Economic Report Card

Cortland beat state and national unemployment rates

As of this fall 2005, Cortland’s year-to-year employment growth outpaced the state and most other regions in the State, with Cortland growing by 3.5%, compared to New York State’s rate of 1.2% and national rate of 1.9%. In fact, Cortland County’s rate of employment gain has consistently outpaced New York State’s since 2000. Cortland added 500 jobs this year alone.

Most recent DOL statistics:

National unemployment rate – 5.1%
New York State unemployment rate – 5.2%
Cortland unemployment rate – 4.4%

• Cortland has gained 500 jobs since the same time last year
• Financial sectors gained 100 jobs since the same time last year
• Professional and business services gained 100 jobs since the same time last year
• Information sectors gained 100 jobs since the same time last year
• Leisure and hospitality gained 200 jobs since the same time last year

Recent highlights include:

• Barden Homes, the Northeast’s leader in pre-engineered homes, recently completed a $6.5 million 100,000 sq. ft. expansion and is now the anchor for a new Upstate homebuilding business park that is attracting customers and contractors from Canada and across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast
• Essex Steel, New York State’s only manufacturer of steel buildings, recently completed a $2 million project to locate its new 30,000 sq. ft. corporate headquarters in the Finger Lakes East Business Park
• BorgWarner Morse TEC has invested $30 million to open a powder metal production facility that created nearly 250 new high-paying manufacturing jobs.
• The 433,000 sq. ft. former Smith Corona manufacturing plant -- renamed IndacomPlace -- is now completely full with more than 20 companies occupying industrial and warehousing space, including a number of small manufacturers who relocated from out of state.
• The Marietta Corporation, the world leader in the hospitality amenities industry, purchased the 440,000 sq. ft. former Rubbermaid facility and made a $25 million investment to locate high speed bottling lines there for the retail market. The company has added nearly 150 manufacturing jobs in the past year at the new site, and has exceeded employment commitments to Empire State Development.
• Pall Trinity Micro has continued to grow, recently making a 75,000 sq. ft. expansion into new offices at Indacom Place. PTM recently won a prestigious award from the NYS DEC for environmental achievements.
• The 144,000 sq. ft. former ASSA International building was redeveloped as the Cortland Commerce Center. Anchor tenants included Intertek Testing Services, which made the site its North American operations headquarters and WebClothes, which opened its global E-commerce distribution operation there.
• Buckbee Mears transacted the sale of the 367,000 square foot facility to International Electron Devices, based in New Delhi, India. The $15 million deal closed in October 2004.
• Precision E-Forming was created and financed as a management buy-out of a division of Buckbee Mears’ electroforming division, which was relocated here from St. Paul, Minnesota. The new company is enjoying great success and growing rapidly.
• The 75,000 sq. ft. former E-One facility was purchased by Bestway for a new $3.5 million manufacturing operation that will create composite materials for the homebuilding industry. Bestway also recently completed a $1.7 million business expansion for its wholesale lumber operation, which processes wood products and distributes them to 350 retail operations through the northeast. The company also relocated its Carolina-based woodworking operation to Cortland, creating 90 new jobs. Bestway is completing work on a new $1 million intermodal rail center at its Luker Road operation to accommodate another new project, a $2 million new investment to manufacture modular homes, which is expected to create another 75 new jobs
• The Cortland Companies and Cortland Cable, which specialize in the manufacture and custom engineering of cables and ropes for the marine and aerospace industries, continued to expand with the acquisition of Puget Sound Rope, based just north of Seattle, and the acquisition of Cortland Fibron, BX, based in London, England.
• Albany International continued to make significant investments in its world-class R&D Center and expanded production facilities at its Cortland facility.
• Cooper Hand Tools completed a multi-million capital improvement project that completely realigned its manufacturing floor, improving safety, quality and efficiency.
• WetStone Technologies, a cutting edge computer forensics company, made a $3.5 million investment in a new corporate headquarters in the heart of downtown Cortland.
• New Monarch Machine Tool secured a $2.7 million CAPCO investment by Advantage Capital, as well as an additional $500,000 investment by RAND.
• Square Deal Machining made a major expansion, moving a significant operation to Marathon in Cortland County from Pennsylvania.
• Ames Linen Service purchased the former 70,000 sq. ft. Tuscarora building in the City of Cortland for an expansion project.
• Cortland Memorial Hospital completed an $11 million expansion, renovating its emergency services, laboratories and radiology/diagnostics services departments, successfully completing a $3.5 million capital campaign facilitated by the allocation of $750,000 in Empire Zone community development project credits.
• The BDC worked with USDA/Rural Development to help secure a loan guarantee to leverage private sector financing and public funding to open a new $3.5 million new Cortland Sports Complex. Fundraising for the project was facilitated by the allocation of $500,000 in Empire Zone community development project credits
• The BDC worked with USDA/Rural Development to help secure a loan guarantee to open a new Center for the Arts in Homer (www.center4art.org)
• The Cortland County Zone Advisory Board approved a total of $400,000 in direct equity tax credits to Hope Lake Investors for qualified equity investments in a major development project being proposed there.
• The Cortland County Empire Zone created 355 net new jobs in the past year