Trickle Down Effect of a Grant

Co-owner of Extreme Molding, Joanne Moon

Trickle-down effect of a grant

By Larry Rulison Business Writer, Times Union
Published: Wednesday, September 29, 2010

WATERVLIET — Nearly two years ago, a company called Extreme Molding in Watervliet that makes products out of plastic and silicone got a grant of nearly $400,000 from the state Division of Housing and Urban Renewal.

The money helped it buy two injection molding machines, which allowed Extreme Molding to increase production and hire 25 new employees.

On Tuesday, the company staged a tour of its 12,000-square-foot manufacturing facility at Watervliet Arsenal to show how important the grant has been to its business during a recession when credit is tight.

Extreme, which makes products like pacifiers for hospitals and collapsible bowls sold at camping stores, now has 40 employees and runs three shifts around the clock, five days a week.

Co-owner Joanne Moon said she hired many new workers from housing projects in Watervliet and Cohoes.

“Without the money, we could not have purchased the additional equipment,” Moon said. “We put people to work that really needed jobs. The machines are constantly running.”

That success is good news to Col. Mark Migaleddi, the new commander at the arsenal, which leases out space it doesn’t use for weapons manufacturing. Migaleddi says the added revenue helps the arsenal reduce its costs, and therefore the cost to the Army. The arsenal is the Army’s largest volume manufacturer of large caliber cannon.

“When our partners do well, we do well,” Migaleddi said. “We hope to bring more businesses here to the arsenal to reduce our overhead.”

A nonprofit group called the Arsenal Business & Technology Partnership helps the arsenal develop its unused space and has brought several high-profile manufacturers to the highly secure facility, which includes many other military tenants and the Army’s Benet Laboratories.

Peter Gannon, president of the partnership, says his office is already looking for additional space for Extreme Molding, possibly in another building.

“It’s certainly something that we’re striving to do,” Gannon said.

Meanwhile, the grant that Extreme Molding received from the state, known as a Community Development Block Grant, has also benefited the city of Watervliet. The city applied for the grant and is the official recipient, and half the money that Extreme Molding received is repaid to the city as a low-interest loan over five years.

The city is allowed to use the money for a community benefit, and Watervliet Mayor Mike Manning said it helped pay for a first-time home buyer program that aided 30 residents. The city was also successful in getting a similar $346,000 grant for arsenal tenant Solid Sealing Technology.

“This is a great program that has multiple impacts,” Manning said. “We’re all for it.”