Governor Hochul: “We're going to continue investing and we have the facilities here. We're going to expand them, continue to lean into that as one of our great strengths, delivering the smartest, most talented people who are ready for the jobs of today, that we're going to continue working on...and today I'm just so proud of you back home to say over 800 brand new jobs coming here to Western New York.”
Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul made an economic development and jobs announcement at Seneca One Tower in Buffalo. Governor Hochul announced that AML RightSource, the world's largest technology-enabled financial crime fighting firm, is expanding in Buffalo and will add an additional 363 employees to support the addition of new services and clients, resulting in a total Buffalo workforce of approximately 540 employees. Governor Hochul also announced the significant expansion of Moog Inc. in Western New York, creating up to 500 new jobs in the local aerospace industry with the addition of new high-tech manufacturing equipment.
VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
AUDIO of the event is available here.
PHOTOS of the event will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
Thank you very much. Thank you everyone. It is spectacular to be here on this sunny day. We're showcasing how magnificent Buffalo is in March, to all of our out-of-town basketball fans. We have had a few upsets, so there's a lot of attention on this city and I'm just so excited to be here. Also, celebrating the month of St. Patrick. We had a lovely parade in Manhattan yesterday, but I'm really fired up to be in the Buffalo parade, which I've been in for a long time.
So, wonderful things are happening in this region, in our state, but particularly in this building. And I want to thank the people who've been at the forefront of realizing the vision that this could be a place that comes back to life again. After seeing it so desperately vacant for literally decades, you know, kind of a haunting image of our glory days of the past. Been wondering if it would ever be brought back to new life and yes, my friends, it certainly has.
So, I want to acknowledge someone who's been at the forefront as I mentioned, who's been a great partner in government. Our Mayor, Byron Brown, who's been there for every single major announcement. Also, we have, delayed on a plane from Washington, is Congressman Brian Higgins, who certainly would've been here, and for him to miss the Irish luncheon, you know he really is delayed because there's no way he would've missed the Irish luncheon in South Buffalo we just came from.
Also, we have our state representatives, Senator Tim Kennedy is here. And what a leader he is. He is also the Chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee. So that is significant, he's been involved in all the significant infrastructure projects, delivering money right to this district and all throughout the state. So Senator Tim Kennedy.
Sean Ryan is here also, our Senator who represents part of the city that's really making a major comeback here. And you have great vision for the city by the waterfront, we look forward to continue to work with you on those initiatives. Also, Joel Feroleto, is here. I'm sorry, Jonathan Rivera is here. Joel Feroleto is here as well, but I’ve got to go in the order of seniority here. Jonathan Rivera, our member of the Assembly. Thank you, Jonathan. You've been a real advocate for the people of your community, especially during these difficult times, a real fighter to make sure we bring jobs and opportunity to your neighborhoods as well. So Jonathan Rivera.
And I do see that we have - is Joel Feroleto here? Yes, Joel's right there. I'm looking right at you. Joel's our Council Member. And Leroy Kupczyk, our Council Member from Elma, as well as our Wayne Clark, supervisor from Elma. So you're wondering why I'm announcing you from Elma while we're in Buffalo, well, this is a dual announcement, so you'll find out what this is all about in a matter of minutes, but I want to thank our elected partners.
Also the leaders of two great organizations. Two individuals who represent companies. First of all, I'm going to introduce Frank Ewing, you'll be hearing from him. He's the CEO of AML RightSource. I know a little bit about this company. I was here three years ago when they had this vision to move into this building long before this was the coolest place to work in Buffalo. And what they brought to this area was not just a sense of life and excitement and energy, but also bringing people from out of town to jobs right here. And that was an important catalyst for our redevelopment that we're experiencing right now. So we'll be hearing from him in a couple minutes.
And Heather Chudzik, who's the director of Tax at Moog. Moog is one of those legacy companies that we're so proud to have here in Western New York. And we're talking about a wonderful announcement for them as well. So, yes, does anybody remember what this building was like? I mean, this is just extraordinary. And if you hear it from Frank, he worked here at HSBC a long time ago, back in the eighties. He was talking about dressing like the boy band. We won't go there. But to see him work here as a young person out of college, and to come back as an industry leader, someone who has a great vision for creating jobs here, it's great to welcome you back.
And this building, it's comeback telegraphs a larger story - the story of our city.
I come from a family of poor Irish immigrants, grandparents. They found the American dream right down the road at the Bethlehem Steel Plant, like many of our parents and grandparents did. We built things, we made things, we had such incredible opportunities and a sense of unlimited possibilities here in Buffalo. And all of a sudden it felt like it came to a crashing end. Foreign competition, the big industries, left. When I was growing up, the last one here turned out the lights. That was an indictment at a time when we felt there was no hope for the future of Buffalo and Western York, and I'm so proud to have lived long enough to see that that era is not only over, it is vanquished from our memory.
All we know now is that this is a city that's on fire. It's because of jobs and leaders like Frank and the people at Moog who believe in this area who never gave up on us during our darkest times, that we now have what I'm declaring is to be the Renaissance of Western York. So, let's talk about what we're going to do here today, which is again, announcing more jobs.
AML RightSource will be expanding here. They're going to have over 363 new jobs. We're just getting started, Frank is looking for workers. The total project cost is 4.3 million. Empire State Development is doing our part. I wanted to thank RJ Ball for his involvement in making this happen, providing up to 7.4 million in Excelsior jobs tax program. That's in return for creating the jobs. Just so you know the deal, you create the jobs, then you get the money, okay? So, we're watching that. That's how it works.
You already have 175 Buffalo based employees, so you're hiring local people. 110 went to college in the region and what they're doing is so important, but also attracting the smartest people from around the country.
I also want to say, what you are doing at this time is also critically important. Same with Moog. When you think about what's happening with Putin and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we're thinking even more so about our national security, building up our defense systems, but also our cyber security, protecting our critical infrastructure, our water lines, our power lines. I just stood up, our state's first ever JSOC, our joint security operation center in New York City, bringing people from local governments to the table so we can be monitoring threats that we know are now coming as a result of our sanctions against Russia. I was proud to put those sanctions in place. I would do it again every day, but I also know that that creates a point of vulnerability for us as a state, which has been subjected to attacks both physical and cyber attacks for a long time.
So, I want to thank Frank for what you're doing here. This is the world's largest technology enabled financial crime fighting firm that ensures their clients are protected from financial crime threats, because those are our institutions. New York State, New York City, that's the epicenter of the financial world and you're out here protecting that. I want to thank you for the work you're doing on behalf of our state as well. So, Frank, this is great.
You keep expanding, but also Moog is expanding and we're announcing that they're going to have as a result of $25 million of investment in high tech manufacturing equipment, and ESD is providing $15 million in Excelsior tax credits. That's going to create over 500 new jobs. That's extraordinary. We already have 3,500 employees at MOOG. And just completed last year, 95,000 square foot aerospace manufacturing to support the growing aircraft group on your campus, right in Elma. So that's why we have Elma represented here as well as the City of Buffalo. $44 million, 4 million of Excelsior tax credit, and that created 100 new jobs as well.
Also creating in Niagara County, a new manufacturing and test facility for space propulsion in Wheatfield. So you cover the whole area, and that's a $20 million project, which created a hundred new jobs as well. And why is this work so important? I'm telling you, we're really putting a laser focus on all of our defense systems. And I went out to visit Moog many times when I was a member of Congress on the Armed Services Committee, because I knew the work that was being done right here, made with Western New Yorkers’ hands, is critical to defending our national security across the globe. So we're going to continue working on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Jet, as well as the Osprey flight simulators, as well as many other NASA related programs as well.
So, so Moog, you don't hear about it a lot. But it is a huge source of pride for every one of us here in Western New York. And we're delighted and honored that you're continuing to invest in this very community. So let's thank people at Moog again.
And lastly, in addition to over 800 new jobs just announced here today in Western York, we also announced that we are going to do everything we can to create the opportunities for more businesses to come here. Shovel-ready is the word we hear the most. I'll be on phone calls later again this afternoon, recruiting more businesses to come here. They love our low cost power. They love the fact that we have such a highly educated workforce, something I lean into all the time when I'm pitching New York State. But also, to have shovel-ready sites that are already prepared, they're ready to go, the infrastructure's there above ground, below ground. The zoning is in place. The critical decisions are already in place, to make it easier when they're evaluating our sites versus sites all over the country.
And this is real, my friends, it's a competitive world out there, because a lot of these businesses can go anywhere. And for us to lure them here, we have to offer them shovel-ready sites. So we have announced already our fast shovel-ready program, it's called FAST, that's Focused Attraction of Shovel-ready Tracks. People are so collaborative to come up with these things, aren't they? That's really smart, but we're jump-starting our initiatives, but we're now we're putting money behind 200 million behind doing that as well. Lastly, I mentioned our workforce. We have to continue focusing on our workforce development. A huge part of our budget going forward will be announcing more on our budget in a matter of weeks. But if we don't start listening to employers, finding out what skills they're looking for at AML RightSource or at Moog and all these other businesses, then we're not going to in this game.
We have to deliver them people who are ready. Not just shovel-ready sites, but work-ready people. And that's it, we're going to continue investing and we have the facilities here. We're going to expand them, continue to lean into that as one of our great strengths, delivering the smartest, most talented people who are ready for the jobs of today, that we're going to continue working on. So I'm going to continue investing in Empire State Development. That has been a catalyst for so much major development here for many, many years, we’re going get it right. And today I'm just so proud of you back home to say over 800 brand new jobs coming here to Western New York. And you heard it here first. So congratulations.