The Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency has been named the top ranking economic development agency in Western New York for 2023. That’s according to Buffalo Business First, which provided a list of the region’s top economic development agencies in its July 12, 2024 issue.
According to Business First, it’s the first time the CCIDA has landed in the number one spot out of seven on the publication’s ranking of the economic development agencies in Buffalo and Western New York.
County Executive PJ Wendel commenting at the recent CCIDA Board meeting, said Invest Buffalo-Niagara was always the “gold standard” and now the Chautauqua IDA has “surpassed them,” “You know, we constantly hear ‘What are you doing about population decline? What are you doing to bring in business?’ We are working. The IDA is constantly at work. Mark (Geise), the planning team, the IDA, working hand in hand and all of you here on the board approving these great ventures. So again, I can’t say enough about how proud I am of the good work and we’ll just keep moving.”
At the end of 2023, the CCIDA reported a total of $842 million worth of deals brokered. Not only was it the largest total of any agency in Western New York, but also the largest single-year total ever reported by CCIDA in its 51 years of operation.
In addition, the CCIDA was involved with 34 different projects in 2023, more than any other economic development agency operating out of the Western New York region.
As first reported in January in its 2023 Annual Report, some of the key projects the CCIDA assisted included: $452 million Cummins Engine Internal Expansion; $250 million Wells Ice Cream Plant Expansion; Weber Knapp Purchase by Local Ownership ($21.4 million); the purchase and Development of lithium-ion Battery Manufacturer Electrovaya ($42.5 million); and the acquisition of the Conagra/CCIDA Facility in Dunkirk by Refresco to create a Northeastern US Distribution Center ($13 million).
The CCIDA’s top-ranking dollar amount is a 59% increase from the $500 million reported in 2022, when it ranked second on the Business First list. The other top five Western New York economic development agencies in 2023 were Invest Buffalo Niagara, Erie County IDA, Genesee County Economic Development Center, and County of Cattaraugus IDA.
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