City of Rochester
News Release
(Thursday, Oct. 13, 2016) – Mayor Lovely A. Warren announced today that the New York Finger Lakes Region, led by the City of Rochester, has received its second designation as a “Manufacturing Community” by the U.S. Department of Commerce under the Investing in Manufacturing Communities Partnership (IMCP). The region was first awarded the designation in 2014, which is designed to assist communities hard-hit by recession, loss of manufacturing corporations or other economic challenges.
“Obtaining this designation for a second time will bring to our area welcome, additional federal funding and the jobs that go along with them,” said Mayor Warren. “The initial IMCP designation is expected to bring in nearly $40 million in economic development investment. The IMCP program greatly increases our ability to provide more jobs, safer, more vibrant neighborhoods and better educational opportunities for Rochester’s residents.”
To date, the IMCP has awarded more than $8.8 million in grants to the City, Rochester Works, the Eastman Business Park and High Technology Rochester. That money is anticipated to leverage an additional $31.8 million in private and other program funding that will be used for environmental cleanup projects; workforce development programs; housing; institutional and commercial real estate re-use; business/product assistance; and the construction of High Tech Rochester’s Business Accelerator, which will aid in the startup and growth of software, clean energy, biotechnology and online commerce businesses.
The IMCP program funding is provided by such agencies as the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Labor and the Economic Development Administration. All designated communities will be made aware of grant opportunities as they are made available.
For the Rochester region, it is anticipated that funding would apply to the following program goals: 1) enhancing the region’s nationally recognized workforce development and training programs; 2) expanding investments in the region’s world-renowned research and innovation programs to foster the creation and growth of early stage companies and promote greater academic and industry partnerships; 3) identifying and leveraging new sources of capital to spur the development of new manufacturers and the expansion of existing manufacturers; 4) revitalizing Eastman Business Park and developing other shovel-ready sites for new and expanding manufacturing businesses; and 5) reinventing the region’s supply chain networks to attract new end users for our locally manufactured components, and strengthen links among the region’s strong clusters in precision manufacturing, optics and photonics.
“We will continue our efforts to attract even more capital investment to our region,” said Mayor Warren. “The IMCP re-designation in invaluable to our workforce development efforts to train and connect our region’s unemployed with well-paying jobs in the manufacturing community. I want to thank our many partners at the local, state and federal levels for their continued collaboration with us as we make Rochester an even better place to live, work and raise a family.”
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News Media: For more information, contact Deputy Communications Director Donald Starver at 428-7135.