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New York's Senator FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 26, 2001 Senator's meeting with venture capitalists and local companies could yield new investment opportunities for Rochester area As part of his overall effort to attract new investment to Upstate New York, US Senator Charles E. Schumer brought executives from Flatiron, Credit Suisse First Boston and other leading Wall Street venture capital firms to Rochester today to give local companies a chance to "pitch" themselves to the lenders. The day is intended to boost Rochester's burgeoning information technology, biotech and other growing industries by giving the venture capitalists a firsthand look at the city's investment climate. "One of the first lessons I learned when I was elected to the Senate was that Upstate New York is ripe for large-scale investment," Schumer said. "The challenge has been getting the word out that the area is one of the most competitive places to site new businesses. My goal for Monday is to ensure that the investors walk away thinking of ways to make their money work in Rochester." The day begins at the University of Rochester where University officials will discuss their $550 million effort to create the nation's preeminent interdisciplinary medical research center, and how their aggressive tech-transfer process is bringing revolutionary medical products to the market like the HiB vaccine, which has virtually wiped out bacterial meningitis in infants and children. U of R has spun off 28 companies in the last decade and over the last four years, the University has filed over a hundred patent applications for high-tech inventions and innovations. The investors will then go to High Tech Rochester's Lennox Tech Enterprise Center, where they will hear about the most promising existing investment opportunities in Rochester over a working lunch with Schumer and local economic development officials. Following that presentation, local venture capitalists and investors will present a "big picture" analysis of Rochester's investment potential, historical trends, and future prospects. "Over the past few years, the science and engineering students from RIT and the University of Rochester who once headed straight for the doors of the 'big three' corporations - Xerox, Kodak and Bausch & Lomb - have been branching out and creating new opportunities in the tech sector," Schumer said. "These new, start-up companies are now going to have a chance to show off what they've accomplished." The day will conclude with a presentation focusing on Information Technology and imaging startups being generated through RIT's partnerships with industry. With over 3,000 students majoring in computer science-related majors, RIT is the national leader among academic institutions in imaging and information processing technologies. Today's venture capital meeting is Schumer's latest effort to attract new investment to Upstate New York. From securing low-cost air service to exploiting the regions' various business attributes, Schumer has emphasized a regional approach focused on developing specific industries. In Rochester, for example, he is working with Governor Pataki to create a major optics research facility - a "Center of Excellence"- that is intended to build on the city's world-renowned optics companies and create a high-tech hub in Western New York. "This has been a longtime dream of mine because this center can do for Rochester and the surrounding area what computer chips did for Silicon Valley," Schumer said. "When you think about the number of companies that will be created out of this center, its impact is immeasurable."
Last month, Schumer delivered on a pledge to have JetBlue
serving three Upstate cities by August 2001 when he announced that
the low-cost airline would add Syracuse to its Upstate destinations
this spring (the other two are Rochester and Buffalo). Schumer believes
that JetBlue's arrival will pave the way for new businesses that had
previously stayed away from Upstate because of high airfares and said
that he is continuing to look for other low-cost airlines that will
serve the region.
"Low-cost air service is one vital piece of the economic
puzzle. Another piece is making sure that local officials are able
to meet with the right people to sell their respective regions,"
Schumer said. "My position as Senator allows me to facilitate
some of those meetings, and that's what today is all about."
In addition to today's venture capital meeting, Schumer has hosted
three forums with site selectors- consultants who advise businesses
about where to locate - and economic development officials throughout
New York State. The first two meetings focused primarily on what
local officials can do to improve their respective efforts to attract
businesses to their areas.
One of the key points cited by site selectors at these meetings
was that Upstate communities often have incompatible approaches
to economic development and undermine one another's efforts to attract
new employers. The third site selector meeting, held in Syracuse
last January, demonstrated the advances Central New York business
leaders have made to coordinate their region's "pitch"
to companies.
"We've made some progress, but we still have a lot of work
to do before the Upstate economy gets to where it can and should
be," Schumer said.
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