Gov. Hochul visited Kingston to announce a new round of funding for special projects totaling $33 million, of which iPark 87 was highlighted as a primary recipient. Special project awards are given to municipalities where a “highly visible and blighted property causes severe economic injury and has a depressing effect on the overall economic development potential of the community,” according to a news release from Hochul’s office.
“It’s really hard for local communities to do this on their own,” Hochul said at a news conference on Monday. “They see a site, they have a vision, but the price tag is always so prohibitive.”
Hochul said the Ulster County award will go toward a workforce training hub.
“It is all about the workforce,” she said. “Training tomorrow’s workers, and not just people who have been in the community … but attracting people from other parts of our state and other parts of our country.”
The people who train at the center can then quickly step in to fill job openings predicted to come from new tenants at the park.
In January, Zinc8, a Canadian-based energy-storage startup, announced it plans to move its U.S. headquarters to iPark 87 and invest $68 million over five years to build a new manufacturing facility at the site. The company promised the move would create 500 jobs in exchange for up to $9 million in Excelsior Jobs tax credits.
As Ulster County executive, U.S. Rep. Pat Ryan made revitalizing TechCity a major priority and oversaw its sale to National Resources, a Connecticut real estate investment company, via the Ulster County Economic Development Alliance.
In its heyday, TechCity was an economic engine in the town of Ulster. Thousands of people worked at the IBM campus, which Hochul referred to as “the place to be” back then. It closed in 1995.
Joe Cotter, co-founder of National Resources, said at Monday’s news conference, “This really is a special place. … Great things did happen here and you can feel the energy when you walk around on your own sometimes. You really feel the spirits and the souls that once inhabited this place and we believe it’s our job, all of us, to come together and rebuild.”
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