IDA of the Month: Consider Greater Binghamton for your company in 2011: You won't be disappointed

Companies seeking to expand in 2011 should consider Greater Binghamton. Our region is capitalizing on its strategic location, its history of innovation, and its high quality of life to build a strong and diverse regional economy for the 21st century. Binghamton is located along the critical Interstate 81 gateway between Syracuse and Scranton. We are an easy three hours northwest of the Boston-Washington metroplex in the U.S. and less than five hours from the Toronto-Montreal corridor in Canada. Greater Binghamton ranks, along with San Jose, Cambridge, and Austin, among the strongest areas for innovation in the U.S. We have company clusters in aerospace, software, advanced manufacturing, communications, simulation and distribution. We are home to household name companies like Lockheed Martin, Gannett, IBM, Frito Lay, L-3 Communications, Endicott Interconnect and BAE Systems. Our innovators and entrepreneurs have more patents per capita than most regions of the U.S. Just last fall, we welcomed Impress, a global can manufacturer, to our corporate park in Conklin. The company believes in Greater Binghamton; they have invested $30 million in a 90,000 s/f state-of-the-art green facility. The plant will have no impact on the local landfill and soon will be LEED-certified. Impress has ambitious plans to expand and employ more than 150 in the coming years. We are proud of the Charles St. Business Park in Binghamton, a partnership among Empire State Development, the city of Binghamton, and the Broome County IDA. By adapting a brownfield we have created one of the premier technology business parks in the northeast. The 32-acre site is home to Emerson Network Power's 40,000 s/f Binghamton headquarters. People from all over the world visit Emerson to learn about the latest technologies that protect and support business critical systems. Charles St. is in a Federal HUBZone creating many potential advantages for businesses that locate there. Please contact us or visit www.bcida.com for more information. A key regional asset is Binghamton University, a premier global public institution ranked by Kiplinger's Personal Finance as one of the best values in public colleges anywhere. The university features stellar academics, amazing research, and a strong international focus. The university's growth has helped trigger new interest in downtown Binghamton. There are three major residential projects in the works that will bring hundreds of students downtown and enhance the redevelopment of one of the most historic and architecturally significant cities in the northeast. In Greater Binghamton, quality of life means excellent schools, an opera and a symphony, strong minor league baseball and hockey, Division I athletics, and a fast-growing arts scene. According to U.S. News and World Report, Binghamton is among the most affordable places to retire in the U.S. And we were thrilled when the Farmers Insurance Group named Binghamton the 8th safest place to live among communities its size in the U.S. Binghamton's superb transportation system makes it possible to get to the Adirondacks, the Poconos, and the tremendous fly-fishing along the Delaware River in a matter of hours. We have some of the best golf courses in the northeast. And if you like winery tours and tastings we are a short distance from the Finger Lakes, one of the Wine Spectator's emerging wine regions in the world. Put Binghamton on your list of investments in 2011. You won't be disappointed. For more on business in our region, visit the BCIDA's website, www.bcida.com which includes a searchable property database, an interactive profile of the area, and links to our incentives and programs. Patrick Doyle is the director, business development at Broome County IDA, Binghamton, N.Y.