By Conor Eckert, VP of Business Attraction - Orange County Partnership
National, state, and local market dynamics have positioned Orange County to compete for significant industrial projects. We at the Orange County Partnership have identified a handful of emerging sectors that our market can accommodate – sectors that align with our strategic approach toward creating good jobs and fostering next-generation economic development opportunities. The Semiconductor supply chain, Life Sciences, Advanced Manufacturing, and Clean Technology/Offshore Wind supply chain are all priority sectors.
Offshore wind has been a hot topic across New York State and the East Coast broadly. Significant wind projects have been announced and funded from Rhode Island to North Carolina. As this sector grows and projects continue to advance in the Atlantic Ocean and NY Bite, there have been supply chain manufacturing opportunities for communities with access to the Hudson River. The offshore wind supply chain is dynamic and robust – consisting of the production of cables, blades, nacelles, and steel components used to produce finished windmills. These projects are often in excess of $100 million in capital investment, creating hundreds of good-paying advanced manufacturing jobs – the type of jobs we want to create in Orange County.
Offshore wind has been a hot topic across New York State and the East Coast broadly. Significant wind projects have been announced and funded from Rhode Island to North Carolina. As this sector grows and projects continue to advance in the Atlantic Ocean and NY Bite, there have been supply chain manufacturing opportunities for communities with access to the Hudson River. The offshore wind supply chain is dynamic and robust – consisting of the production of cables, blades, nacelles, and steel components used to produce finished windmills. These projects are often in excess of $100 million in capital investment, creating hundreds of good-paying advanced manufacturing jobs – the type of jobs we want to create in Orange County.
At the Orange County Partnership, we’ve identified multiple industrial sites along the Hudson River that can accommodate offshore wind supply chain manufacturing – sites that have the public infrastructure, rail, proximity to highway assets, and importantly – barge access via the Hudson River. Over the past year, we’ve worked on opportunities with some of the largest offshore wind manufacturing companies in the world – it has become abundantly clear that Orange County can play a key role in this emerging sector, leveraging our position between the Ports of Albany and Coeymans upstate, and the NY Bite leading to the Atlantic Ocean downstate.
Toward the end of April, I will be attending the International Partnering Forum in New Orleans, the premier offshore wind supply chain conference in the Americas, with colleagues from Empire State Development and NYSERDA. At this conference, we will meet with a handful of the largest supply chain manufacturers in the world in an effort to attract projects to New York State and Orange County. Reshoring, industrial market growth, and site readiness provide us with much-needed momentum as we work to execute our site selection strategies. This is the perfect time to be aggressive, dynamic, and collaborative in our efforts to grow the advanced manufacturing sector.
