Investigative Post

The bill is coming due for putting an industrial park in the hinterlands of Genesee County and the cost to taxpayers is considerable. The Science and Technology Advanced Manufacturing Park, being built on 1,250 acres in the rural Town of Alabama, flunked the state’s smart growth test when first proposed.  The project’s location rated so […]

Economic development officials in Genesee County on Thursday approved a huge tax break for a company that plans on building a hydrogen power plant.  Plug Power would pay reduced property and sales taxes over 20 years that would save the company $118 million. The plant, located in what is now a vacant industrial park in […]

Investigative Post reported last week that the subsidy package offered Plug Power to build a plant in Genesee County amounts to $4 million a job. That story follows previous reporting by Mark Scheer, found here and here, on efforts to recruit companies to locate to the Science, Technology and Advanced Manufacturing Park in the Town […]

At a cost of $4 million per job, the subsidy deal designed to bring the first tenant to a vacant industrial park in rural Genesee County would be the richest in Western New York history.  Plug Power is in line for an estimated $269.5 million in tax breaks and power discounts in exchange for building […]

Mark Scheer reported last week on the pandemic’s impact on downtown Buffalo. One-third of the workforce is working remotely, which has starved restaurants, bars and other retailers for business. Experts say downtowns, here and elsewhere, are likely to be less office-centric once the pandemic eases. Mark spoke Monday with Susan Rose and Brian Mazurowski on NewsRadio […]

Empty offices. Empty restaurants. Empty parking ramps. Empty downtown. “I’ve never seen downtown Buffalo so empty in all the years I’ve been here,” said Mike Schmand, executive director of Buffalo Place, who has worked for the organization since 1982.  The numbers are bleak.  Schmand estimates one-third of the downtown workforce is working remotely. Metro Rail […]

Mark Scheer reported this week that Samsung is unlikely to build a plant in Western New York and the proposed location is a remote industrial park in Genesee County that lacks basic infrastructure. Mark spoke Friday with Susan Rose on NewsRadio 930WBEN.  

Economic development officials in Genesee County have spent more than $26 million on a massive industrial park in an “if you build it, they will come” gambit. So far, no one has come. The Genesee County Center for Economic Development not only doesn’t have any business deals to show for its decade of work, the […]