Hey folks, I'm Matt Major from Growth Mode Content.
Welcome to another edition of Good News York.
We're very excited. Now, you might notice next
to me, that's not Mike. Mike did not suddenly
get much better looking and find a new suit.
We've got a very special guest joining us to
tell us all about the good news here in central
New York, Onondaga County specifically. It's
Onondaga County, County Executive Ryan McMahon.
Welcome to Good News York. Well, thanks for having
me. This is so cool because you know as I mentioned
there are so many good things to talk about.
One thing I want to shout out is just a basic
little disclaimer. If you've watched the show,
paid attention to the show, you know, we are
excessively good news. We are also apolitical.
So even though we've got, I guess you could say
a politician here, we're really here to talk
about what's happening. So we're not going to
get into any controversies. We're not going to
do anything. I don't hear any comments. You didn't
hold his feet to the fire. It's not what we're
trying to do. Our goal here is to be as positive
and bring as much good energy as you could possibly
get. Without a prescription. So that's really
kind of our goal here So with that I should say
let's dive right into the good news and let's
start with the aquarium. Yes that This is something
that, when it was first announced, I've been
incredibly excited about. Mostly because we are
aquarium people, so we've been to so many different
ones all over the country. Absolutely love that.
To have one in our backyard that we can go visit
on a regular basis is pretty cool. But I'd love
you to, just for folks that don't necessarily
know all of what's coming, can you give us the
overview? What are you going to be able to do
and see at this new place? This is a unique project.
investment in cultural infrastructure, our community's
seen in a long time. Because of that, some people
have opinions. Strong opinions. But overall,
let me just give a little context. For those
who haven't followed it, one of the first meetings
I took in 2018 when I became county executive
was from the Friends of the Zoo. And the Friends
of the Zoo executive director at that time said,
look, we want to do an aquarium. And she said,
that's a good idea. How are we going to pay for
it? And we didn't have the ability to pay for
it in 2018. So fast forward to COVID. COVID happens
2020, leading the public health response. I run
an operation, I run a government, right? 3 ,500
employees, big budgets. We have to react like
the private sector because our main revenue is
sales tax. Sales tax tanks, state shuts down
economies, 40 % revenue hits. So we have to compress
in government. We compress. And then by the end
of the year, sales tax comes back because the
economy opens up. People want to get out and
do things. They want to live. So we ended up
only losing like 3 % or 4 % compared to where
we were. So we had this unique time in history
of Onondaga County. We had about a $90 million
surplus. heard of before. So I said, what do
we do? Like, give me a big idea. I talked to
my peers on the county legislature, talked to
stakeholders, give me a big idea. It's got to
be one shot. Right. Because this money's not
going to be here year over year. We can't bring
on new legacy costs. One shot. Let's think of
something good. And we went through a lot of
different things. But the one thing that came
back to was that first meeting in aquarium. And
I said, OK. And we wanted to help the hospitality
and tourism industries, which were decimated
in the pandemic. We wanted to have a piece of
educational infrastructure. We're already starting
to align ourselves for high tech manufacturing.
We didn't know about what was going to happen
after that. Sure. And so I said, all right. Make
sure it's feasible. We did studies. We actually
did two studies. It was feasible. Third thing,
we said, tell me where. Where are we going to
put it? Tell me the best place where. And it
actually went, they came to the Inner Harbor.
It kind of makes sense. Baltimore's got a great
aquarium on the Inner Harbor. And so then it
was about getting it through the process and
doing it at a scale that will be big enough to
draw people into the community to spend money
so that it's actually a piece of workforce recruiting
infrastructure for our companies, something that
your colleges and institutions can team up with,
your elementary and high schools can. And so
that's why we did it at the scale. We did it.
So it's over a hundred million dollar investment.
If you drive by the Inner Harbor, you will see
what is just, it's awesome. I mean, it looks
awesome. Our vision for it is happening. And
it's a catalyst for that neighborhood investment.
If you look across the street at the Iron Pier,
you've had two businesses in the last two months
commit to go there. Peacock Restaurant, Sapphire
Recruiting Agency. This gives momentum to all
that. For a lot of the housing, we have a hotel.
That's another hotel that will get developed
there. They reference the aquarium is why they
chose it. But it's going to be a freshwater and
saltwater aquarium, similar to Chattanooga, Tennessee.
And so think of the freshwater, the Catskills
and the Adirondacks, and a little bit about the
cleanup and the history of Onondaga Lake. And
then it's going to transition into what are these
amazing exotic saltwater exhibits that people
travel across the country to see. And there's
going to be a lot of tank space in there and
a lot of hands -on exhibits for interactive exhibits
for kids. And we've started a foundation to raise
money to help a couple things to finish the construction
budget, but also for the educational piece. And
we're already looking for some of the ideas that
we couldn't have in the original project about
potentially if we can raise enough money to add
those on in the short term to as well. That sounds
phenomenal. You know, and you mentioned a little
bit and actually we had Danny from Visit Syracuse
on not long ago and he's actually coming back
next week. A little programming note. But he
mentioned this as well and the whole idea of
we've all got our mind wrapped around the aquarium
in that building. But to me, it's a matter of
zoom out. You know, that whole. And what's neat
to me is we're developing in this area that there
was nothing. So we didn't displace a single business.
We didn't knock down a single house, you know,
and we have an opportunity to build neighborhoods.
You know, and to me, it's just so much bigger
than as much as I love the idea of the aquarium
itself. I can just already see that whole, you
know, bustling neighborhood. And now we connect
destiny with the city. And it's awesome. And
I'll share with you this little story, too. when
we were going through the process of the approvals,
right? Highly political, nothing new for my job,
right? That's what I do. But the overall, the
people that were saying, and they're busy, right?
Like when you like something, like you don't
really call me, right? You like it, you're like,
I'm going out with my day, cool, McMahon, good
idea, right? Like when you don't like something,
You can be loud, right? You got a little bit
more, you know? So it was hard getting a lot
of folks that actually like it to think they
had to go through the political process. But
companies were the biggest ones that were out
there. Families. Grandma was out there thinking
about moms and dads. Companies use this as a
piece of year -round entertainment workforce.
And so when you think of Micron, when we hosted,
we were very far through the selection process
and to the point where we're getting our first
CEO visit. And Sanjay was coming into town. And
here's a gentleman from California who's coming
into Syracuse. I think it was January 3rd, 2022.
And it was freezing. It was beautiful out, right?
It was blue sky, sunny, but it was like negative
three. And so Sanjay came in and we took him
to the site. We took him to some neighborhoods,
brought him downtown, made him get out of the
vans in Clinton Square. went to Salt City Market,
went to the university, brought him in the JMA
Dome, give him a basketball and go through a
run. But at the end of it, he and I were in the
car all day long and he goes, well, what do you
do on a day like today? And I'm like, wow, you
know, we got great things to do, yada, yada,
you know, you can go falls here are the best,
summers are the best, right? You know, all these.
You know, ag tourism, lakes, water. He goes,
no, today. Like, what do you do? I'm like, well,
you can snowmobile, you can ski, right? You can
go to the mall and you can go to a game. But
he's like, Ryan, what do you do today? And what
he was. So I got where he was going. We brought
him to the Inner Harbor and we showcased plans
of an aquarium. And I think he liked it for two
reasons. One, it was a piece of year round entertainment
infrastructure. It's open all year round. Our
amphitheater we built, right? It's open for about
five months, about 25, 30 concerts. But two,
I think what he liked about it is that the communities
we were competing against were Austin, Phoenix,
essentially Grand Rapids, Michigan, and let's
say Raleigh, North Carolina, sites within proximity
to those. So we were really competing against
communities outside of Michigan that were above
our weight class. And what he saw in us was the
ability where you had a community willing to
invest in itself. So he could kind of go tell
the story to his board of directors why central
New York, right? And so the aquarium played a
role in that. And, you know, so certainly We're
excited now that it's up, it's building. It's
going to be open next year in July. So you're
going to, this thing is moving, right? You're
going to see it moving. You're going to see tanks
coming in soon and getting put in. Then it's
going to get enclosed. And then you're going
to have hundreds of construction workers inside
getting your plumbers and steam fitters and electricians
getting this thing ready to roll. That's awesome.
I'm very excited about that and just to see it
all happen and you know That's the nice thing
about so many of these things that we get to
talk about today It's not sort of kind of hopes
and dreams. It's happening right now You can
drive down the street and look at it right now
drive through the detour and try to look at it
right now Let's you know, we've touched on a
lot. Let's let's dip right into micron. So obviously
microns come into town. It's the buzz It's one
of the things that I think, or maybe the main
thing, that has really kept our whole area above
water, I feel like, right now. And we're hearing,
you know, in other parts of the country, real
estate is struggling and they're having different
challenges. And we're here on this upswing, which
is so, it feels a little weird to many of us
because we're not used to it here. You know,
and to some degree, I can I can understand people's
hesitation. But I think, again, this is another
one of those deals where it's literally happening.
You know, the sign just went up in downtown.
And I'd love you just to talk a little bit about
a little bit more about the process and then
kind of what we can expect. Yeah, I think so.
One of the things to revisit the site selection.
Right. Sure. So why were they looking and out
of the county? They were looking in Onondaga
County because we created the most attractive
mega site for manufacturing really in North America
with the White Pine Business Park. I inherited
a site, which was a greenfield site that the
county bought in 1999. I was a freshman in college.
And that site just sat there. And at many times
over the years, even in my early days as County
Executive, there was opportunities to put a company
there, but National Grid would always be like,
don't do that. Like you don't understand the
asset we have here. So here's why that site was
special. Cause this is important for why people,
the naysayers want to say like, oh, they're never
going to come. They kind of like have to come
for their business. So that site across the street
is a national grid substation. That substation,
essentially, if you think of New York State and
their power grid, north, south, east, west, that
point in the middle where everything intersects
is there. So that site has the ability to produce
five gigs of power. To give everybody context,
Micron at a four fab build out will use about
two gigs. So think about the rest of the power
there. Now, I think power long term, It's not
about us having power. It's about the cost of
power. That's why we got to bring on more power,
right? So in addition to that, we get a, we have
a pipeline directly from Lake Ontario, which
comes all the way down through Oswego County
to Onondaga County. So we have water that really
many communities in the world do not. And so
if you think about a product that needs a lot
of water, needs a lot of power, really important.
Then we have a wastewater system where the county
essentially runs it regionally. So that means
we can make bats and clay that will support the
whole region, but we get to spread the cost out
to the whole county, not one town, right? And
so because of that, we can make the investments
you need to support the industry like the semiconductor
industry. So you put that together, we got 300
acres. 2019, we get a look, TSMC. They eventually
pick Arizona, right? That's all that action in
Arizona. We had a shot at it. Our site wasn't
big enough. So we immediately go and, you know,
through a little bit of dumb luck, look at expanding
that site, end up, you know, that we start talking
to the Intel Corporation. And Intel puts us through
a process. And every time we talk to them, they
come back to us and they're like, well, you look
good, but you're not big enough. And meanwhile,
like two weeks before we went out and like optioned
up like another hundred acres. So I was like,
what do you mean we're not big enough? I just
bought more land for you. What are you talking
about? So eventually we're doing this with Intel
and we have, all of a sudden we have over a thousand
acre site. So an official mega site. And then
we continue to make the site bigger, eventually
running into a neighborhood. So I had to negotiate
with essentially 40 homeowners, which was brutal.
But yeah, you know what happened? We had a deal,
right? I've got a deal with you and you're getting
350 and then you heard your neighbor's getting
400. So even though you got a signed contract,
you want 400, right? So this game of chicken
went on for about a year, but eventually we put
together a 1400 acre site. Some of that we specified
for Micron, we get Micron. The main reason Micron
is here is because they have a site where they
can make a product and they have the power, the
water, the wastewater, and enough acres to do
it and have a mega campus. Second is the community.
The ability to recruit, retain, and develop a
workforce. That's community assets, educational
partnerships. Then the third is the business
deal. incentives. We got to be better than our
peers in other states. And the federal government
needed to step up because we needed to be cost
effective with Asia. And so all that happens,
they pick us. So now, once you go there, one
of the things about New York is we're a high
regulation state. In some cases, that's good.
In some cases, that's not so good. This one's
like a blend, right? You know, we want to protect
the environment, but we're not even the Cadillac
of environmental protection. We're like the Lamborghini
of environmental protection. And so we're going
through this environmental review for the last
year and a half at the local or the state and
local, which we, the county are the lead agency.
And at the federal level, the Department of Commerce,
we got through our draft environmental impact
statement, our public comment period. We're getting
close to having that done. That triggers our
ability to break ground. Breaking ground means
that, and that will be this year. I don't want
to pinpoint an exact date yet because there's
going to be a time where we're ready and there's
going to be a time when everybody can show up.
But Mike Grant has already brought on Gil Bain
as the lead for phase one of their construction.
Massive contract, close to a billion -dollar
contract. We've never had a billion -dollar investment
in this. And this contract's just to clear the
site, build roads, clear the site. Their second
construction component is building a rail spur
off the CSX rail line, because they're going
to bring in a lot of that fill for the site and
a lot of the materials through rail so that we
don't have trucks going through as many trucks.
And then the third component, they're going to
pick a general contractor to build the fab, lay
down the foundations. And building one fab is
about a $25 billion investment. And so we're
going to build four of them. And we're going
to build two of them really in the next five
years. These fabs take about three years maybe,
bleeding in a little more towards four years
to actually finish. Micron's building one in
Idaho right now that's taken a little bit longer,
but I think they'll get better at. building by
the time we're ready here. But in 2026, you're
going to see this site cleared. You're going
to see massive foundations poured and start a
vertical construction. By the end of 2027, it's
going to look like a city of vertical construction
and enclosed vertical construction. And then
certainly you're going to have thousands of construction
workers working locally from around the state,
the Northeast, but there will be some coming
in from the area. And that's a huge economic
stimulus. Absolutely. But the other thing with
this though, that we're working really hard on
We're going to build the supply chain for Micron
and get them to co -locate. We're investing in
more money to create more sites and proximity
for the industry. And we'll have tooling companies
and gas and chemical companies and material supply
companies coming here. I'll say like soft commitments.
They're just kind of waiting for that shovel
to get in the ground. But I think we're going
to be talking about a lot of new investment,
a lot of foreign direct investment here as well.
That's so great to hear. One of the things I
wanted to ask you right along those lines, and
I'm glad you mentioned that, is we're talking
about these different opportunities and these
different things coming to town from a perspective
of a current local business owner. So I own an
IT business and I own a digital marketing company.
What opportunities exist for folks like me to
get a piece of that business or even just, you
know, different opportunities in general in the
area that folks like me should look into? Yeah,
I think, well, think of it this way. You have
a whole new industry coming, right? So there's,
it's an industry, the semiconductor industry
is coming. Yeah. Right. And so if you think about
the opportunity to do businesses with that, you
also have, for the first time, you'll have rapid
population growth happening. So there's more
people. And with that will come more innovation
and other segments of the community, more community
growth, a lot of new housing. And so that represents
just business opportunities. There's more buyers,
there's more consumers, there's more economic
activity. Micron just with their employees at
like today's wages. is almost like a billion
dollars of new payroll. Wow. Like think about
that into the economy. Yeah. And what that means.
Right. And so I think let alone a new industry.
And just so everybody knows, like the infrastructure
we have and what we're building for them, other
industry is going to be able to take advantage
of it. Sure. I'm creating tons of water capacity.
We're creating wastewater capacity. national
grid's investing in their infrastructure to create
more energy capacity. So like we're not, it's
not just the semiconductor industry. We want
to be the high tech manufacturing hub for the
Northeast of North America. And so like we're
not done, right? Like that's the thing. Like
we're not done. Once you experience a success,
once you've lived through it and you know what
it takes to execute on it, and that's where we
are now. your better position to go do it again.
And just like McDonald's and Burger King, once
you build the workforce, you build the infrastructure,
you got the anchor tenant, it's easier for another
company to come into and plug and play. So I
really believe I was just at a groundbreaking
or ribbon cutting this morning at the new Inspire
Hub, the tech hub downtown, which in our convention
district, which we're a partner with, and this
guy who sold the company in the food tech space
came here. His wife works at SU. He came here
because of a job through his wife, right? And
like this guy's like super talented. Obviously
he's a young guy, already done really well. And
he's creating a venture fund for like that space.
And he said to me, this is like Austin 15 years
ago. And I was like, damn right it is. Yeah,
no, I can say from firsthand experience, the
startup community around here is phenomenal.
And luckily, there's been a lot of investment
from all different sources to support that. And
I'd just love to see more and more of that. Um,
anything, any tips that you can give folks, uh,
to best position themselves for any of these,
is there, uh, particular, uh, news to follow
or groups to join or things like this to sort
of be connected and, and, uh, you know, position
yourself well for the. Yeah. If you're, if you're
in the building world, right? The construction
world, the demands. for this space are going
to be so high that really like we can't source
it all locally. Like so you're going to have
either there's going to be so much work, whether
it's you working directly with Gilbane, who had
an event with subcontractors and had hundreds
of people, whether it's whoever the new general
contractor is, whether it's whoever is going
to be the contractors building out supply chain
buildings because these gas and chemical companies
aren't here. They can't. that's unique, right?
They're going to build. Whether it's the new,
all the thousands of new housing units that are
going to be going up or the transformation of
old buildings into new buildings with purpose,
or whether it's just fixing up the existing housings,
your competition is going to get less in certain
areas because a lot of these folks are going
to be on these monumental jobs. So there's going
to be a huge pie for that. You know, for other
companies, like I highly encourage, you know,
you to follow what's going on. Get involved in
your local government, what's going on. Look
at a town board agenda. Look at the progress
and make sure that your voice is being heard.
Because how this works sometimes is a little
bit of NIMBY -ism, right? And growth is scary
for people that aren't used to it. at these board
meetings sometimes, you got like the same 20
people that go out on time, right? And so the
only people you ever hear from are the same 20
people. And for example, those 20 people say
are against something, but the vast majority
of the community is like, we think that's a good
idea. You gotta balance that out, right? And
so I think getting engaged civically is important.
I think getting engaged with your local chamber
of commerce is wherever you are is important.
Your associations from a broader scale, even
your state associations are important because
the state policy can help accelerate what's happening
or it can help slow it down. So you got to understand
the impacts of everything. So I would just say
it's like a historic call to action. for people
to get in the game. Just plug in and you can
be there. All right. So last thing I want to
ask you and I'll let you on your way. You got
lots more businesses we got to open here around
town. What is one of your favorite activities?
recreational activities for folks, families to
do in Onondaga County. So somebody's coming here,
whether it's Micron or Joe on the street that
you meet in the airport, and they say, I'm coming
to Central New York for a day. Where do you send
them? So I think, look, there's a lot. And I
think this time of year, there's a lot. And so
I've always argued fall is where we live is the
best place in the world. And so right now, Saturday's
on Farm Fest, right? You can go and visit all
these farms that have, 11 farms that open up
their doors and used to make one product. Now
they make other products and they have tourism,
ag tourism and whatnot. But if you can come and
you can go to a park, like on the Lake Parkway,
it feels like you're on vacation on the Loop
the Lake Trail. If you can then go... to downtown
Syracuse and walk through squares and see beautiful
old buildings that are coming back to life, you
get a sense of a big city. To go to Beacon Skiff
or other Apple Orchard, Tim's Pumpkin Patch,
unique, special. And then I really do think one
of the things that makes us super special is
our water, not just from a a natural resource,
but a recreational aspect. Going to Skinny Atlas
Lake, Oneida Lake, obviously we have Onondaga
Lake with our parkway. Atisco Lake is more of
a homeowner lake, but to go to see a Finger Lake
or go to an Outer Lake where you can potentially
be on the water and then go into waterfront communities,
even though they're maybe not in Outer Diet County,
all of them, it's just super cool. And the other
thing too, if you're living here, the quality
of life here is like, we're going to have all
these jobs, but you are literally an hour and
a half away from Old Forge and the Adirondacks.
You're an hour away from the Thousand Islands,
which is literally the eighth wonder of the world
in my opinion. The Finger Lakes, we have them
here, but next door, they keep on coming. Wine
trails, there's a ton to do, especially this
time of year. And I'm giving you more things
to do in the winter. And so you're going to have
an aquarium, state of the art aquarium. So I
think if you're going to spend a day, you're
coming here. your outdoor activities, your downtown,
arts, culture, a lot of family -friendly things.
Obviously, the zoo is ours. We're very partial
to our zoo. Go see the twin elephants. So there's
a lot to do. That's awesome. I love it. And I
really, really appreciate you spending some time
with us and spreading the good news about Onondaga
County and obviously beyond. That's a nice thing
about everything that we've talked about here
is, you know, we're focused on where we live,
but the impacts radiate well beyond these borders
here. There's so many, they're feeling it across
the state and it's so neat to see. And of course,
it's sort of anchored in other parts of the state
where they're not quite as good as us, but up
and coming and really encouraging. And it's just
a great time to be in New York State, I feel
like. Yeah, especially upstate. I think we're
going to come back. What we're doing here is
going to help all of our bedroom communities
that, you know, Oswego County, Madison County,
Cayuga, Cortland. But I think the more success
we have in developing this cluster will brand
us on a national stage and an international stage.
And more people will want to be a part of that.
And I think like literally at some point, there's
not going to be land for that here. Right. So
that makes maybe communities outside of central
New York attractive because you can still be
here to do business with this cluster. You can
be an hour away in Monroe County or in Oneida
County. Right. So I think overall what we're
doing is going to change the trajectory of upstate
New York for generations to come. Yeah, it's.
awesome stuff. That's what we're here to talk
about. Ryan McMahon, County Executive, real quickly,
we asked everybody to give the plugs. Where's
the best place for folks to follow along with
this stuff? I think overall, you can follow me
on Facebook, social media, the county pages,
Facebook, Instagram, whatnot. We try to give
messages almost every day. I try to give a message
every day. the overall. The county economic development
page on Micron, we got a new comprehensive update
that we're putting out. We're going to be all
over this. This is going to be key. One of the
cool things is we talked about the supply chain.
We're hosting an international delegation from
Japan where we're going to have 50 individuals.
two dozen, maybe even the list gets bigger, but
at least two dozen companies coming. Then they're
going to Semi -Con West, which is a conference
that I go to every year and market our community
and have had success. It's funny, when I used
to go to that conference before Micron, people
wouldn't want to talk to me, but now I'm the
popular kid. So they all want to talk to me.
So it's pretty productive. So there's a lot going
on. We're really on a global stage right now.
There's win after win after win. And what this
really does is it creates opportunity for people.
And we're doing things in a way that the people
who haven't had a lot of fortune, people who've
been in poverty will have a pathway out of that.
And that's those jobs. And so that makes this
very rewarding for myself and my team. I know
when Micron was first announced, they talked
a lot about programs to make sure there's transportation
from the city and all kinds of things. And that's
so awesome to hear. It's just that's what somebody
needs to do to do it right. And it's so just
great to hear that that's happening. Awesome.
All right, sir. Well, I will let you go. I could
talk to you forever, but I will let you get back
to work. And thank you so much again for joining
us here on Good News York. Anytime you've got
something to talk about, we're more than happy
to have you. Well, appreciate it. Appreciate
you. Awesome. Thank you. Thanks. And that'll
do it for us, guys.