Great Lakes Cheese Secures IDA Incentive Package to Relocate to Catt. County
Great Lakes Cheese Secures IDA Incentive Package to Relocate to Catt. County
A proposed "greenfields" project worth an estimated $500 million investment promises 440 jobs in Cattaraugus County in five years, with a boost for agriculture.
The Ohio-based Great Lakes Cheese Co., Inc., long a staple of manufacturing and commerce in Cuba, Allegany County, is seeking an expansion and move across the county line. Its future home is a 130-acre cornfield on Rt. 16, mostly in Farmersville, and partly within the Town of Franklinville, just north of the Village of Franklinville. The company launched its Public Participation Plan with a virtual information session last Wednesday, Oct. 27th.
For more than 60 years GLC has been located in the Cuba facility near the intersection of Haskell Road and Route 305. Its products are sold in grocery stores and restaurants and at the Cuba Cheese Shoppe in the village.
About a year ago the company and the Allegany County IDA announced a bid for 210 acres of farmland in the Towns of Belvidere and Angelica off I-86. But when that deal fell through, Schwab Land Holdings, LLC and adjacent property owners offered property less than 25 miles west of Cuba. County records show much of the new site had been held for a few years by gravel mining concerns, but was purchased in 2020 by Schwab for $250,000.
The move could bring the cheese plant's current 229-member workforce, along with an additional 200 new employees, into Farmersville and Franklinville. But before that happens, there will be about 240 construction jobs over a two-year period. Another plum in the deal goes to the region's milk cooperatives, who will be looking to their dairy members to double their current daily shipments of 2 million pounds of milk.
The relocation is being facilitated by an attractive package of incentives from the Cattaraugus County Industrial Development Agency and the Cattaraugus County Legislature.
CCIDA has offered sales and use tax exemptions, mortgage recording tax exemptions and a deviation from its tax exemption benefit. That translates to a 25-year real property tax abatement, with a full exemption for the first 20 years, and a 10% annual reduction in the abatement for the following five years.
In addition, the county is backing a $5.8 million upgrade in the Village of Franklinville's municipal water and wastewater systems to service the project. The county recently authorized a $719,000 grant that will pay LDG Engineers and Architects of Corning for the preliminary design, bidding and construction administration for those utility upgrades in the form of a new municipal well and water tank, along with water and sewer lines to and from the site. The village is expected to supply the operation with 632,000 gallons of water per day and receive 6,000 gallons of human waste daily for processing at the treatment plant at the south end of the village.
The expense will be funded through a county-backed grant from the state Office of Community Renewal. Upgrades should be completed in two years, in time for an expected manufacturing startup in 2024.
"Our whole drive is to maintain those 229 (employee) families," said Matt Wilkinson, GLC Vice President, providing details during the virtual public session.
CCIDA Director Corey Wiktor said there are still permits to be approved before the deal is sealed, but he described it as the county's largest development. He pointed to GLC's commitment to the employees and farmers, and to "doing the granular things to capture economic development."
"Something like this will transform the county. The multiplier effects have been demonstrated," Wiktor said, referring to an independent economic study provided to the CCIDA.
Two nearby residents spoke in support of the project and its potential to help the area.
Lisa Kurowski said she lives across Route 16 from the proposed plant entrance and expressed a concern for increased traffic, noise and turbidity in her private well. Scott Howard said he wanted to point out the narrowing of Ischua Creek and potential for flooding south of the proposed outfall.
Franklinville Mayor Harvey Soulvie, in an interview after the meeting, said the project met with a great deal of enthusiasm when prospects for employment and development turned up this summer. He looks forward to the rush of activity that will boost local businesses to increase services.
Soulvie moved into Franklinville in 1976 and, for many years operated a successful printing business overlooking Park Square. In recent years, the village suffered a slow decline but now he sees nothing but possibilities.
"For as long as I've lived here, Great Lakes Cheese is the greatest investment I've ever seen," he said, adding the company is building a very modern facility and is easy to work with.
"We're going to keep busy with construction of a water tower and extending the water and sewer lines," he said.
Plant construction is expected to commence in the spring. Once completed, operations will run 24 hours a day and are expected to process eight percent of all New York State's dairy output. The site will hold three new buildings containing 486,000 square feet, a 130-foot evaporating tower, a new on-site 20.7 MKVA National Grid substation, parking for 300 autos and a separate tractor-trailer parking area, stormwater runoff detention areas and an on-site wastewater treatment facility measuring 400 feet by 400 feet to process 700,000 gallons per day.
A wastewater impoundment will hold 7.3 million gallons of liquid, covering 2.25 acres. Treated wastewater from processing will be sent offsite through an underground pipe beneath Route 16, entering Ischua Creek south of the Ischua Valley Country Club. According to environmental documents the plant will be able to re-use all of the water that is extracted from the milk and the discharge will not have an impact on the creek, a class C trout stream.
The CCIDA is lead agent in the state environmental review and a number of meetings have been held by local governments. A list of environmental issues are being tabulated or investigated, including a potential environmental justice area of 25 residents bordering the site, prime farmland soils, the site's location within a floodplain and over a principal aquifer. A wetlands delineation has been completed and permits are winding their way through local, state and federal agencies. For example, the discharge to Ischua creek will require a State Pollution Discharge Elimination System (SPDES) permit, the Town of Franklinville intends to rezone the site for industrial use, and the state may reduce speed along Route 16. A state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation review is looking for evidence of indigenous activity as well as long-ago family burial plots. A Section 404 Permit is being reviewed jointly by the state DEC and Army Corps.
Gene Walton of Clark Patterson, told the public information session attendees that Rt. 16 traffic levels are acceptable, but a turn lane may be needed at the factory entrance. He added that most of the tractor trailers and employee vehicles will arrive from I-86 and points south of the village. Most of the milk-laden vehicles will come from the north. Environmental review documents say approximately 200 tractor trailers and 15 delivery trucks will arrive daily.
An air permit is needed, due to projected annual release of 140,000 tons of carbon dioxide, 0.27 tons of nitrous oxide, 2.4 tons of hazardous air pollutants, along with other emissions. In addition 27,000 tons of methane will be generated, which could be mitigated with a flare or use in electrical generation.
Additional public meetings will seek further input when state permits have been drafted.
Documents related to the project can be viewed on the CCIDA website at www.cattcoida.com or at The Blount Library, 5 N. Main St., Franklinville; New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Division of Environmental Permits, Region 9 Office, 182 E. Union St., Suite #3, Allegany, NY; Cattaraugus County Center, Department of Economic Development, Planning & Tourism, 303 Court St., Little Valley, NY.