It appears that Legacy Tower will be the downtown home of the recently announced, Department of Defense-backed photonics manufacturing institute. Or maybe not.
Last night, SUNY Polytechnic Institute and several local business leaders — few of whom have anything to do with the photonics field — announced that SUNY Polytechnic plans to lease 25,000 square feet in Legacy Tower to house the institute’s business outreach, workforce training, back-office operations, and business accelerator and incubator spaces. The announcement followed a few days of back-and-forth posturing between the pro-Legacy Tower Rochester Business Leaders Photonics Working Group and a group of prominent officials — including University of Rochester President Joel Seligman and RIT President Bill Destler — who talked up the Sibley building as a potential headquarters site.
SUNY Polytechnic has basically asserted that it has the decision-making authority, and its news release from last night refers to one of its executive professors, Dr. Michael Liehr, as the CEO of photonics institute. But there had been some confusion among the institute’s partners about whether a SUNY Polytechnic official or UR President Seligman would be CEO.
In its statement, SUNY Polytechnic also pointed out that it was the entity that won the $110 million DOD photonics institute grant, and it’s the entity contracting with DOD.
But some local officials continue to push back. Assembly member Joe Morelle, UR President Seligman, and Wegmans CEO Danny Wegman released this statement last night:
Despite press reports to the contrary, no decision has been finalized on a new downtown headquarters for AIM Photonics. We welcome SUNY Polytechnic’s interest in locating a headquarters downtown and we thank them for their recommendation, which we will take under advisement. The Rochester leadership, in conjunction with Governor Cuomo, will make the final decision on where to locate the appropriate photonics facilities in our community.
And during an appearance this morning on WXXI’s Morning Edition, Assembly Majority Leader Joe Morelle sharply criticized SUNY Polytechnic officials for basically overriding local officials.
But something’s getting lost in this whole mess. The current dispute involves an administrative headquarters building, not the exciting research, start-ups, and high-tech manufacturing that officials say will create thousands of jobs. That activity will be spread across the Rochester region and across the rest of the country regardless of where the HQ goes.
SUNY Polytechnic provided this rationale for the Legacy Tower selection:
Legacy Tower has many advantages identified by the both the Rochester business community and SUNY Poly, notably the immediate readiness of the space within thirty days of a final agreement, which is critical to the mission and goals of the Department of Defense. Additionally, it requires no capital investments or lengthy and costly rehabilitation work. The selection follows a thorough process that took into account location, infrastructure and capabilities, readiness to be occupied, and cost. Headquartering in Legacy Tower is also consistent with Governor Andrew Cuomo’s strategy to establish iconic vacant buildings within the urban core as hubs for innovation and commercialization, much like the old Union Station in downtown Albany that is now a SUNY Poly hub for smart cities programs and companies.
This article appears in Aug 12-18, 2015.
Both locations have merit, but the Legacy advocates have failed to articulate how this location will benefit our community more than the Sibley location. It appears to me that the Legacy location is tailor made for suburban flight–easy to get to from the expressway, and very easy to leave once again, perpetuating an old, ongoing problem. The Legacy advocates owe it to our community to expressly detail how they will ensure that the Legacy location will serve our community. We do not want to hear any vague promises. What are their EXACT plans to ensure that downtown clearly will benefit? The Sibley advocates have long already made this case. Regarding the SUNY Polytechnic Institute: they are getting off to a very bad start if this is how they expect to work with local leaders. The Gov should rein them in.
“The Sibley advocates have long already made this case”
How did they do that? “Because it’s on Main Street” is not a reason to pump millions of dollars into Sibley by default. These two buildings are a block away from each other, I fail to see how one will completely change Main Street, and the other might as well be in the burbs.
I also wish the local media would stop fanning the flames on this one making Rochester look worse and worse. I know it’s great for page views and all, but all the he-said-she-said certainly isn’t helping our city at all.
The best location is not the issue here and it is not the reason why the location will be one or the other. The final decision will be in the hands of the “politics” associated with this project. Two “teams” two different opinions and they will each build a political team that will carry the most weight in the decision process. Mind you, as was said, the locations are within shouting distance of one another. The team that will be able to amass the most and highest political gurus will win. In the mean time the indecision, infighting and sparring will make Rochester look like the divided city it is. Instead of deciding this issue behind closed doors with the individuals that live in this community and those that will work within the Photonics HQ and,….announce a location, a final location, lets instead see who has the political clout to out do the other. Joe Morelle and Governor Cuomo to have the last word on this?! You’re kidding, right.
Looks like this is the opening round in the fight for control over hundreds of millions of dollars. SUNY Poly and UofR both want to control it and both are trying to set a precedent of controlling decision-making by determining where the HQ goes. If SUNY Poly (or UofR) get their way, I bet each side expects that they’ll be able to funnel grant money one way or another as well.
More proof that Rochester has a leadership vacuum.
It has been said that Rochester didn’t need any leadership with the booming days of Kodak and Xerox creating jobs hand over fist. Those days are over. It seems that Joel Seigelman has tried to fill that position with UR leading the way now. But what about the community in it’s entirety? What is the plan for Rochester going forward?
There is none.
We have a perfect opportunity to put Rochester out front upstate. We are within about 1 hour of 3 million people, and 2 hours of 4 million. Why aren’t we capitalizing on that? We are just a bunch of small thinkers from Podunk. Meanwhile Rochester still grows (but slowly) thanks to our business leaders, but we can have much more. People should be flocking to Rochester to see our shows, eat at our restaurants, enjoy our parks , hotels and water amenities. More businesses of all types would choose to locate here and more youth would stay. We could have world class shopping too.
But nooooo. Nobody wants another theatre, for instance. Or dare I say fast ferry. But mostly, we need a leader to articulate a vision that we can all get behind. Decisions like these could have already been made.
With all of the great work attracting the center here, someone dropped the ball in not having the location predetermined.