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Honeoye Falls Distillery has the spirit(s) for business growth
Honeoye Falls Distillery, a craft-spirits producer and distributor, launched operations in June and has its products in liquor stores, bars, and restaurants throughout upstate New York. The company, in its first three months, has placed products in almost 200 liquor stores, bars, and restaurants throughout the region, says John Marshall, the distillery’s co-founder and
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Honeoye Falls Distillery, a craft-spirits producer and distributor, launched operations in June and has its products in liquor stores, bars, and restaurants throughout upstate New York.
The company, in its first three months, has placed products in almost 200 liquor stores, bars, and restaurants throughout the region, says John Marshall, the distillery’s co-founder and president. That includes 42 locations in Central New York.
The regional stores, bars, and restaurants selling the distillery’s spirits include — Pascale’s Wine and Spirits; Blue Tusk and Empire Brewing Company on Walton Street in Armory Square; and The Lamont Tavern in Solvay, according to the distillery’s website.
“That is amazing,” exclaims Marshall. “We really did that and achieved that [during] a very slow time for liquor.”
The principals launched the business in June, following more than a year of market research, says Marshall, a Jamesville native.
Marshall spoke with CNYBJ by phone from the Jamesville area of DeWitt on Sept. 14.
The distillery’s ownership group had to find a location, purchase the equipment, and secure its licensing and label approval, which took time.
“It’s a process,” he says.
The distillery operates at 106 West Main St. in Honeoye Falls, south of Rochester. The company is located on the “craft-beverage trail and the craft-wine trail,” says
Marshall, noting it’s an area filled with wineries, distilleries, and breweries.
“That’s one of the reasons we picked that area,” he added.
The distillery is located “across the street” from a brewery called Craft Brewers, and “the two of us feed off each other,” noting they selected the firm’s location “very carefully.”
Its building includes the still for producing the vodka, gin, and whiskey, he says.
The facility handles the beverage mashing, fermenting, distilling, and bottling of the liquor. Employees then package the spirits on pallets and place them in cases. It also has a tasting room and cocktail bar, he adds.
Employees
The distillery has sales representatives in Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo and wants to hire one for Albany. Marshall also handles sales and marketing for the distillery.
The sales representatives cover large territories. The individual working in the Syracuse area also pursues clients in the Utica–Rome, Ithaca, and Binghamton regions.
Honeoye Falls Distillery employs more than 10 people between locations in Syracuse, Buffalo, and Rochester. The figure does not include the owners but does include a mix of full- and part-time workers, he says.
“I’m expecting … [the employee count] to double [in the next year], without question,” says Marshall.
Honeoye Falls Distillery hopes to expand outside New York, and has applied for liquor licenses in surrounding states, he adds.
Marshall declined to disclose a revenue projection for the distillery’s first year of operation.
The company makes spirits that include Devil’s Bathtub Gin, Frozen Falls Vodka, and Lantern Light Moonshine, which the company named after the building in which it operates. Honeoye Falls Distillery operates in a building that was previously home to the Starlight Lantern Co., says Marshall.
New venture
Marshall co-founded the business with Scott Stanton, who is the firm’s CEO. Marshall and Stanton are the majority owners. Marshall declined to disclose their percentage of ownership. The ownership group also includes other minority partners.
Head distiller Teal Schlegel oversees the distillery and its production with a “small team around him.” Another employee operates the tasting room.
Marshall declined to disclose how much the ownership group spent to launch the distillery. They used a combination of their own money and a loan from an “upstate New York bank,” which Marshall declined to name.
“To get this up and running … it’s really late nights and working every single weekend,” says Marshall. “Then hiring the right salespeople and hiring the right production team to get it done.”
Besides his work in sales and marketing for the distillery, Marshall also serves as the global vice president of sales and marketing for Client Outlook Inc., a Waterloo, Ontario–based medical-imaging software company.
Marshall has worked for three startup companies that focus on medical-imaging software over the past 20 years, he says.
When asked how he divides his time between his work for Client Outlook and the distillery, Marshall replied, “It’s very difficult.”
“I love the thought of creating something from scratch and then finding a way to make it grow,” says Marshall, noting it’s his “dream” to have his own business.
Marshall saw the distillery as a “really good business opportunity,” noting the principals started their market research in early 2014.
Marshall and Stanton have worked together at Client Outlook for about a decade, he says.
Stanton and Schlegel had the original idea. Schlegel told Stanton that he could make the spirits, and Marshall and Stanton believed they could sell the product, according to Marshall.
Higbee sells to Buffalo–area firm
DeWITT — Seal & Design, Inc., headquartered in the Buffalo area, has bought the assets of Higbee, Inc., a Syracuse–area manufacturer of gasket and sealing products. The cash deal, which closed on Aug. 31, also includes a consulting contract and non-compete agreement. The parties did not use a broker in the transaction. The
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DeWITT — Seal & Design, Inc., headquartered in the Buffalo area, has bought the assets of Higbee, Inc., a Syracuse–area manufacturer of gasket and sealing products.
The cash deal, which closed on Aug. 31, also includes a consulting contract and non-compete agreement. The parties did not use a broker in the transaction.
The new corporate name is Seal & Design, Higbee Division.
“After 40 years in the business, I knew it was time to retire,” Larry Higbee, former president and stockholder of Higbee, Inc., says about the decision to sell. “There was no broker involved. Dean S. Penman [president of Seal & Design] and I talked for about three months before we came to an agreement. I think it’s a perfect fit for Dean, because our product line complements his, and he can offer more products to his existing clients.”
Higbee, Inc. was founded in 1932 by Higbee’s father Lyman. The company currently employs 47 people in a nearly 60,000-square-foot building at 6741 Thompson Road in DeWitt. Higbee has retained ownership of the building and leased the premises to Seal & Design for three years with a couple five-year options. Higbee, Inc. generates about $10 million in annual revenue.
Seal & Design was founded in 1989 by Penman’s father, Dean T. Penman. The company fabricates seals, gaskets, o-rings, and other die-cut products for the medical, automotive, aerospace, communications, electronics, pharmaceutical, and military sectors. Its headquarters is located in a 91,000-square-foot office, manufacturing, and distribution building in Clarence in Erie County.
In 2006, Seal & Design acquired Able O-Rings, a Canadian competitor which operates from a 15,000-square-foot plant in Toronto.
The acquisition by Seal & Design of Higbee brings the company’s total employment to more than 150 and combined sales in 2015 are projected to top $50 million.
The law firm of Bond, Schoeneck & King, PLLC and the accounting firm of Dermody, Burke & Brown, CPAs, LLC — both based in Syracuse — represented Higbee on the deal.
Larry Higbee says he is moving to Jacksonville, Florida.
Norwich Aero: déjà vu all over again
NORWICH — “Well Mr. Chamber of Commerce, what are you going to do about that?” In early 2014, a friend put the question to Steve Craig, the Commerce Chenango president and CEO, in response to the sudden announcement by Norwich Aero’s parent company, Esterline Technologies, that it was closing the Norwich plant and moving
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NORWICH — “Well Mr. Chamber of Commerce, what are you going to do about that?”
In early 2014, a friend put the question to Steve Craig, the Commerce Chenango president and CEO, in response to the sudden announcement by Norwich Aero’s parent company, Esterline Technologies, that it was closing the Norwich plant and moving production to its Tijuana, Mexico facility and some administrative functions to its Buena Park, California location. Local media highlighted the closing with bold headlines declaring that 120 workers would be laid off.
“Esterline had told us late in 2013 that the company was reorganizing,” recalls Craig, “but we had no idea that meant … [shuttering] the plant. All we heard was that the Norwich plant was setting records for quality, on-time delivery, and [profit] margins. Despite our best efforts to have Esterline reconsider the decision, it was obvious they felt we couldn’t offer incentives to offset the total labor cost of just $5 an hour paid in Mexico. The role now of Commerce Chenango is to spearhead the effort to find a new operator who will not only utilize the plant but also the workforce.” Craig describes his organization as a combination of a chamber of commerce, an industrial-development authority, and local-development corporation all rolled into one.
“This could be a very attractive opportunity for the right company,” says Steven Palmatier, the workforce and industrial liaison who is contracted by the Chenango County planning department and who shares office space at Commerce Chenango. “The building contains 57,000 feet on one level and includes a 6,500-square-foot, high-bay area. It comes with industrial electrical service, natural gas, municipal sewer and water, a 25-horse [power] reciprocating compressor, and 24/7 building security and monitoring.
The workforce is very skilled in making high-precision sensors for America’s premier aerospace manufacturers, such as Boeing, G.E. Aircraft Engines, Airbus, and Pratt & Whitney. Norwich Aero is a vertically integrated company that does its own machining, welding, coil winding, encapsulation, harnessing, and cabling. Norwich Aero’s employees are also skilled in a variety of tests and inspections involving shock, humidity, pressure, and temperature. The only thing they don’t do in-house is electro-plate coating.”
History
For the residents of Norwich, it’s déjà vu all over again, to quote the illustrious Yogi Berra. In 1983, the community watched Lewis Engineering close down its sensor-manufacturing plant and move its operation to Connecticut. A native of the region, William G. Ballard, led a group of private investors to create Norwich Aero Products, Inc. The New York corporation was certified on Sept. 19, 1983, and went into production with six employees by December of that year, in a 5,000-square-foot building at 10 Gladding Lane. Ballard was the company’s president. Minutes of the Common Council meeting from May 8, 1984, indicate unanimous approval of a request for a UDAG (Urban Development Action Grant) loan in the amount of $155,000. The loan supplemented $555,000 the company already had to buy machinery and equipment and to renovate the building. To accommodate its growth, Norwich Aero amended its certificate of incorporation on April 15, 1987, to increase the authorized shares from 100,000 to 5 million.
In 1999, Roxboro Group, PLC, headquartered in the U.K., acquired all outstanding shares of the business of Norwich Aero from the group of private investors and management who had founded the company. Norwich Aero was then integrated into Roxboro’s Weston Aerospace operation, which also manufactured high-end sensors. On June 11, 2003, Esterline Technologies (NYSE: ESL) of Bellevue, Washington closed its acquisition of the Weston Group for $88 million. At the time, Esterline employed 5,000 people and generated $600 million in annual revenue.
Marketing the facility
“There are a number of incentives available to assist a potential buyer,” notes Craig. “The Industrial Development Agency is empowered to confer property-tax relief, mortgage-recording-tax abatement, state and local sales-tax abatement, and bond financing. In addition, the Empire State Development Corp. offers grants up to 20 percent of the cost of capital investments in the project. [The frosting on the cake, of course] … is the combination of not just the plant but also a very skilled workforce. That’s quite a package.”
Craig and Palmatier are actively marketing the package. “From May 12 to 14, we promoted Norwich Aero at the Eastec exposition in W. Springfield, Massachusetts,” explains Palmatier. “With somewhere between 500 and 1,000 exhibitors, this is New England’s premier manufacturing trade show. I would guess that we spoke to 1,500 people about Norwich Aero at this show.
In June, we traveled to the Javits Center in New York City for the Atlantic Design & Manufacturing show. Both events gave us an opportunity to reach out to hundreds of manufacturers in a very short time. Our marketing plan [to date] also includes e-mailing more than 1,000 prospects in the Northeast, our website presence at www.50oharadrive.com, and collaborating with CBRE (a Fortune 500 real-estate company). Future efforts include targeted Internet marketing, print, and cold calls in the Binghamton, Syracuse, Cortland, Utica, and Oneonta areas. We are also talking with three start-up companies as an option if we can’t find a single buyer.”
Craig and Palmatier have been working closely with Esterline on the impending transition. “[The Bellevue Corporation] … underwrote the local effort to attend Eastec,” avers Palmatier. “Now we are waiting for a valuation on the property,” adds Craig. “There is also a serious flooding situation on the property, which has to be remediated. With Esterline planning on leaving the building by the end of December, there are ongoing negotiations to deal with a number of questions.”
In the 12 years since Esterline bought Norwich Aero, the parent company has grown from $600 million in revenue and 5,000 employees to approximately $2 billion and 13,000 employees. The growth has come largely through acquiring a dozen companies. Today, 50 percent of Esterline’s business comes from commercial aerospace, 30 percent from defense, and 20 percent from non-aero applications. The company holds the number-one or number-two position in each of its market niches. The company’s sensor division also has facilities in California, Tijuana, France, the U.K., and Singapore.
In the event the effort to find a buyer for Norwich Aero is unsuccessful before the plant closes, the employees are eligible for a number of benefits. “While the U.S. Department of Labor is awaiting information from Esterline, the current employees will probably be eligible under the federal Trade Adjustment Assistance program for free job training up to and including the associate degree level,” asserts Craig. “At the state level, a department of Labor Rapid Response Team is already assisting employees who are eligible with the full range of services provided by the CDO Workforce office, including counseling, skills-assessment, and the development of individual employment plans. (CDO is a consortium of state and local agencies serving Chenango, Delaware, and Otsego counties.) Of course, the employees are eligible for unemployment-insurance payments.”
Background
Craig grew up in Jamestown and attended Harpur College (now Binghamton University). He spent 35 years as a broadcast journalist in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida before joining Commerce Chenango four years ago. Craig also serves as the county’s designee to the Southern Tier Regional Economic Development Council and sits on the board of the Southern Tier Region Economic Development Corp. Palmatier was born in Binghamton and graduated high school in 1974. He attended Verrazano College and subsequently owned and operated Gilbert Machine and Tool from 1975-2006, an aerospace machining, fabrication, and assembly shop. Gilbert, which was located in Greene, employed 50. Palmatier also has expertise in natural-gas development with a focus on best-practices for the industry and for localities.
Commerce Chenango is optimistic that déjà vu will turn out as well in 2015 as it did in 1983. Craig and Palmatier are relying on two other Yogi aphorisms: “If you don’t know where you’re going, you may not get there;” and “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” Both have a map of where they are going, and when they come to a fork in the road, they will be sure to take the right one.
ICS Solutions Group runs like a gazelle
ENDICOTT — In a 1979 report titled “The Job Generation Process,” David Birch, the president of Cognetics, Inc., a research firm headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, determined that only 3 percent of U.S. companies generated 70 percent of all new jobs. He found that most job generators were small companies (with a revenue base of $100,000
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ENDICOTT — In a 1979 report titled “The Job Generation Process,” David Birch, the president of Cognetics, Inc., a research firm headquartered in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, determined that only 3 percent of U.S. companies generated 70 percent of all new jobs. He found that most job generators were small companies (with a revenue base of $100,000 or more) that increased their revenue at least 20 percent compounded annually for four or more years. Birch called them “gazelles.” He went on to identify other companies as “elephants” and “mice”— Fortune 500 companies and mom-and-pop shops — which generated very few new jobs.
ICS Solutions Group (ICS), which fits Birch’s description of a gazelle to a “tee,” also identifies its business in terms of animals: turtles, monkeys, lions, and camels. “I attribute a lot of our rapid growth to Dr. Larry Little,” says Kevin Blake, president of ICS. “He coached us based on his book, “Make a Difference,” which explains the power of relationships and how to understand your own personality as well as the personalities of the people you lead. Dr. Little challenged us to strategically perform at a high level in order to make a difference … The four animals represent four different personality characteristics. All the employees here have a stuffed animal at their desks to identify themselves so we can communicate effectively.”
ICS must be communicating well. Since Blake and his partner Travis Hayes bought the company in 2005, employment has grown from four to 62 people (48 in Endicott, 14 in Syracuse). The company, which currently occupies 7,000 square feet in its Endicott headquarters and another 4,500 square feet in the Syracuse location, is focused on opening a third office in Elmira by the first quarter of 2016.
The company is exploring buying an existing business with similar products/services and corporate philosophy, as well as the alternative of creating the new office de novo. Blake is also looking to buy or lease between 10,000 and 15,000 square feet in Endicott to provide adequate space for the company’s explosive growth. His goal is to occupy the new space by year-end.
CNYBJ estimates that ICS will generate revenue of $8.5 million this year, based on 20 percent growth in Endicott and 25 percent to 28 percent growth in Syracuse. All of the revenue growth in the past five years has been organic. Blake and Hayes are the sole stockholders in the operating company and are shareholders in several other ventures.
Change in strategy
“When Travis and I bought the business, we inherited a reactive business model,” recalls Blake. “A customer’s hardware broke, and we fixed it. We changed the model to be proactive and set up a maintenance-monitoring program that would minimize a customer’s downtime. Today, ICS does a lot more than repair hardware. [Our menu of services includes] … IT-managed services, telephony, cyber-security, project design and implementation, business continuity and disaster recovery, helpdesk services, virtualization, and IP security cameras and access control. Our sweet spot is small- and mid-sized businesses with 20-100 employees on the company network. We serve a number of markets, including health care, dental, insurance, accounting, professional services, auto dealerships, manufacturing, convenience stores, financial, legal, and nonprofit.
“The company’s geographical reach has also expanded. A decade ago we focused on the … [Triple Cities]; today, ICS services 19 counties of Upstate and three across the border in Pennsylvania.” In an Aug. 10 research list in CNYBJ, entitled “Computer/IT Consultants” in Central New York, ICS Solutions Group was listed as the largest. The ranking was determined by the number of IT consultants on staff.
How does ICS sustain its rapid growth? “There are four things that make us successful,” Blake says. “First, we are customer-oriented. That means we listen to our customers, and we respond quickly. We also anticipate their needs and offer a one-stop shop to solve their problems. For many companies which don’t have technologists on staff, we act as the chief technology officer. The customer, then, can rely on our company to assume the responsibility to keep the network and IT systems running.
“Second, Travis and I spend a lot of time working with our employees and motivating them to make a difference,” continues the company president. “We stress Dr. Little’s model of not only communicating internally with staff but also communicating with our customers. Many who are very skilled technicians are not comfortable communicating with the customers. Finding qualified technicians who can also communicate is the biggest challenge in sustaining our growth. Finding the best talent and ensuring a low turnover rate through job satisfaction requires a full-court press.”
The third key to success involved ICS joining a group called HTG (Heartland Technology Group). “We joined HTG because it was comprised of a national peer group of similar size technology-support companies. The group of 12 businesses meets quarterly to share best business practices, solve common problems, and anticipate customer needs. It’s like having a board of directors. HTG has helped us capitalize on successful strategies and avoid costly mistakes.
“Fourth, everyone has bought into the corporate culture,” observes Blake. “There are three principles we subscribe to: family, integrity, and loyalty. These aren’t principles made up by management: the entire staff considered a variety of options and collectively chose these three. The key is to live the values.”
The partners
Blake and Hayes divide their functions at ICS. The former focuses on business development and management while the latter focuses on the technology side. To keep up with the rapid company growth, ICS hired Joseph Williamson in December 2014 to manage the Syracuse office. Also in 2014, ICS hired Robert LaFave as the COO, allowing Hayes to devote full time to overseeing the technology. ICS also depends on key professional advisers to support the company: M&T Bank for financial services, Salvatore R. Peretore, CPA (Endicott) as the company’s accounting firm, and John G. Dowd (Binghamton) for legal matters.
Blake, 42, is a 1992 Maine-Endwell High School graduate who started working at ComputerLand in Binghamton in 1990. He graduated SUNY Oswego in 1996 with a degree in business and joined ICS two days after graduation. Hayes, 41, graduated from Alexandria Central High School in Jefferson County. He met Blake at SUNY Oswego where the two were classmates. Hayes majored in political science and history. After graduation, Hayes worked at Eastman Kodak in Rochester before joining ICS in 1999.
ICS is well positioned to continue running like a gazelle: The markets it serves are all projected to enjoy substantial, long-term growth. The International Association of Managed Service Providers reported on April 1 that the North American market generated $154 billion in revenue in 2014. According to a 2015 report by Deloitte & Touche, the traditional telecommunications sector is rapidly becoming more of an “interconnected ecosystem.” This offers new opportunities as well as an increasing demand for cyber-security and privacy solutions. Transparency Market Research reports that the video-surveillance market in the U.S. alone will grow at a 32 percent rate between now and 2020, when it will top $16 billion.
Synthetic Drugs Continue to Plague New York State
Over the past three months, The New York Times has covered stories on the local impact of synthetic-drug use. In July, they published a story on the synthetic-drug problem that has been growing in the Syracuse region. On Sept. 2, they reported on the dramatic spike in the use of K2, synthetic marijuana, in Harlem
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Over the past three months, The New York Times has covered stories on the local impact of synthetic-drug use. In July, they published a story on the synthetic-drug problem that has been growing in the Syracuse region. On Sept. 2, they reported on the dramatic spike in the use of K2, synthetic marijuana, in Harlem and in other parts of New York City.
The most-recent article noted that one particular city block in Harlem “appears at times to be a street of zombies.” K2, which is banned by the New York State Department of Health, is one of several synthetic drugs that are plaguing New York City, Central New York, and other parts of the state. Because the Department of Health’s ban does not go far enough to penalize selling synthetic drugs, it has left local communities grappling with increased synthetic-drug use and health and safety issues. I have long advocated for criminalizing the sale of synthetic drugs and have introduced legislation to that effect.
Outlawing synthetic drugs has been a challenge because New York and the federal government outlaw drugs based on their chemical compounds. Because they are synthetics, manufacturers have been able to slightly change their chemical composition, so that they are no longer on the state’s controlled-substance list, and therefore, no longer illegal. In addition, synthetic drugs are often mislabeled and sold as products other than drugs (i.e., bath salts, shoe deodorant, and incense). However, the seller and the purchaser realize that the intended use of the synthetic drug is to provide a high for the user.
My legislation addresses mislabeling, chemical swapping, and creates penalties for possessing and selling a synthetic-drug equivalent to the “street drug” counterpart. The bill contains two key provisions: (1) broader power is given to the Commissioner of Health to add synthetic drugs and their chemical compounds to the controlled-substance list, rather than having the state legislature act to add to the controlled-substance list; and (2) stores will be penalized for selling mislabeled products when they are clearly intended to be used as drugs. State Senator Patty Ritchie is the prime sponsor of this legislation in the State Senate.
For reasons unknown, Assembly Democrats in the New York Assembly have continually blocked my legislation from getting to the floor of the Assembly for a vote. It is time for the Assembly Democrats to recognize the dangers of synthetic drugs and take action. They need to stop blocking legislation that will not only protect the citizens of the New York City area, but also all citizens of New York state from the evils of these drugs.
William (Will) A. Barclay is the Republican representative of the 120th New York Assembly District, which encompasses most of Oswego County, including the cities of Oswego and Fulton, as well as the town of Lysander in Onondaga County and town of Ellisburg in Jefferson County. Contact him at barclaw@assembly.state.ny.us, or (315) 598-5185.
Snug Planet works to make homes more energy efficient
ENFIELD — Snug Planet, LLC — an energy-efficiency company based in Enfield, west of Ithaca — grew its revenue 40 percent in 2014 compared to the previous year. “We had years of slow, incremental growth and [it] was just a really big year,” says Jon Harrod, who co-owns Snug Planet, along with his wife,
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ENFIELD — Snug Planet, LLC — an energy-efficiency company based in Enfield, west of Ithaca — grew its revenue 40 percent in 2014 compared to the previous year.
“We had years of slow, incremental growth and [it] was just a really big year,” says Jon Harrod, who co-owns Snug Planet, along with his wife, Elisabeth.
The firm projects 20 percent revenue growth in 2015. Harrod spoke with CNYBJ on Sept. 3.
Before 2014, Snug Planet had more demand for its services than it had capacity to deliver the services, he noted.
Harrod says the company made a “big” investment in systems for its sales, production, training, and equipment “so that we had more capacity and so we could take on more and bigger jobs.”
The firm’s customer base “is more than 90 percent residential,” he adds.
Snug Planet can handle home-performance assessments, or what are known as energy audits, and any improvements to increase energy efficiency. The improvements could include installation of insulation, storm windows, ventilation, or air sealing and weatherstripping, according to the company’s website.
Snug Planet also handles the contracting work for any improvements on a given home. It can tackle “most” jobs, including insulation, air sealing, and moisture-control measures, Harrod says.
If the job involves improvements to a home’s heating system, then Snug Planet will subcontract the work to “a couple trusted partners,” which Harrod declined to name.
“Typically, people who call us have some combination of high energy bills, comfort problems like drafts, or rooms that they can’t keep warm,” says Harrod.
The firm is located in a 4,000-square-foot space at 1730 Mecklenburg Road in Enfield. John Rancich is their landlord, according to Harrod.
Harrod launched the business in 2006.
Snug Planet employs 12 full-time workers, including Harrod, and four part-time employees.
About the company
Snug Planet seeks to reduce a building’s energy usage and “improve people’s comfort in ways that make sense for customers and also for the planet,” says Harrod.
The company has what some people refer to as a “triple bottom line guiding” the business.
“We want to do right by people, by the planet, and, at the same time, run a profitable business,” says Harrod.
The Malta, New York–based Building Performance Institute Inc. (BPI) has certified Snug Planet as a building analyst and accredited the firm as a contractor, according to the Snug Planet website.
The firm is “certified to conduct blower-door tests, combustion-appliance inspection and repair, air quality testing including carbon-monoxide detection, duct testing and airflow testing in addition to our other contracting services,” its website says.
Harrod describes a blower-door test as a “big fan” that Snug Planet connects to a house’s door. It “depressurizes” the house, enabling Snug Planet “to go around and find where air leaks are happening.”
BPI “develops standards for energy efficiency retrofit work using an open, transparent, consensus-based process built on sound building science,” its website explains.
Snug Planet is also a partner in the Energy Star program.
Energy Star is a joint, voluntary program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy that “helps businesses and individuals save energy and fight climate change through energy efficient products, homes, and buildings,” according to the Energy Star website.
New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) is a partner with the EPA with its Home Performance with Energy Star and other related programs, according to NYSERDA.
Most New York homeowners can get a free home-energy assessment and a low-interest loan to help pay for any work to make improvements for better energy efficiency, NYSERDA says.
About Jon Harrod
Harrod, a New Jersey native, earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Harvard University in 1993.
He later earned his doctorate of philosophy in ecology at the University of North Carolina in 1999.
From there, Harrod served as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard through the end of 2000, he says.
The Harrods then moved to Ithaca where Jon Harrod started working for Performance Systems Development between 2001 and 2006. The Ithaca–based firm “specializes in translating building science expertise into powerful software tools and innovative program services for energy service professionals, building performance contractors, commercial property owners, and program implementers,” according to its LinkedIn page.
Community-owned wind farm nears construction west of Ithaca
ENFIELD — Construction on the Black Oak Wind Farm, a seven-turbine project about 10 miles west of Ithaca in the town of Enfield, is expected to begin this fall, nearly 10 years after the project was first envisioned. Black Oak Wind Farm is a for-profit company owned by 150 investors, about half of whom
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ENFIELD — Construction on the Black Oak Wind Farm, a seven-turbine project about 10 miles west of Ithaca in the town of Enfield, is expected to begin this fall, nearly 10 years after the project was first envisioned.
Black Oak Wind Farm is a for-profit company owned by 150 investors, about half of whom are accredited, according to project manager Marguerite Wells. She is also the VP on its board of directors, and one of the project’s investors.
All but six of the investors are New York state residents — those six are family and close friends of other investors, according to Wells. About 100 of the investors live in Tompkins County.
“This is the first example I know of [in New York] where people came together and said, ‘we actually want a wind farm and we’re going to build it ourselves,’ ” rather than having an outside developer making a pitch to a town, Wells says.
She is awaiting approval for building permits she applied for on Sept. 4. The first construction will focus on the installation of the wind farm’s substation, Wells says, where it will interconnect with the existing power grid owned by utility company New York State Electric & Gas Corporation (or NYSEG).
Installation of the seven turbines should begin in the summer of 2016, and the wind farm is expected to be operational later in the year.
The total cost of the farm — which will be situated on about 1,000 acres of land off Black Oak Road in Enfield — should be between $40 million and $45 million, and will be financed through a combination of private equity, tax equity, and bank debt, says Wells.
She has raised $3 million in investment capital over the past four years, and is working to finalize a financing package in the coming weeks that will provide the rest of the capital. She declines to disclose terms, or identify the bank.
Four land owners are leasing the acreage to the wind farm, she adds.
General Electric (NYSE: GE) designs and sells the turbine model to be constructed at the site. It has a 2.3-megawatt capacity, giving the farm a maximum capacity of 16.1 megawatts, according to the Black Oak website. Each turbine will stand 483 feet tall where the tip of a blade reaches its highest point, and the base of the turbine is about 15 feet in diameter.
GE will handle the operation and maintenance of the turbines once they are assembled. Those services come with the purchase of the turbines, according to Wells.
She anticipates the wind farm will have a 32 percent net capacity factor, which is the farm’s average rate of output at any given time over an entire year, factoring in periods when there is less wind. That output would provide enough electricity to power about 5,000 local households, according to Wells.
The company has a power-purchasing agreement in place with Cornell University. Wells declines to disclose the price, but says it “escalates at a fixed percentage year-to-year.”
Black Oak Wind Farm is working on the short list of bids for the construction contract, Wells says. About $500,000 has been spent on the environmental impact statement, most of which went to New York–based firms.
Project history
The seeds for Black Oak Wind Farm were first planted about 10 years ago when Wells’ neighbor, John Rancich, put up a small wind turbine on his property that underperformed. He began exploring the idea of building a commercial-grade turbine nearby, according to Wells.
Rancich found a good location about a mile from his house — the site where Black Oak Wind Farm will be built — with plenty of wind, open space, and a transmission line going across it.
“Those are sort of the bare bones of what you need to get started,” says Wells, who joined the project eight years ago when she approached Rancich, asking how she could help.
Her role quickly escalated to that of project manager, and for four years she devoted time to the farm’s development while Rancich financed it through the company he had started, called Enfield Energy.
Neither person had any prior experience in wind energy, other than the unsuccessful small turbine with which Rancich had experimented. “It was just a question of learning it and figuring it out and doing it,” Wells says.
In 2011, Wells bought out Rancich when he no longer had the assets to fund the project, and founded Black Oak Wind Farm. However, Rancich remains an investor in the project, Wells says.
“It was going to die if I didn’t come up with a new plan,” Wells says. “We had tried shopping it around to big wind developers, and nobody wanted a seven-turbine project. It’s just too small for most of the developers to be interested in.”
Near the beginning of the project’s introduction, the town was asked if it would like to own the farm, and it declined due to the financial risk and complexity involved, Wells notes.
Finding its footing
In her pursuit of a viable option to keep the wind farm alive, Wells says she discovered a seven-turbine farm in South Dakota that is owned by about 600 South Dakota residents.
“It was a neat community-ownership model, and they got it done,” she says. Wells reached out to South Dakota–based firm Val-Add Service Corporation, which had assisted in the development of that wind farm, and hired it as a consultant on her own.
“They gave me a road map on how to raise community money, because I had no idea how any of that worked,” she says.
Wells proceeded to raise $2 million in development capital, which she says was used to move forward several elements of the project, such as attaining the power purchasing agreement with Cornell University, the environmental work for the environmental-impact assessment, the interconnection process needed to tie into the electric grid, attaining a contract with GE for the turbines, as well as a contract with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (or NYSERDA) for renewable energy credits.
Wells raised another $1 million in 2014 in construction capital to begin paying for critical infrastructure that needed to be ordered, like an electrical transformer.
All $3 million she has raised came from community investors.
None of the project cost will be covered through financial incentives from any level of government, says Wells. “The incentives come when you generate [power].”
Black Oak Wind Farm has forged a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) agreement with the Tompkins County Industrial Development Agency (TCIDA) for the land on which the farm will be built. Wells says the flat-rate, 15-year PILOT requires the wind farm pay $8,300 per year for every megawatt installed, which equals about $130,000 annually.
From plants to power
Wells used to co-own a wholesale plant nursery called Mother Plants with her wife that specialized in green roofs. “We supplied almost every green roof in Syracuse, and about half of them in Rochester,” as well as projects in New York City, Boston, and Philadelphia, Wells says.
She originally expected to return to the nursery business after the wind farm was completed, but Wells says she is having too much fun, and she doesn’t want to go back and let die the eight years she has invested in education for the wind farm. “I want more projects,” she says.
In spring 2015, the couple sold Mother Plants to a Canada–based company, and the business now operates from Ontario under the same name.
“We still have a small amount of nursery left, but the majority of our business is downsized because we just didn’t have time, frankly,” Wells says.
The remaining nursery is now called Two Mothers Farm, Inc., and offers soil for green roofs, interior living walls, and consulting services for horticultural projects, according to its website.
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