N.Y. Power Authority aids project at Sheehan
A $21 million project to open a workforce-development center in the former Sheehan Memorial Hospital in Buffalo is getting $500,000 in funding through the New York Power Authority.
The agency also awarded $300,000 to Ascension Industries, a North Tonawanda manufacturer of industrial, filtration and separation equipment, for its $2.7 million initiative that will make equipment that can convert post-recycled municipal waste into electricity.
Both awards are from the authority’s program to distribute the proceeds from the sale of unallocated Western New York hydropower to support local businesses and initiatives.
The allocations approved Tuesday by the Power Authority board were part of the second round of projects that have received backing from the Western New York Power Proceeds Allocation Board.
The award for the Sheehan project was less than 20 percent of the $3.45 million that its developers, 425 Michigan Avenue LLC, a division of McGuire Development Co., had been seeking. The job-training center will focus on preparing unemployed residents of the city’s East Side for professions in health care.
The center will include classrooms, a care facility simulator and an information technology laboratory.
McGuire Development acquired the Sheehan site last year for $2 million, with plans to redevelop the 87-acre property as a hub for medical, science and workforce training. Time Warner Cable also announced last month that it will locate a call center at the former hospital property that will create 152 jobs.
Ascension executives have said their project, which is expected to add 15 jobs to its 131-person workforce, will pair the local firm with the Ottawa-based developer of a new waste-to-energy technology. Ascension will make skid-mounted equipment that will be able to convert waste into electricity.
Funding for the projects comes from a pool of $23.2 million that has been set aside for economic-development projects within 30 miles of the Niagara Power Project.
The funds were raised through Niagara hydropower that was sold in the open market because it had not been allocated to a local company.
Source:
Robinson, D. (2013 July 24). Workforce center gets $500,000 from N.Y. Power Authority. Buffalo News. Retrieved from http://www.buffalonews.com/