Some other good economic news for the area:
From the Ithaca Journal.
Transonic expansion should add 50 jobs in the next 3 years
Home-grown health device company enlarges manufacturing capacity
Written by
Rachel Stern
Transonic Systems founder Cornelis Drost, left, and Chief Operating Officer Bruce Kilmartin talk to the assembled employees Wednesday morning at the groundbreaking for their new building on Dutch Mill Road in the Town of Lansing. / SIMON WHEELER / Staff Photo
LANSING -- Gold shovels collected mounds of mud and snow Wednesday morning as Transonic Systems Inc. broke ground for a 30,000 square-foot expansion.
As snow flurries came down, Transonic employees, project builders and architects, and Tompkins County Area Development representatives gathered outside the building entrance to watch the ceremony. Four Caterpillar machines sat on a large open space that will be morphed into a one-story building used primarily for manufacturing, said Bruce Kilmartin, chief operating officer of the company.
"This has been a dream of mine for about 10 years," he said. "We are proud to be able to construct this new facility in the Town of Lansing because with the economic situation we presently have, we are lucky to be able to build."
The new facility, to be used primarily for manufacturing, is expected to generate about 50 additional jobs over the next three years, he said. In five years, Kilmartin said he hopes to have the new 100-spot parking lot filled to capacity. Jobs will be in engineering, marketing, sales and manufacturing, he said.
Site and preparation work is almost complete and the company is waiting on sewer permits from the Town of Lansing. After those arrive in the next week or so, Kilmartin said, the building will start. The project should be complete around Oct. 28.
The expansion will cost more than $4 million, Kilmartin said. A strong worldwide presence, a new sewer system and frugal spending enabled Transonic to expand during this economic climate, he said.
There was a time, however, when expansion seemed bleak.
Without a new sewer system, the company would not have been able to expand, said Kilmartin. With help from Tompkins County Area Development and the Town of Lansing, a $400,000 grant was secured from Empire State Development to build a municipal sewer line along Warren Road.
"There was no way we could have expanded without the sewer system," Kilmartin said. "I cannot say enough about the local government's help."
The community is just as grateful for Transonic, said Heather Filiberto, director of economic development services at TCAD.
"It is businesses like Transonic that create quality jobs in our community," she said. "This is a big step in making sure they are a job creator in our community for the next 25 years and beyond."
Transonic manufactures blood flow measurement devices. The devices can be used in surgery and to measure cardiac output. The company was founded at Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine 27 years ago by its present owner, engineer Cornelis Drost.
The people Transonic helps -- including Kilmartin, who had triple bypass surgery in 2004 using equipment from the company -- is another reason why the expansion is so important, said Tompkins County Legislator Pat Pryor, D-Lansing.
"It is important to point out another group of beneficiaries of Transonic's business development -- the thousands of patients over the years that have been given a better medical prognosis because of the devices developed by Transonic," she said.
The company employs 125 people locally and an additional 25 people worldwide with subsidiaries in Maastricht, the Netherlands and Taipei, Taiwan. Thanks to that worldwide presence, Transonic is able to bring in about $20 million in annual sales, Kilmartin said.
And that same presence made building an expansion possible, despite the tough economic times, he added.
"We have really been able to weather the downturn well," he said. "The worldwide presence bolsters profitability. If one area is down, another is up."
Here's the link:
http://www.theithacajournal.com/arti...text|FRONTPAGE
And another Ithaca Journal article:
BorgWarner project gets state jobs grant
9:17 PM, Mar. 23, 2011
BorgWarner Morse TEC Inc. in Tompkins County received a $592,540 grant from the Empire State Development Corp. to support the transfer work from an out-of-state plant to New York.
Last November, BorgWarner Morse TEC relocated the Variable Cam Timing product line from a plant in Oklahoma.
A grant of up to $459,540 was awarded to the company for a portion of the cost of the purchase of machinery and equipment, and an additional $133,000 was awarded for a portion of the cost of training.
The project will allow the company to retain 1,329 jobs and create 51 jobs in New York, according to Empire State Development. The total project cost is $62.7 million.
Empire State Development's Board of Directors approved $12.34 million in grants Wednesday to support the creation of 838 jobs and retain 1,862 jobs in the state.
BorgWarner Morse TEC Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of the publicly traded BorgWarner Inc., which manufactures automotive chain systems for engine timing and power transmission and torque transfer.
Her's the link:
http://www.theithacajournal.com/arti...xt|FRONTPAGE|p
