By DAN HEATH
PLATTSBURGH — The company that wants to build a transit-bus assembly plant in the Banker Road Industrial Park would like to be operational early next year.
Speaking at a Plattsburgh Town Council public hearing about rezoning property for that use, The Development Corporation President Adoré Flynn Kurtz said the company wants to utilize the assembly plant by Jan. 5, 2009.
CONSTRUCTION PLANS
The company is believed to be Nova Bus, a subsidiary of Volvo Bus Corp.
The Nova Bus Web site calls the company one of the largest manufacturers of city, suburban and shuttle buses in North America.
Multiple bids for construction of the 140,000-square-foot assembly plant were submitted Feb. 1.
Kurtz said The Development Corporation submitted a proposal to build the plant in partnership with Murnane Building Contractors and Luck Brothers. She would not reveal the projected construction cost but did say it was in excess of $20 million.
ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN
The plan calls for a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified building.
A program of the U.S. Green Building Council, LEED certification requires an independent third party to certify the building project is environmentally responsible, profitable and a healthy place to work.
Kurtz said she has talked with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority to seek state support for the LEED design.
The bus company would lease the property from The Development Corporation or whichever developer is awarded the construction project.
JOBS, PAY PROSPECTS
The company has provided state officials with projections of 216 jobs by 2010 and up to 300 jobs by 2012, Kurtz said.
Entry-level jobs are expected to pay between $12 and $18 an hour.
“They have told us their employees are the key to their success and to the quality of the buses they build,” she said.
The company will work with Multina’s Plattsburgh facility, Kurtz said. That company supplies the firm with bus seats in Canada and will do so here, she said.
The company intends to take a 25-to-30-acre parcel of land north of the UPS building; the lot reaches to Route 374, Kurtz said.
TRAFFIC STUDY
An update to The Development Corporation’s 2004 traffic study for the Industrial Park is under way, and the first part shows there would be less traffic with the bus assembly plant than if multiple facilities were built on the property.
The second part of the study is yet incomplete; it will examine traffic impacts on the major intersections in the surrounding area.
The public hearing was held to proceed toward rezoning a 9.4-acre parcel of land, which The Development Corporation has agreed to purchase from Edith and Walter Banker, from Neighborhood Commercial to Industrial Park. That parcel would then be merged with the Banker Road Industrial Park.
PLANNING OK NEEDED
The project still needs approval from the Plattsburgh Town Planning Board. That would take a minimum of two months.
Plattsburgh Town Supervisor Bernie Bassett said the aggressive time line is good, especially in light of Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s recent budget adjustment. That and the unsteady economic outlook have clear implications on state and federal funding availability in the future, he said.
“Getting something that produces more jobs and puts more money in the local economy can only help,” Bassett said.
E-mail Dan Heath at:
dheath@pressrepublican.com
