Worksport
Industry: Advanced Manufacturing
Jobs: 28
Investment: $15 Million
Project Overview:
Worksport is a Canadian headquartered, publicly traded company that manufactures tonneau covers for trucks. The company was manufacturing their products overseas but was looking for a site in North America to onshore production. Worksport had a list of requirements they were searching for throughout the process including a suitable building preferably near their Canadian headquarters, access to cross border expertise, and government incentives to make the project possible.
Project Solution:
The company and Invest Buffalo Niagara were connected in January of 2022. Worksport had already been working with a local realtor and briefly with Erie County Industrial Development Agency (ECIDA), who introduced Invest Buffalo Niagara to manage the project. Invest Buffalo Niagara’s primary objectives were to provide education on cross border topics like accounting, immigration, human resources, staffing, and incentives coordination. Invest Buffalo Niagara also fulfilled other requests as needed, including introductions to general contractors on the potential buildout of a new location. Our organization set up a half day of virtual meetings for the Worksport team to participate in a variety of topics that would help their expansion further. Following those meetings, Invest Buffalo Niagara ensured Worksport’s incentive program applications were completed on time and that each agency had the needed information to proceed. Worksport was ultimately approved for ECIDA mortgage recording and sales tax abatement, Empire State Development’s Excelsior Jobs Tax Credit, and a New York Power Authority low-cost hydropower allocation. The company closed on its building at 2500 North America Drive in West Seneca in early May 2022. Worksport now plans to create 28 jobs in the next three years in Buffalo Niagara.