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Grant Aims to Revamp Bethlehem Steel Site

National Grid gives $300,000 to ECIDA

By David Robinson

December 20, 2011
 
The long-discussed project to relocate a railroad line that would open hundreds of acres in the former Bethlehem Steel complex in Lackawanna for redevelopment could get started next spring.

The Erie County Industrial Development Agency on Monday accepted a $300,000 grant from National Grid that will further fund the $4.7 million project to move about two miles of railroad lines that run along the front portion of the Bethlehem Steel site.

The project, which has received $4.4 million in state grant funding, will move the rail lines to the middle and back portions of the property, clearing the land along Route 5 for future development of the brownfield site as a 400-acre business park.

“We really need to take the rail infrastructure off the front of the property,” said John Cappellino, the IDA’s executive vice president. “It’s better to have the rail in the back or the middle.”

Moving the rail lines has been in the works since 2007, but Cappellino said actual work on the project is expected to begin in the spring and could be completed in a single construction season.

A portion of the brownfield site already has been cleaned up, with work on another portion expected to be wrapped up within the next year, Cappellino said.

With upwards of 1,000 acres available across the entire Bethlehem site, Cappellino said the property, once it is cleaned up and the infrastructure work is completed, eventually could be attractive to a business that needs large amounts of land that could be developed quickly.

The project also will move railroad tracks closer to the long slip that now serves as the Port of Buffalo, which could make the site attractive to logis-

tics firms, Cappellino said.

The site is owned by Tecumseh Development, a subsidiary of ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steelmaker, which previously ran the now-closed galvanizing mill. The plant closed in 2009 after the company curtailed its steel production.

“This project is just a classic example of a regional priority and focus,” said Dennis Elsenbeck, National Grid’s regional director and an IDA board member.

In other action, the IDA granted $162,000 in sales tax breaks to Calspan Corp. to aid the Cheektowaga aerospace and transportation research company’s $2 million project to upgrade the heating, plumbing and other infrastructure at its sprawling Genesee Street complex.

Calspan, which has 205 employees at the 500,000-square-foot facility, said it expects to create 10 new jobs over the next two years.

Bryant & Stratton College is expected to receive $578,000 in tax breaks for its previously approved $3.2 million project to build a 20,000-square-foot facility on its Orchard Park campus that will serve as a back-office call center for its online education division.

The cost of the project has increased by roughly $600,000 since the IDA board first approved the tax breaks in June. The estimated value of the tax incentives also increased by $50,000.

The project is expected to create 50 full-time and 15 part-time jobs. The company currently has 75 full-time and five part-time jobs.

The agency also approved an increase in the value of a project it first backed in 2007 for an expansion at Polymer Conversions in Orchard Park.

The company originally planned a $3.7 million expansion that would add warehouse and manufacturing space, but the recession caused Polymer conversions to delay the factory expansion, said Karen Fiala, the IDA’s assistant treasurer.

The project is now back on track, although the total cost of the work now is expected to reach $7.2 million. The value of the tax breaks Polymer Conversions will receive through the IDA — $427,000 — has not changed.

drobinson@buffnews.com