S3,E1 - Rob Simpson

This is Talk CNY, a semi-monthly podcast by CenterState CEO. We're an independent nonprofit committed to creating inclusive, equitable, and sustainable economic growth in Central New York. Join us as we meet the people and explore the projects driving the regional economy forward. This is Talk CNY, presented by NBT Bank. I'm Katie Zilcosky, director of communications at CenterState, CEO, and your host for Talk CNY. It is a new year, 2025 is going to be filled with an enormous amount of work and really exciting opportunity. So to discuss all that is in the year ahead. I'm joined today on Talk CNY by CenterState CEO's president Rob Simpson. Rob, thank you so much for being here. This is our first episode of Season Three, so thanks for joining us to kick off the season.

All right, I'm excited and excited for the new year. There's a lot going on in the region and a lot to be excited about, and I'm thrilled that our organization gets to be in the center of a lot of the activity that's making change in this region.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, even before just the new year turned, Micron had a series of really exciting announcements up until almost the Christmas holiday.

Pretty much.

I want to go through a few of those because holidays are a busy time for everyone. We might not have learned everything we want to learn about those announcements. So I want to start with the draft environmental impact statement being submitted. A lot of people were waiting for that milestone in the project timeline. So what does that signify for Micron and what does that look like for the timeline going forward?

Well, I think first and foremost, I think what's important for people to understand is that this is one of the largest industrial development projects in the history of our country, let alone our state, let alone our region. And as a result, the environmental review process is extensive, as I think people would want it to be.

What Micron did immediately before the holiday is to submit a preliminary draft of their environmental impact statement to the agencies of record. At the state level, the agency of record is OCIDA, our Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency, and at the federal level it's the federal chips office within the Commerce Department. Now those agencies are tasked with effectively ensuring that that preliminary draft is complete and ready for public comment. That'll be the next big step is when these documents are formally submitted for public comment, then everybody here in Central New York and frankly around the country will have an opportunity to review the impacts associated with this project, review the proposed mitigation associated with some of those impacts and offer comments. Sometimes people may express concerns. Other times we see an EIS processes, where people express their robust support for projects and the impacts that they'll have, and we would expect that sometime later this year there will begin a very robust public engagement process that'll last several months and with the goal of having all of that wrapped up complete and a record of decision in hand, hopefully by the end of this year targeting November so that Micron and their contractors can start construction on the project, start by clearing the site and then into next year start to build the foundation.

And then we'll see cranes going up and before you know it, in just a couple short years, we'll have one of the world's leading edge semiconductor fabrication facilities anywhere on the planet right here in Clay, New York.

That is pretty amazing.

Pretty cool.

So when you say big as far as this draft environmental impact statement, can you give scope to that? What does it mean when you say big? How many pages? How much work went into this? I mean, I know from our team with the help that we had provided, there was a lot of effort there, but for the whole unit kind of working on this draft environmental impact statement.

Just think about it in terms of scale, you're talking thousands upon thousands of pages. This is something that is going to take even an expert a huge amount of time to get to. And I think the piece that sometimes is lost in these environmental reviews is that the number of stakeholders who ultimately have to review them as part of these agency processes, it's not just OCIDA and the Department of Commerce that will review them, but it's a whole host of federal agencies from the EPA to the Army Corps of Engineers, and at the state level it's DEC and it's DOT. There are literally dozens of state and federal agencies that are involved in this process trying to calculate the impacts, identify necessary mitigation, identify the costs associated with that mitigation, put plans in place in order to ensure that traffic impacts, for instance, on Route 31, aren't exacerbated but made better. That's one of the goals that we have for this project. So huge amount of effort. It is what some people refer to as the ducks under the water, a lot of activity that most people don't see, but we do have line of sight into it, and our partners, certainly at the county and the federal level are working overtime to make sure this is happening on a schedule that's going to allow this project to go forward as expeditiously as possible.

So another exciting announcement both for Micron and for us is the announcement that the Central New York Community Foundation will be the lead intermediary of the Microns Workforce Development investments, and we at CenterState CEO, we're named a sub intermediary in the New York region. So for people maybe not involved in the workforce development world, the grant writing world, what is an intermediary and what will our role be in this?

Yeah, so maybe I'll just take a step back. As part of the CHIPS Act award that Micron has received, there's a carve out pot of funding north of $50 million. It is available for Micron to spend on various workforce development efforts in support of their fabs here in Syracuse, but also in support of the fab, the R&D fab that they're building in Boise. As a result, that money will need to be spent in a way that is consistent with Micron's stated objectives of building their workforce. And to do that, the Central York Community Foundation is going to be in a position to effectively be a re-grantor of some of that CHIPS Act money. So when projects are identified that meet Micron's goals of workforce development in one of those two locations, there'll be a workforce order submitted to the federal government. That funding will be remitted to the Community Foundation and the Community Foundation will turn around and re-grant that money to the organization, whether it's a community college, a training provider who will then be in the position to execute on that deliverable for Micron and on behalf of the two communities.

The role that CenterState CEO will get to play is actually a pretty strategic role and one I'm excited about. It's a good space for us. Our job locally has really been to try to organize and manage and build a coalition of workforce training providers in the education space, training space, community-based organizations who can work together to help solve Micron's needs. One of the things that we'll be able to do as a sub-intermediary is to talk a lot about strategy, build a strategy, set a strategy so that projects that are funded are as strategically aligned to those objectives as possible. We'll be in a position to bring projects forward. If an organization comes to us looking for funding to launch a training program for semiconductor fabrication technician, we'll be able to look at that and figure out whether it is in fact aligned with strategy, meeting our objectives, meeting Micron's objectives, and make a recommendation of Micron's, say, - Hey, we think this is a project worth funding, or in some cases we think this project isn't quite ready for funding - and providing feedback to the potential grantee about what they might need to do in order to get it to a point where it could be funded.

So there's a lot of work with Micron certainly to set and drive strategy. There's a lot of work with our community-based partners to help them get to a point where they're prepared to deliver on some of the quantitative goals associated with the workforce development roadmap.

So that announcement was made in December. When can the community start to see some of the maybe motion on that of us starting to convene and look at strategy and some of these dollars being distributed?

Well, a lot of the conversation around strategy has been happening over the course of the last couple of years, and so that activity will continue I think in terms of when the first funding orders might come out. What are some of the first projects? I'll leave that to Micron to decide. It is in fact their money to spend, but I think it's safe to say sometime early here in the first part of 2025, we'll begin to see some of that workforce money from the CHIPS Act deployed in supportive projects, not only in Boise associated with the R&D fab, but certainly here in Central New York in anticipation of the investments and the hiring that we know will come and those investments will come not just in the form of programs to support the permanent workforce in the fabs, but they're also going to come in the form of supports for projects to support and train people in the trades and construction work because as we know, the construction workers will be here before the permanent workers. As soon as that site development starts in November of this year, there's going to be a significant increased demand.

Now we've been talking about Micron, but that is just really the tip of the iceberg on what is going on in this community and what we're looking at in 2025. So could you give us a little bit of an overview of some of the big projects or maybe a reminder of what's all going on in this community?

Yeah, it's remarkable. I think for years and years here in Central New York, I would travel to other communities and I think one of the things that would always strike me about going to a place that was growing versus the experience that we were having in Syracuse, let's say 15 years ago, was that you'd see cranes in the air. You'd see physical signs of development activity, you'd see big sites being cleared and projects coming out of the ground. You're starting to see that all over Central New York, and I think just very close to home, we can look at our very own Tech Garden. It's so gratifying to see this project really start to manifest itself into the vision that we had for it, which is like a symbol of the new Syracuse in a lot of respects, a new age of innovation, a new age of global relevance, and I think that's something that I'm exceptionally proud of.

That project is expected to be completed in May of this year, and we'll have a reopening celebration sometime into spring, early summer this year, and it's going to be great. Our team is really excited. I'm over the moon thrilled with the fact that we're going to be able to deliver this project for our entrepreneurs, for our innovators, but most importantly for the community as a whole. You don't have to look too far from the Tech Garden though to see plenty of other signs of activity around downtown and around our community go out to the Inner Harbor, and we're seeing demolition of an old structure that's been vacant, dilapidated for a long time, paving the way for what will be a new parking garage to support all the amenities in the Inner Harbor, drive down Solar Street just a little bit farther and you see the work that Onondaga County has been leading on building a new aquarium right there, a new amenity for the families that we're hoping to attract here and keep here in Central New York for them to have more indoor activities, especially on days like today when it's snowy and inclement weather. You think about, drive out to East Syracuse and you see the investments that are being made by companies like TTM building, 125, 150,000 square feet of new advanced manufacturing space.

So all throughout Central New York, we are seeing signs of tangible and visible progress. And it's not just here in Syracuse, it's up in Oswego. We're seeing old buildings and old breweries converted and turned into new apartments and new restaurants making the area more vibrant and vital. This is, I think one of the most exciting parts of the role that CenterState CEO gets to play in our region is just being able to have our hands in so many of these different initiatives that are contributing directly to the vitality that we all experience as residents and citizens of our region, just making our community a better place to be.

Now, all of these different projects don't happen in a vacuum, but it's easy to focus in on one of them because they're big and exciting. And you've talked about this before, but I think just as a reminder, why is it so important to look at this as a whole ecosystem and to really look at it from a zoomed out perspective of making sure everything grows and not just one individual project grows?

Yeah, I mean, I think listen, economic development, I think for a very long time was talked about in a very myopic way. It was just simply about recruiting new businesses to your area. And I think one of the things, if we look back on the history of CenterState CEO that I'm the most proud of is that 15 years ago we challenged that assumption. We said, I don't think that that is economic development in its complete sense. It's a component of it being out attracting new companies, bringing them here is a component of creating a sustainable economy, but supporting your local businesses is actually a far more important, statistically speaking, a far more important and more effective way to go about growing your business and supporting our entrepreneurs and building out neighborhood business corridors, especially in places that have seen broad stroke disinvestment over 30, 40, 50 years.

Also critically important investments in workforce. So this holistic picture of economic development is something that is now mainstream. Fifteen years ago, it was, I don't want to say controversial, but it wasn't well understood. There wasn't a whole body of research around it. And today, more and more communities are embracing this whole of community approach to their future, and I think that actually bodes really well for our country, for our economic competitiveness. But I can guarantee you it bodes well for Central New York because we are now seeing growth across multiple sectors in our economy, across multiple geographic parts of our region, not just concentrated around Micron and Clay, but we're seeing development and growth and excitement and optimism across a much broader area.

We are going to take a quick break here, but we'll be back with Rob in just a moment. But first, a word from our presenting sponsor, NBT Bank.

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Welcome back Talk CNY, presented by NBT Bank. I'm Katie Zilcosky, director of communications at CenterState, CEO and your host for Talk CNY. I'm here today with CenterState CEO's president Rob Simpson, and we are talking about all to come in 2025. So big topic.

Big topic.

Yeah, so we talked a little bit about all the projects going on in the region before the break, but also the new year means a new legislative session, and there's plenty to watch there too, and we are always very closely working with our elected officials. So what are some of the legislative priorities that are on the top of your mind and our organization's mind going into 2025?

Well, there are a lot of them. I think this is going to be a very busy year in Albany, and there's some very significant priorities that Albany finally needs to make some critical decisions around. Decisions that will significantly impact the future trajectory of our entire state. I think top of mind for me is energy policy, and for years and years, New York State has been pushing the envelope with things like the C-L-C-P-A, the Climate Protection Act, trying to drive down carbon emissions and do their part to curb climate change, all well-intentioned, but things that could have if implemented poorly, pretty negative consequences for business activity in particular for energy intensive manufacturing. Just so happens we have a pretty energy-intensive manufacturing project happening right here in Central New York. So we have a lot to say about what might happen during this legislative session. One of the things that the legislature will be deciding on is the implementation of what is known as the cap and invest program.

Effectively think about it as a carbon tax. That's one of the big issues that has been, the cans been kicked on the road the last couple of years that needs to be resolved this year. As part of that, I think we have hope that there will be a thoughtful and open conversation around how to manage the competing needs of reducing our carbon emissions in New York State while simultaneously ensuring that reliability, the cost, and the availability of adequate power for our rapidly growing industries, especially those in our advanced manufacturing sector. We know that our economic development pipeline is full of energy intensive, advanced manufacturing projects. If we create a climate policy in New York that is not friendly or does not accommodate advanced manufacturing projects, we are closing the door to tens of billions of dollars of future economic activity that could benefit the residents of our state.

And I know that that is in no way, shape or form the desire of most legislators in Albany is certainly not the desire of the governor. She's worked very hard to try to carve out a middle path, but finding that middle path and enacting that into law is going to be a challenge. There are very strong opinions on all sides of this debate. I understand them. I happen to believe, and our organization believes that we can accomplish our climate goals and ensure the long-term availability of high-quality, cheap clean, affordable power for our business community. And so that's going to be our approach engaging with our elected officials on that. Energy policy isn't the only thing on the agenda though. For the last couple of years, there's been a big push around antitrust legislation at the state level, something that in I think the years of most people, they hear antitrust.

It's like, oh, big companies equals bad. There's a lot more nuance to that, and there are a lot of potential negative consequences that could come from a poorly thought out piece of antitrust legislation. We've registered our concerns for the last couple of years with our delegation with others in Albany with the governor's office, and we'll continue to do that and push back where we think the state is reaching too far and inhibiting commerce, which ultimately is a big part of our job, is to create that environment where businesses can thrive and people can prosper, all people can prosper. So those are two of the bigger issues, but as always, the budget will be another, a third big item and a big fight, always trying to balance the need for new spending and try to hold the line on taxation. One of the things we've been working on with our partners at the Manufacturer's Association of Central New York is trying to expand the manufacturer's tax exemption right now, larger manufacturers have the benefit of having no taxes that they pay here in New York State, no corporate taxes, but many smaller manufacturers that are incorporated differently, still pay a tax burden.

Doesn't seem right, doesn't seem fair. And we'd like to expand that protection to include a broader range, if not the full range of manufacturers here in our state. And kudos to MACNY. That's been an issue that they've been working on for the better part of a decade, and we're happy to support in that effort. We think it's important. We think it's a big piece of the future here in New York state. So those are three issues. I can guarantee you there will be probably a dozen more, but those are a couple of the bigger priorities.

The state has been a frequent partner of ours and on a number of projects. So what are some of the projects coming down the pipe this year that we are working with the state on and hoping to advance and see come to fruition?

Well, the first one, maybe one of the biggest ones that we are directly working on with the state right now is the launch of ON-RAMP. ON-RAMP is the new workforce development program that the governor and her team rolled out last year designed to increase the availability and access of training for advanced manufacturing construction jobs across New York State. She's making investments not just here in Syracuse with a flagship ON-RAMP Center, which will be right here in our community, but also in three other communities across upstate New York. And with luck should those models prove successful, I think we can hope that it'll be extended to more communities if advanced manufacturing is a huge part of our future. If those jobs, if those projects tend to be very capital intensive and require a lot of construction, these two industry sectors are going to be critically important to the future of New York State's economy and it behooves us to ensure that as many people in all of our communities across the Thruway have access to the training to access the careers that are being created in our home state.

And so that is going to manifest itself in a couple of things. One, a lot of programmatic partnerships between our community-based organizations, educational institutions, businesses, governments and beyond, to develop programming to support the needs of Micron, the needs of TTM, the needs of Lockheed Martin and so many others. And secondarily, it's going to manifest itself in a new physical workforce training center. There is a commitment on our part as the stewards of the ON-RAMP program here in Central New York to ensuring that that Signature Workforce Development Center is located in a distressed neighborhood in our community, a census track that needs investment, a census track with a population that has the opportunity to participate actively in the careers of the future, but maybe hasn't been invited in as explicitly. So we want to be able to use this new facility that we're tasked with helping to stand up and not only give people access to careers, but to create an opportunity for new investment in places that haven't seen it in a really long time. I'm really excited about it. Aimee Durfee and our workforce team are doing an incredible job. I cannot say enough good things about the leadership that Aimee and that entire team is providing in this space, really innovating and trying to help find the sweet spot between the needs of employers, the needs of workers, so that both of their distinct needs can be met and both are in a position to benefit economically.

Now, before we wrap up here, we can't not talk about our Economic Forecast Breakfast coming up. We also, at that event release our Economic Forecast report annually. We do have the beginnings of the survey coming back. People are largely optimistic, but still are aware of hiring challenges, talent attraction. What are some of the insights you are hoping to gain from both that event and from the Economic Forecast report?

Yeah, it's interesting. I always love to see the top line sentiment from our membership. I think it's very useful, and frankly, oftentimes over the, I don't know, 15, 20 years that we've been doing this forecast report or that I've been engaged in this forecast report, the sentiment that comes out in the survey results is pretty consistent with what is happening in the overall regional economy. Every once in a while there's some nuances and some differences, but for years and years, the sentiment in Central New York was like, okay, slow and steady wins the race and put your head down, do your work, hope for 1 or 2% growth. The last couple of years, it's been very different. People have a lot more enthusiasm, a lot more excitement. With that enthusiasm and excitement. People are also expressing a higher order of potential concern around the availability of talent, around the availability of power, around some regulatory issues that may be impeding their ability to compete in other states or around the world.

And I find those insights to be frankly, the most actionable. When our members speak with one voice and they tell us the things that are holding them back, I think as an organization that is tasked with being a sort of community catalyst, we're in a really good position to take those concerns and turn them into action. Whether that action is a new program to help a series of companies overcome those obstacles or a new initiative or a specific project or a piece of public policy, that's what we love to do, is to innovate. That innovation is really driven by what the needs of the market are. Our Economic Forecast survey is the best level of detail that we get on an annual basis from our members about what the market needs are. So our team pours through that like a bunch of data nerds, and we look for every potential insight that we can turn into some form of action to make this region a little bit more competitive, to help our members succeed, to give Central New York a leg up in the global marketplace.

Now, for someone who's listening to this and saying, I want to hear more about this. How can I attend the Economic Forecast breakfast? Where should they go?

Well, you could go to centerstate ceo.com/events and they can register right there online. This event sells out every single year, and it's a wonderful opportunity to just at the beginning of the year, get a pulse for what is happening in our market, what your peers and colleagues as business leaders are thinking, what they're feeling, what they're experiencing. We are fortunate enough to have a great partner in M&T Bank who is coming in and providing their chief economist who will provide some insights into terms of what's happening in the global and the national landscape. And we'll provide some feedback from our survey about the regional landscape and what's happening here. So really hope to see everybody there. It's a wonderful event, a great way to kick off 2025, getting together with our peers and colleagues and fellow community members who are all excited about working together to make 2025 the absolute best year it can be for Central New York.

Well, Rob, thank you so much for being here, kicking off season three with us. Looking forward to all that the year will bring to us.

I'm looking forward to it too. Thanks, Katie.

CenterState CEO's podcast Talk CNY, presented by NBT Bank is available on all major podcast platforms or centerstateceo.com. Additional content and clips can be seen across CenterState CEO's social media channels. For new episode reminders, be sure to subscribe in your favorite podcast listening app, and don't forget to leave a quick review or five-star rating. Thanks for listening to Talk CNY, presented by NBT Bank.