Times Union Editorial—Nice move

First published in print: Wednesday, February 10, 2010

You don’t need an advanced computer chip to do the math here: One new corporate headquarters plus 190 or more new jobs equals good news for the Watervliet Arsenal. And the Capital Region.

M+W Group’s decision to move its North American corporate headquarters from the Dallas area to Watervliet is the kind of development envisioned in 1999 when the nonprofit Arsenal Business & Technology Partnership was formed to bring new life and modern relevance to a circa 1812 military facility.

It’s the kind of spinoff, too, that the region hoped to see from the creation of the University at Albany’s College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering and the drive by local and state officials and boosters to reinvent this area as Tech Valley.

It’s an early return, as well, on an admittedly large investment by New York state, estimated at $1.4 billion, to lure a $4.2 billion Global Foundries chip fabrication plant to the Luther Forest Technology Campus in Malta.

At a time when recovery from a recession is measured more by how many jobs weren’t lost in a particular month, this is especially encouraging news. While some communities remain devastated by the recession and high unemployment, this region is looking forward to 1,465 jobs when the chip plant opens and thousands of construction and supplier jobs in the meantime.

Add to that the 190 jobs that M+W, which is building the plant for Global Foundries, will bring from Texas to the arsenal as it creates a presence that will endure beyond construction of the Luther Forest chip fab.

And so Tech Valley continues to show potential to be much more than just a marketing concept. Here’s Rick Whitney, president and CEO of M+W Americas Inc., describing upstate New York as “the global epicenter and worldwide capital for nanotechnology education, innovation and commercialization.”

We’re pleased, too, that the state Legislature, for all the concerns about a downstate power shift, hasn’t forgotten about upstate. M+W’s relocation, for which it expects to spend $228.5 million over the next five years, got some $6.5 million worth of incentives from the state Assembly in a deal brokered by Cohoes Democrat Ronald Cannestrari and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan. Mr. Whitney credits Mr. Silver and the Assembly’s support as the deciding factor in making the move north.

Yes, for a change, the jobs have moved north. Not out of New York, but in.

It’s a good direction.

THE ISSUE:

M+W Group picks the Watervliet Arsenal for its corporate headquarters.

THE STAKES:

As a recession lingers, the value of public investment begins to show.

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