New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Sept. 17 that the headquarters and the workspace development facilities of the Integrated Photonics Institute for Manufacturing Innovation will be divided between Legacy Tower (formerly Bausch & Lomb Place) and the Sibley Building, both located in the heart of downtown Rochester.
In his announcement, Cuomo noted that all three parts of this national project will take place in Rochester. The Legacy Tower will be the administrative headquarters and also include a Technology Accelerator, while the Sibley Building will house the workforce development and incubation of new businesses. Eastman Business Park, on the other hand, will be where the project’s manufacturing occurs.
The decision, made last Thursday, is a pivotal step towards the next phase of the project, as it resolved earlier conflicts amongst advocates, regarding the exact locations of the headquarters.
“The Finger Lakes Regional Economic Development [Council] unanimously supported locating the various headquarters activities in Downtown Rochester and viewed the Sibley Building, which has received $23 million of state support in response to earlier Finger Lakes Regional Economic Development recommendations, as a desirable location for all headquarters activities,” University President and co-chair of the Council Joel Seligman said in an email.
Other advocates for the photonics project, led by SUNY Polytechnic, favored the Legacy Tower.
In a guest essay published in the Democrat and Chronicle, Seligman called the arrangement a compromise and expressed his gratitude towards Cuomo for paving a smooth path forward for the photonics industry in Rochester. According to a separate report from Time Warner Cable News, Seligman said that he is now determined to move forward from the public debate, and that those involved with the project are looking forward to “bringing as much manufacturing in the photonics space as possible to Rochester.”
This initiative marks potential expansions in both the national photonics industry and the local economy of Upstate New York.
“Since 1929, when the University of Rochester created the Institute of Optics, Rochester has been the leading academic center of optics in this nation. Over half the optics degrees in the United States came from Rochester. Eastman Kodak and Bausch and Lomb were the most significant optics corporations in our country,” Seligman said. He added that “today in the nine counties of the Finger Lakes there are over 26,000 optics, photonics and imaging jobs and over 100 firms. I anticipate that both the number of jobs and the number of firms will grow thanks to the substantial support the Department of Defense and New York state will provide to our region.”
The Institute will also be a boon for UR students, especially those in the Optical Engineering major, as there will potentially be new courses offered in photonics and many opportunities for careers in the region.
The New York state press release also announced the creation of a seven-person governance board to oversee the program under Cuomo’s supervision. Seligman revealed that he has already requested Robert Clark, Senior Vice President for Research and Dean of the Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, to be appointed to the board, representing UR along with other government officials and representatives from SUNY Polytechnic and RIT.
Many other details of the project are yet to be determined, such as the timeline for construction or the spending decisions regarding the $600 million public and private investment. Further announcements are expected over the next few months.
Wang is a member of the class of 2017.
