ELLICOTTVILLE — The Cattaraugus County Industrial Development Agency offered tax incentives to 16 projects in 2022, supporting investments of around $147 million across the county.
Leading the list of Olean projects is the Cimolai-HY Project to purchase and renovate the 80-acre former Dresser-Rand site in North Olean for a steel fabrication plant for $56 million. The company has pledged to create 225 skilled trade jobs and 25-30 office positions.
“What we’re happy about over the past two years is the manufacturing, tourism and housing projects,” said Corey Wiktor, IDA executive director. “The projects are a great barometer of growing economic development.”
The list also includes the $25 million Olean Centre Mall redevelopment with senior citizen housing in a new building to be constructed on the site of the former Bon Ton store, which will be demolished.
The IDA is also expected to approve inducements to a $14 million investment by affiliate companies of Buffalo developer Ellicott Development in two West State Street Housing projects with 54 market rate apartments in Olean and Allegany.
The $147 million in project applications in 2022 may seem to pale in comparison to the $560 million in 2021, but that included the $500 million Great Lakes Cheese Co. plant near Franklinville with 230 new jobs on top of the 250 jobs coming over from the plant in Cuba that will be closing.
In 2020, the first year of COVID-19 pandemic, the IDA induced $120 million worth of projects.
The new Ellicott Development apartment projects come on the heels of the market rate apartments at the Manny Hanny Bank project.
“We’re already discussing workforce housing in Ellicottville,” Wiktor said. “It’s a great step in moving the economic development needle. These are barometers that show developers have confidence in housing in Cattaraugus County.”
Wiktor said, “The Olean Mall project is huge in 2023. It’s a phenomenal project, a community-based walkable project.”
Manufacturing and tourism projects as well as brownfield cleanup show the county leadership has taken the right steps forward, Wiktor said. The IDA helps companies maximize their investment.
Wiktor credited the Cattaraugus County Legislature for investing critical funding “to get them across the goal line, and cited the Great Lakes Cheese Co., and Cimolai-HY buying the former Dresser-Rand site from Siemens Energy.
“Kudos to the Cattaraugus County Legislature for understanding” what it takes to pay economic development dividends, Wiktor said.
The economic losses that took place among manufacturers from the 1970s to the 1990s and now the closing by Siemens Energy of the Dresser-Rand complex are starting to turn around, Wiktor said.
“We are starting to see a new manufacturing commitment in Cattaraugus County,” he said. “This county has found a way and the right investors to do this.”
THE IDA’s 2022 projects include:
- St. Bonaventure University, $25 million to renovate housing and academic buildings.
- Olean Centre Mall housing/retail project, $25 million.
- Cimolai HY, (manufacturing) $56 million.
- 351 Franklin Street LLC, $6.4 million.
- Penn Turf — Lebanon Seaboard Corp., $4 million.
- Win-Sum Ski Corp., $2.9 million.
- Olean Manor Inc., $2.8 million.
- Marquee Brewing (Megalomania LLC), $130,000.
- Country Line Recovery, $1 million.
- Otto CSG 1 (solar), mortgage tax exemption.
- Ellicottville Greens, $720,000.
- HoliMont Inc., $646,332.
- Campground Adventures, $115,000.
- 2101 W. State Street (housing), $11 million.
- 3139 W. State Street (housing), $3 million.
- Pierce Steel Co., $3.4 million.
- Russell’s RV Storage, $312,000.
