – and most significant Long Island-centric reforms – facing imminent extinction, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and political allies rallied Sunday in Nassau County. New York State’s 2 percent annual property tax cap, a temporary measure that took effect in 2012, expires in 2020. Earlier this month, Cuomo vowed to reject any new executive budget that didn’t make the tax cap permanent – and he renewed…

Clean Energy July 9, 2018

In Holtsville, a crowning clean-gen achievement

By GREGORY ZELLER // Long Island’s food-and-beverage king has completed an ambitious solar installation promising royal benefits – for itself, and for the regional power grid. Along with its partners at New York City-based EnterSolar, major league distributor J. Kings Food Service is celebrating its new 771-kilowatt rooftop solar installation, permanently affixed atop the 44-year-old titan’s Holstville headquarters. The distributor and the circa-2005 energy company were set to commemorate the solar system’s completion with a…

Government March 26, 2018

Hempstead, Southampton earn downtown-demo dollars

By GREGORY ZELLER // Two Long Island downtown-redevelopment efforts will be bolstered by a cool million, each, in state funds. Round Five of the Restore New York Communities Initiative doles out a total of $81 million to 71 statewide projects, including $1 million stipends for demolition projects in downtown Hempstead and downtown Southampton – both clearing the way for modern multi-use developments. The latest round of competitive RNYCI funding was dispersed in the FY2017 state…

Energy March 1, 2018

Busy Chu takes reins at Plainview’s Edgewise Energy

By GREGORY ZELLER // Plainview-based Edgewise Energy has done the C-suite shuffle, with Sammy Chu rising to chief executive officer. Co-founder Chu, formerly chief innovation officer, succeeds co-founder James Emlock, who remains chairman of the Plainview-based energy-systems integrator. Edgewise – which develops and aggregates regional energy projects, creating efficiencies that benefit both the electric grid and commercial customers – has also added two new executives. Dan Kartzman, formerly a senior advisor on market development at…

Economic Development December 14, 2017

IDA’s numbers look right to Broadridge Investor Coms

By GREGORY ZELLER // An investor-communications specialist will upgrade and expand in Suffolk County, with a little help from the county’s Industrial Development Agency. The IDA on Thursday gave preliminary approval to a transaction that would help Broadridge Investor Communication Solutions, a subsidiary of Lake Success-based Broadridge Financial Solutions, renovate two existing Suffolk County offices and make equipment upgrades at three of the subsidiary’s properties. Among the projects on Broadridge Investor Communication Solutions to-do list:…

Biotech October 12, 2017

In REDC love fest, CSHL kicks off $75M makeover

By GREGORY ZELLER // There was another major advance for biochemistry Thursday at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, but this one didn’t involve gas chromatographs or infrared spectrometers or a single test tube. Just a shovel. With Gov. Andrew Cuomo and a host of regional and state representatives on hand, the world-class scientific research facility officially broke ground on the renovation of its Demerec Laboratory, one of four CSHL laboratories being remade with a big assist…

Government May 4, 2017

Predicting pushback, gov advances consolidation plan

By GREGORY ZELLER // With the federal government set to deliver a crippling tax blow to Long Islanders, Gov. Andrew Cuomo backed word with deed Thursday, setting in motion his master plan to lower this region’s astronomical property-tax rates. Harkening to promises he made earlier this year during his annual State of the State tour, the governor signed the Middle Class Recovery Act, authorizing Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone and other statewide county execs to…

Government February 15, 2017

Comedian Cuomo doubles down on doubling up

By GREGORY ZELLER // In case New York’s 62 county executives thought Gov. Andrew Cuomo was joking – he wasn’t. The governor visited Suffolk County’s H. Lee Dennison administration building Wednesday morning to double down on two mandates he laid out during January’s state-of-the-state tour: an extension of New York’s “millionaire’s tax” and a call for county leaders to rally the state’s disparate local governments on a cost-sharing quest. Cuomo was in fine comedic form;…

Tourism October 20, 2016

Cuomo hailed as LI Welcome Center opens doors

By GREGORY ZELLER // The congratulations were plentiful and the praise for Gov. Andrew Cuomo thick, though rainmakers heralding the opening of the new Long Island Welcome Center Thursday morning had good reasons to celebrate – 7,800 of them, in fact. That’s the number of daily visitors, arriving in more than 5,000 vehicles, predicted to check out the rest-stop deluxe, located on the eastbound Long Island Expressway between exits 51 and 52. And that makes…

Analysis September 26, 2015

Answering our ‘pent-up need’ for new industry

By JOHN L. KOMINICKI // A proposed $300 million center on bioelectronic research would get a $50 million jolt if Albany follows recommendations made this week by a group of business and government leaders. The group, which includes both country executives, Long Island Association chief Kevin Law and five other members, was formed to suggest ways to spend $550 million in state funding that has been earmarked for “transformative” projects downstate. Topping their list was a…

Economic Development June 16, 2015

In Suffolk, a call for an innovation connection

By GREGORY ZELLER // The ambitious master plan Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone unveiled Tuesday – new public transportation options linking Suffolk’s burgeoning downtowns and major research centers – has plenty of regional support. But even ardent backers can’t ignore the project’s estimated price tag. Bellone’s sweeping plan, dubbed the Long Island Innovation Zone, includes a dedicated rapid-transit bus lane running from Stony Brook University to the Village of Patchogue that parallels a new hiking/biking…