Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon said Wednesday he’s confident he’ll have some good news soon about bringing a chip manufacturer to central New York.
The statement comes amid reports Micron Technology is seeking tax breaks in Texas, when state and local officials hoped the company would see White Pine Commerce Park in Clay as the front runner.
McMahon said there are a lot of reasons a chip manufacturer should be interested in Onondaga County.
"There's all these factors, workforce, the ability to recruit, the ability for the site to actually deliver the infrastructure,” said McMahon. “We can do that on day one at our site, where other green fields, they've got to build all that."
McMahon said the county is speaking with three companies about bringing a chip plant to Clay. While he said he can’t go into details about the negotiations, he said central New York is considered a finalist.
McMahon said the federal CHIPS Act and New York state’s Green Chips legislation are helping Onondaga County compete with international competitors like China and states likes Arizona and Texas.
McMahon said success would likely mean more than a billion dollar investment headed to central New York.
"First, you're going to be talking about construction jobs, where people are building the facility. Then you're going to be talking about jobs with people making a product,” said McMahon. “Some of these are going to be technician jobs. Some of these will be engineering jobs. Some will be R&D jobs of a magnitude we've never seen."
McMahon said the county is working closely with state and federal partners to help it finalize a deal, and a team has been working on this for almost two years.
