VIATRAN BREAKS GROUND ON NIAGARA HEADQUARTERS
VIATRAN BREAKS GROUND ON NIAGARA HEADQUARTERS
COMPANY TAKES ADVANTAGE OF POSITIVE NIAGARA BUSINESS CLIMATE
WHEATFIELD—A company whose products are critical to oil rigs and automobile production will shift its operations from Grand Island to Niagara County after Niagara County’s economic development leaders showed it the benefits of a move to the north.
With an allocation of 150 kilowatts of electrical power from the County Legislature’s Empower Niagara program, and a PILOT, or payment-in-lieu-of-taxes, plan from the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency, Viatran—a half-century-old company that makes pressure sensors and gauges used in applications as diverse as oil fields and offshore oil rigs, automobile construction, and the pharmaceutical industry—will transfer its operations from Erie County to a new home in Calamar’s Woodlands Corporate Center on Shawnee Road in Wheatfield.
Viatran had previously considered leaving Western New York altogether, but Niagara County’s program had persuaded them to stay.
Viatran formally “broke ground” on its already-under-construction 18,000-square-foot facility Friday, with an assortment of state and local leaders, including Legislature Chairman William L. Ross, C-Wheatfield, Legislature Economic Development Committee Chairman Rick Updegrove, R-Lockport, and Commissioner of Economic Development Sam Ferraro, in attendance.
“This was really economic development that Niagara County does need,” Ross said. “With Viatran—a very responsible and respected company making their home here in Niagara County in this complex off Shawnee Road, it’s a situation where Niagara County will benefit.”
Ross rattled off the benefits to the county, noting that Viatran is moving 50 jobs as soon as the facility is complete, and plans to create an additional 25 jobs in the next three years. Ross also noted that Viatran’s move could serve as positive advertising for Niagara County’s pro-business, pro-growth climate.
“What it does more than anything, a very respected company like Viatran locating here in Niagara County, it really is an invitation for other companies to look to Niagara County to establish their businesses,” Ross said.
Ross and county leaders were joined at the groundbreaking by Sen. George D. Maziarz, R-Newfane, who has been an ardent support of the Legislature’s Empower Niagara program.
“This is a great announcement here today,” Maziarz said. “Viatran is a company that was considering leaving Western New York. They were headquartered on Grand Island. Instead, they’re going to stay here, and they’re going to move to Niagara County.”
“What really put them over the finish line was an allocation from the county’s low-cost power that they got from the New York Power Authority,” Maziarz said. “It’s just indicative of the fact that if we hold the Power Authority more accountable and we make the Power Authority do more for Niagara, we can keep jobs here in Niagara.”
Viatran officials echoed Maziarz’s assessment.
Neil Riordan, Viatran’s vice president of sales and marketing, praised county and state officials for helping make Viatran’s move possible.
“The reason we’re here is because we feel that Niagara County is an area that deserves investment,” Riordan said. “Without the Niagara County Legislature and the work of Bill Ross and team, and of Sen. Maziarz in terms of grabbing the last allocation of power, and a tremendous job by the Niagara County IDA—that’s what pulled this great transition off.”
Riordan vowed Viatran would earn its benefits as he walked through the skeletal structure that will soon be the company’s offices and production areas.
“We have a lot of people to thank,” he said. “And we’ll show them a major high-tech success company in Western New York, and hopefully set an example for all future companies that come here.”
Calamar President and CEO Kenneth M. Franasiak, who has built the mixed-use commercial park and senior housing villages that constitute The Woodlands, and will now house Viatran’s facilities, echoed Riordan’s praise for county leaders.
“Where you have an economy in a downward spiral, to have international companies like Viatran and Yahoo! choosing Niagara County over anywhere else in the world is significant,” he said. “I think without the assistance of the Niagara County Legislature and the IDA, and most importantly the power-for-jobs program, those types of investments wouldn’t be possible.”
