Talk CNY in Focus: What Is the Economic Development Pipeline?

Each month, a member of CenterState CEO’s staff joins the Talk CNY podcast, presented by NBT Bank, to discuss what they’re working on and how it impacts the region. It gives us an opportunity to break down some of the complex work this team takes on day to day.  

On season 2, episode 9, CenterState CEO Vice President of Economic Development Nora Spillane breaks down the meaning behind the economic development pipeline—what it is and what it can tell us about our regional economy: 

At its core, economic development is about making a community that people want to live in and invest in. Those are good things you get to work on. You want to have vibrant neighborhoods. You want to have people who are starting businesses. You want a diverse economic base. You want people to have access to good jobs. That's really what economic development boils down to. 

I think the misconceptions are it's just communities throwing money at projects, and then they move, and it's not sustainable. But the best economic development is the economic development that's honest. Honest about the place. Honest about its people. Honest about what it can do, what it can't do, and honest about how you help people get there. 

The millions of dollars we're tracking in the economic development pipeline are capital expenditures that businesses are going to invest if they're coming here or if they're expanding here.  

When I started CenterState CEO almost five years ago, our economic development pipeline was about $500 million. Now, that's $9 billion. A lot of that has to do with global geopolitical forces. But I think when we think about what those geopolitical forces mean, it's this reshoring. 

Reshoring is really nerdily fascinating, but ultimately it means manufacturing in America. Manufacturing is capital intensive. It's equipment intensive, and it's people intensive. A lot of that economic development pipeline is projects looking at America for manufacturing.  

The other thing that's really cool about the pipeline right now is it's not just people looking at New York for the first time, but it's businesses that are here putting their table stakes in and saying, I want to grow here too. So of that $9 billion, about a billion and a half is companies that are here that are growing. So that's probably five times what it was five years ago. I think it's a real testament to the community and work of [many] people, but you don't want those [projects] to get lost in the shuffle of the big flashy numbers. That's a significant commitment to this region. 

75% of that economic development pipeline number is advanced manufacturing: there's no smokestacks. It's clean rooms. It’s solar PV manufacturing, everything that's going on with federal policy to get green energy infrastructure built. It's electric vehicle manufacturing, driven by climate change and other things like that. It's our eds [educational institutions] and meds [medical service providers] looking to expand and invest, and they're a driver of our innovation economy. It is really interesting to see them stepping up and saying, ‘Hey, this is important. We're going to put our money where our mouth is on some of the facilities that we need.’  

And it's 14,000 jobs. None of that is Micron. None of that is the Micron supply chain.  I think obviously it's boosted a little because of Micron, but this is what's happening. And we're seeing it in other communities, similarly situated communities, across the northeast.  

One thing in that pipeline that is really exciting is 80% of new jobs get created by companies that are already here. So as we ride this wave of investment, we see people doubling down on their location here. That's really where the meat of this growth can come from, too. It's from the people who have been here who have stuck it out. It's just really exciting to see that opportunity open up for people who were here through the not so terrific times. 

Nora talks more about economic development in the region, CenterState CEO’s plans for equitable, sustainable growth and the Micron Community Engagement Committee on Talk CNY.