Clay, N.Y. – Onondaga County leaders have spent decades trying to lure a major employer to a few hundred woodland acres of land north of Syracuse.
The ideas have ranged from a vehicle factory to an indoor farm to a pharmaceutical plant. (One idea from the 1980s? Make it a landfill.)
Over the decades, nothing happened.
Along the way, Onondaga County Executive Nicholas Pirro proposed setting aside the land in 1999 for a computer chip maker.
That effort to bring a major semiconductor maker to Clay would span the elections of three different county executives. It began before 9/11 and culminated as the world is still reeling from the coronavirus pandemic.
For most of the time, much of the land sat empty, unconnected to sewer systems.
In the end, Micron, the world’s fourth-largest semiconductor maker, picked the site. It’s promising to create as many as 9,000 jobs and invest $100 billion into the area, a massive effort to create the tiny computer chips that help power smart phones, cars and most modern electronic appliances.
Here’s are key steps along the way:
1999
The Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency begins buying vacant land at the northeast corner of Route 31 and Caughdenoy Road in Clay to create a large business park.
The hope? Lure a high-tech, computer chip maker to the 335-acre site, then called Clay Business Park. At the time, county officials said a semiconductor maker would bring hundreds of high-paying jobs to the area.
November 2006
Then-County Executive Nicholas Pirro says a biotech company, promising 250 “good jobs” was looking at the Clay Business Park as a possibility. (It never happened.)
Earlier this year, Bristol-Myers Squibb Inc. considers the site for a $660 million large-scale biologics manufacturing facility that would have employed 550 people. The company decides to build the plant at a former Army base in Devens, Mass., in part because of worries about Central New York’s workforce.
November 2011
The newly created Central New York Regional Economic Development Council puts the Clay Business Park on its priority list. It asks the state for $2 million to grow the site.
September 2012
The county Industrial Development Agency votes to rename the business park White Pine in hopes that potential tenants will find it more appealing.
The name has a place in local Native American history. The Haudenosaunee Confederacy, which includes the Onondaga Nation, recognizes the white pine as a symbol of unity.
It was later named White Pine Commerce Park.
September 2015
Then-County Executive Joanie Mahoney floats the Clay park as the future home of a proposed 100-acre indoor farm.
CEA Capital Holdings LLC, a startup company based in Akron, Ohio, proposes building the farm in phases — 20 acres a year over five years — at White Pine. Mahoney says over five years, it could employ up to 1,200 people.
But two years later, CEA started looking at property in Cicero, saying the land in Clay was no longer available.
May 2019
OCIDA spends another $900,000 to buy another 106 acres for White Pine.
With the $900,000 purchase, the agency will have spent a total of $3.2 million acquiring land there.
March 2020
Covid-19 is confirmed in Onondaga County for the first time. As the crisis upends individual lives, health care systems and schools, it also interrupts computer chip making in China and elsewhere. Only about 12% of chips are made in the U.S.
All that contributes to supply chain bottlenecks, making it harder to buy new cars, cell phones, upgraded kitchen appliances and other electronic devices. County, state and national leaders renew calls for more money to build more chip fabs – or foundries – at home.
May 2020
When talking with residents who live in the White Pine area, County Executive Ryan McMahon lets slip that Clay was a finalist in TSMC’s search for a new chip fab.
“We’re on the map,” McMahon said.
That company, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., also known as TSMC, is one of the world’s top semiconductor manufacturers. It announced in May 2020 that it had chosen a site in Arizona for a $12 billion chip plant that will employ more than 1,600 people and begin production in 2024.
September 2020
County lawmakers authorize spending $1.6 million to upgrade the sewage system at the empty White Pine Commerce Park, now 450 acres.
On the same day, lawmakers passes a separate resolution authorizing McMahon to lay off as many as 250 county workers to balance a budget ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic.
“If somebody could tell me today that we have a company who is interested in developing this, I would vote for it in a minute,’’ said Legislator Peggy Chase, one of five lawmakers to vote against the spending. “When we’re looking at laying people off and we’re willing to take $1.6 million out of our fund balance, I’m not buying that.’’
But McMahon said the White Pine project will be paid for out of the county sewer fund, which gets money from sewer fees.
By this point, the county has spent $5.3 million acquiring land for the site.
January 2021
The county now controls nearly 1,000 acres at White Pine along Route 31 from Caughdenoy Road all the way to the Cicero town line. In the middle of the planned park is Burnet Road, which contains 37 homes.
Plans include expanding the park to 1,253 acres — an area three times the size of the New York State Fairgrounds. And the county starts trying to buy those homes, causing some neighbors to push back.
July 2021
McMahon proposes to use $20 million of the county’s $89 million federal stimulus money to create a loan fund that OCIDA could use to augment White Pine and other business sites. The legislature approves it. Over the ensuing year, OCIDA uses all $20 million – plus $5 million in other funds – to buy up property at White Pine.
August 2021
OCIDA, the county’s industrial development agency, takes its first step toward using eminent domain, if needed, to keep buying up acreage in White Pine.
June 2022
New York lawmakers pass a $10 billion incentive package meant to lure computer chip makers to the state.
New York’s Excelsior jobs tax credits would be available for up to 20 years to any “green” semiconductor chip plant that meets the requirements for the incentives.
The White Pine Commerce Park in Clay – now at 1,250 acres – would be the largest of any site in the state competing for the incentives, says Assemblyman Al Stirpe, D-Cicero.
July 2022
McMahon says two computer chip giants are considering Onondaga County as a finalist in their search for sites to build new semiconductor manufacturing plants in the United States.
“It’s high stakes right now,” McMahon told syracuse.com | The Post-Standard. “We’ve put ourselves in a position to capture a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for New York state and the United States.”
August 2022
President Joe Biden signs a $280 billion bipartisan bill to boost domestic high-tech manufacturing, part of his administration’s push to boost U.S. competitiveness over China.
The legislation sets aside $52 billion specifically to bolster the U.S. computer chip sector.
Among those on stage for the bill signing are U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who pushed the bill through the Senate, and Rep. John Katko, R-Camillus, one of 24 House Republicans who voted with Democrats to pass the measure.
After the ceremony, Biden and Katko talk one-on-one in the Rose Garden. Katko tells the president about the importance of bringing a chip plant to Central New York, a spokesperson said.
August 2022
Micron files paperwork with Texas to get in line for a slew of tax breaks in exchange for building a chip fab.
But Micron says there’s no final decision on Texas. In a statement to syracuse.com | The Post-Standard, Micron says it has not decided where to build the chip plant. The company indicates it filed the application for tax incentives to preserve its options under a Texas program that is due to expire at the end of the year.
September 2022
Micron says it’ll spend $15 billion to expand its hometown chip fab site in Boise, Idaho. The announcement comes just days after Schumer says a full-court press was on to bring Micron to Clay.
Sources continues to say that Micron was still a possibility for Clay.
Without naming names, McMahon holds a news conference to say that Clay was still a contender with three companies.
Meanwhile, Micron says another decision is coming soon.
The White Pine site is now 1,300 acres.