Success Stories - Buffalo Niagara Enterprise

Buffalo Niagara Success Stories

HERE are examples of local development and why Business Works in Buffalo Niagara:

Persona Dx, a spin-off from the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, developed a genetic test that it says can predict whether a tumor will be the most lethal type that spreads throughout the body. Persona DX has also developed a blood test designed to help patients decide whether to undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatment.

With the help of a $1.5M investment, they've created 250 jobs and are located in the medical research complex that houses three facilities at Ellicott and Virginia Streets.

Positive support has been received by Governer Eliot Spitzer, Mayor Byron Brown, and Dr. Donald Trump: "We in government want to be here to support innovation, creativity, pushing new frontiers ... and funding that research that will push Buffalo and Roswell into the newest and most exciting frontiers of medical research," Gov. Eliot Spitzer said.

"While making significant and lasting contributions to medical research and health care, PersonaDX typifies the economic benefit these new businesses are making to our city's evolving and exciting entrepreneurial landscape," Mayor Byron Brown said.

"The economic promise of startup companies, such as Persona DX, is extraordinary," said Dr. Donald Trump, president and chief executive of Roswell Park. "The benefits ... are clearly not limited to jobs and other forms of economic development, but also have great potential for improving the treatment of individual patients."

Buffalo Biosciences works with life science companies, research institutions, technology transfer organizations and investment firms pursuing business development opportunities, product management and sales, license negotiations, co-marketing relationships, joint ventures and much more. They provide life science companies with critical guidance, strategies, and tactics to maximize the value of their opportunities.

Buffalo Bioscience chose to establish their company in Buffalo due to the many opportunities involving life sciences, research, and technology commercialization. They have created four new jobs and have started out with over $100,000 in investment.

Rosina recently moved their pasta manufacturing operations from New Jersey to Cheektowaga. They expanded and modernized in Buffalo Niagara by acquiring adjacent property and expanding there existing headquarters. Investing over $9M, Rosina created 125 new jobs to bring their total to 225 employees.

"This is an ideal scenario for us," says Russell Corigiliano, president and CEO of Rosina. "With the growth our company has been experiencing over the past few years, we need to plan for additional capacity. The new building will achieve this for us. With the close proximity to our Rosina meatball plant, it will allow us to continue to run an efficient operation as well as provide potential new product opportunities in the future."

Citigroup has operated in Buffalo Niagara for about 30 years, and decided to expand the facility to take advantage of the work force, lower operating costs, and quality of life in the Buffalo area. They have become the sole tenant in the second largest building in Amherst's Cross Point business park. The bank occupies a 156,000-square-foot, three story building that sits next to a 109,000 square foot office building that Citigroup also occupies as a back house facility. This expansion will create over 500 new jobs in Buffalo Niagara adding to the already strong financial service back office sector in the region that is here largely because of our available, productive, people.

"Citigroup chose Buffalo because of the character of the people here," said Morris, who is also chief financial officer of the division within Citigroup's corporate and investment bank. "I love this city. I love our staff here. Back at [our headquarters], I am called Mr. Buffalo because I love the place to so much."

Invitrogen Corporation provides products and services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology company's, as well as academic and government research institutions. The companies focus includes genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics, cell culture, and cell biology, among others.

Invitrogen has expanded its current manufacturing operations within its existing facility to respond to increasing customer demand. Building renovations and new equipment were purchased to accommodate the increased capacity. Their investment was $5.2 million, providing 36 new jobs.

Cleveland BioLabs is on the cutting edge of cancer drug development, concentrating on developing new types of drugs for cancer treatment and protection of normal tissues from radiation therapies. The radiation drug has strong support from the US Military, as it could be used to protect soldiers from radiation in the unfortunate event of nuclear weapon exposure. The company has an established strategic partnership with Buffalo's Roswell Park Cancer Institute, making Buffalo a prime location for the company's relocation into the old Hauptman Woodward Institute building, with its proximity to Roswell Park as the most important attribute of the building.

Cleveland BioLabs moved 31 existing jobs here and will create 35 - 40 new FTE jobs in the next three years, making total job creation in the area 70 over three years, most of which are research-dedicated with average salaries of $75,000.

GEICO, one of America's largest insurance companies, located a regional customer service center to the Buffalo Niagara Region. The service center represents a $40 million investment in Erie County and is expected to create up to 2,500 new jobs.

GEICO's Chairman, President, & CEO, Tony Nicely cited the region's well-educated and enthusiastic workforce as one of the decisive factors in the company's decision to locate here. Efforts of Buffalo Niagara Enterprise in helping to secure financial incentives from programs such as the State's Empire Zone program, as well as capital grant from Empire State Development for project related expenses, were also important factors in GEICO's decision to locate in our area.

Delaco Steel is a steel blanking manufacturer based in Dearborn, Michigan that supplies the auto industry with steel 'blanks' that can be stamped into various exposed and unexposed vehicle parts. They located a 150,000 square-foot manufacturing facility in the Buffalo Niagara Region through an investment of $14.1 million. The new facility is bringing 100 new jobs to the area.

The two most important factors that led to Delaco's decision to locate this facility in the WNY area are: the 750 kw of power they have been allocated through the NYPA Niagara Power Project, and the Empire Zone financial benefits they will receive. The project was deemed to be 'regionally significant', meaning that the entire project receives Empire Zone benefits, despite the fact that some of the facility is not technically located within an Empire Zone.

PharmIdeas has served US pharmaceutical companies and health services research firms in managing data in outcomes research and clinical trials, and performing pharmacoeconomic and pharmacoepidemiologic analyses. Another way of describing the company: a provider of economic, data and clinical research analysis for pharmaceutical companies worldwide. Pharmieas relocated all operations of its US office from Charlotte, NC to Amherst, NY in January 2007. The project is to create 10 new highly skilled jobs over the next three to four years, and they are hoping to draw most from UB graduate students.

The company selected Buffalo Niagara over Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and New Jersey locations because of the region's growing biotech industry and extensive intellectual assets, particularly UB and the university's New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences in downtown Buffalo, according to PhamIdeas president and founder Michael Iskedjian. Also, the location's proximity to Downtown Buffalo, the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, and the Hauptman Woodward Research Center factored in their location decision. Another factor in Iskedjian's decision to relocate, he says, was the opportunity to collaborate with Uniform Data System (UDS), a company founded by Carl Granger, M.D., UB professor of rehabilitation medicine. Uniform Data System, also located in Amherst's Northpointe business park, has developed a widely used system for documenting the severity of patient disability and outcomes of health-care interventions. "Together with Uniform Data System, I think we can develop a unique approach to measuring patients' health and quality of life," Iskedjian says.

Empire Liquidators started in March of 2004 with three employees. After the first six months the business was starting to shape up nicely and hired about 15 people from the local area. By year's end Empire Liquidators grew to take over the entire building they originally leased and were up to 30-employees strong and needed to make a move of some kind.

"After contacting Buffalo Niagara Enterprise in search of assistance, BNE Business Development Representative Mike Licata very quickly had us meeting with landlords in and around downtown Buffalo. He was instrumental in helping us get over some of the red tape issues that would have bogged us down had we not been familiar with the processes. We have since moved our operation to a much larger and more streamlined facility downtown in an "Empire Zone."
- Chris Romanowski, Operations Manager, Empire Liquidators

This new site allows the company to continue growing its operations.

Invensys - APVA, a British conglomerate, sent a Senior Vice President to Buffalo Niargara to evaluate North American operations with a view toward re-aligning operations of eight company locations. Invensys APV is an advanced manufacturer of large food and pharmaceutical processing equipment. BNE assisted in the strategic analysis by providing comparative cost data of these North American company locations, including Chicago and Montreal. The company combined the BNE analysis with their own internal study and concluded that a location at Crosspoint business park in Amherst NY was the place to be for the company's North American "Centre of Excellence." This Centre is the company's engineering and design headquarters to work with customers from all over North America.

BNE furthered the decision making process by providing a site/developer review and detailed explanation of public sector incentive programs. BNE actively participated in implementing APVA's decision to close the Chicago and Montreal facilities by being present with company officials as they announced to employees that would be provided with transfer options to Buffalo NY.

BNE also coordinated a range of public sector assistance including a grant of $200,000 from the Empire State Development corporation and tax benefits valued at over $800,000 from the Amherst Industrial Development Agency. The provision of BNE services resulted in a $10 million state of art engineering and design facility that will be home to over 100 design engineers and technicians.