It was January 2012 when Democratic U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer stood in front of an empty building at the old General Electric site in Liverpool and said California-based chip maker APIC Corp. landing a Navy contract and then opening up a fabricator in the building was “all but a done deal."
But this week the senator admitted the contract was dead.
"Lots of things conspired against it, including some locally in terms of who wanted to come, who would put in what money, etcetera," Schumer said Wednesday during a stop in central New York. "But I still have hope that we can try to get something done."
The senator says APIC also had some internal trouble. The company had said it would employ 200 people at the site making low-energy using chips for Navy fighter jets.
The old G.E. site is now called Electronics Park. It’s largely filled by defense contractor Lockheed Martin. The building in question is the last unoccupied part of the park.
It’s owned by pro-business group CenterState CEO and in need of serious upgrades in order to be a high-tech chip fabricator.