Ellicottville Greens Seeks Local Headquarters
Ellicottville Greens Seeks Local Headquarters
The Cattaraugus County Industrial Development Agency is poised to review an application for a state sales tax abatement and payment-in-lieu-of-tax deal (PILOT) for an intensive container-gardening project at a leased rural Ellicottville location. The company has been supplying the area and the region with food for the past four years.
Ellicottville Greens and Vertical Fresh Farms founder and CEO Gabriel Bialkowski, appearing in a Zoom connection during the IDA’s recent monthly meeting, told the CCIDA Board of Directors that Ellicottville Greens supplies the county's schools, the Seneca Allegany Casino and area restaurants with leafy greens, microgreens and baby greens.
The company intends to place ten 40'x8' shipping container "gardens," along with a permanent steel barn for production, cold storage and packaging, on two leased acres at 6902 Simmons Road. It plans to spend $720,000 setting up the new location as a first phase, he said, with intentions to make it a headquarters to showcase an eventual distribution hub to market, not only greens, but also to find future operators of container gardens under the Vertical Fresh Farms name.
The company's slogan is "Locally Grown Everywhere" and aims to set up satellite operations in other locations to grow and supply it with more produce. Bialkowski said it will be the management partner with a financing entity which will bring the real estate and capital. Any of the Western New York sites, however, will be owned and remotely monitored directly by the company, he added.
Ellicottville Greens spent its first year in research and development on leased property nearby on Witch Hollow Road, then moved several containers to a temporary location on steep recreational property on Bear Creek Road in Machias, before settling on its current location in Clarence for six garden containers at the Transit Road spot behind the Eastern Hills Mall.
"Now we are looking to officially launch in Ellicottville and we have had site preparation and a showcase to investors and partners," said Bialkowski.
The facility will team with the proposed 5 megawatt Simmons Road solar farm planning to lease another portion of the same 91-acre parcel. According to Cattaraugus County's real property records, the hilltop site is vacant farmland near Bryant Hill Road and has been owned by John C. Metz of West Palm Beach since 2017.
The solar project, if approved, would be the town's first and was the topic of discussions in 2021 at Town Planning Board meetings as Borrego Solar. Developers withdrew the application and in June submitted a new request for a special use permit and site plan review for "less than 25 megawatts of energy" under a different case number that, according to drafted meeting minutes, was deemed incomplete.
At that time Borrego's consultant, Marathon Engineering, stated the project will be sold after approval, the firm had not completed glare and line-of-sight studies and indicated the site contains a federal wetland. The town requested a third-party bonds, escrow deposit and decommissioning arrangements.
The matter was listed as a discussion item on the Planning Board's July 25th agenda and earlier in the month Town officials said they were working with legal consultants to finalize the Host Community Agreement. Marathon said the project is third in line to be connected to the electric grid, a necessary step for operations. The current status of the project could not be confirmed by press time, however.
"Electric is our second biggest cost besides labor," said Bialkowski, who suggested some funding may be available for solar farm partnerships from RechargeNY.
CCIDA Director Corey Wiktor said he expects the Town Planning Board review to be final in three weeks and that the Town Board is generally agreeable. He added that he planned to schedule a public hearing on the CCIDA application within several days. Borrego developers had requested a Planning Board public hearing in August and the project may be referred to the Cattaraugus County Planning Board after that. Wiktor said he does not anticipate the need for an environmental review.
Wiktor told the Board vertical container farming is "power-intensive" and the location is a "unique spot" for a solar project "not readily seen from the road." He added that the solar energy would be fed into the National Grid substation about five miles east in Franklinville and the site would be the kind chosen if the Town designates a solar development zone.
Ellicottville Greens presents a "unique opportunity" and by 2023 will be farming at additional locations," Wiktor added.
"We look at this as a great location, we love the green space, and the restaurants, and the customers buying from us for many years," said Bialkowski. "We love the solar field to showcase what is possible down there, and with startups and innovations (solar energy) will kick it off further."
According to Ellicottville Greens' application, construction could start as early as September 1st, ending one year later. Occupancy will begin in December. Once underway, the Simmons Road project will add 8 full-time and 2 part-time positions, for a $87,500 payroll at an hourly rate of $15-22. Twice-weekly deliveries of fresh greens will be carried from Simmons Road in cargo vans.
In another matter, Wiktor updated the Board on his research into commercial solar projects to determine true local benefits before a six-month moratorium can be lifted. He said energy savings from the Olean-area solar arrays have been tallied at $80,000 to $100,000 (as opposed to the $90,000 to $120,000 promised before approval) for the hosts of DQ Energy, Solean and Solean West, as well as the city of Olean and St. Bonaventure hosts. One of the projects was higher, he said.
Wiktor was asked by the Board to collect figures on the total usage the plants are producing to compare the benefits. In addition, he said, West Valley Solar puts out 10 megawatts and was built by DQ Energy through NYSERDA on the former Nuclear Fuels Reprocessing Center site. He added that NYSERDA is advertising another request for proposals for a 20 megawatt facility on the property.
He said he has learned that it's difficult to realize the promised 10% savings on community based solar projects because the public is not signing up to cut energy bills by $8 a month. This results in a lower obligation by the solar purveyor. Some communities insist projects be placed on brownfields only and there are policy options to require labor and suppliers come from the local area.
Board member Ginger Schroeder commented that community solar benefits are divided differently. Tax exemptions are only realized when taxing authorities opt out, but if they don't opt out, it's tax free (to the developer). She said local officials think that if they don't opt out they are not giving up power to the county. She pressed for education of host communities because they think the PILOT will be higher and because agreements are binding even if the project isn't built for many years.
The CCIDA Board will next meet at 11:15am on Thursday, Sept. 8, 2022.