The Buffalo News: Cuomo calls $200 million Athenex biotech plant a ‘game-changer’ for Dunkirk
Published:
Thursday, February 11, 2016 - 16:04
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Gov. Andrew Cuomo, surrounded by local officials, cuts the ribbon at the new Athenex facility at Conventus in Buffalo Thursday Feb. 11, 2016. (Derek Gee/Buffalo News)[/caption]
DUNKIRK – Calling it a “game-changer for Dunkirk,” Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Thursday formally announced the state’s plans to spend $200 million to build a high-tech drug manufacturing center in the depressed Chautauqua County community.
The funds are part of the Buffalo Billion development initiative.
“Upstate New York is on the way back,” Cuomo told the crowd gathered in the Dunkirk High School auditorium for the announcement. He spoke about using the Buffalo Billion to help stop the cycle of job losses in the manufacturing economy in Western New York.
He said the plant would mean 1,400 total Athenex jobs, with 900 jobs in Dunkirk and 500 new jobs at the company’s Buffalo headquarters. That is higher than the unofficial earlier estimates of 500 to 1,000 jobs that could be created by the project.
Speaking before the governor, and walking to the podium to a standing ovation, SUNY nano chief Alain Kaloyeros first confirmed that the state will build a 300,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art drug manufacturing plant for Athenex in Dunkirk.
“And when we say state-of-the-art, we mean it,” he said. He said a plant of this sophistication has not been built anywhere in the United States in 15 years.
By Stephen T. Watson | News Staff Reporter | @buffaloscribe | Google+
on February 11, 2016 - 10:56 AM, updated February 11, 2016 at 11:23 AM
