DeWITT — Time Warner Cable, Inc. (NYSE: TWC) plans to develop a $7.3 million business-services center in a 55,000-square-foot space in the former Hechinger shopping plaza at 3179 Erie Boulevard in DeWitt.

The project will create 95 new jobs over the next four years and moves 171 existing Time Warner Cable Business Class jobs into the new facility, which had long been vacant.

The existing jobs are in offices located in the Syracuse area, Ken Fitzpatrick, senior vice president and chief operations and transformation officer for Time Warner Cable Business Class, says in an interview.

“It’s all due to an expansion … the desire to get everybody under one roof, all of the employees, whether it’s sales, or care, or technical operations all under one roof,” Fitzpatrick says.

He is based in New York City but spoke to The Central New York Business Journal on Nov. 18 during a business trip to Columbus, Ohio.

The project is contingent on a lease agreement and Onondaga County IDA approval of sales-tax benefits.

The company’s residential business will remain its existing offices, Fitzpatrick adds.

The new, multi-functional center, which is expected to be open for occupancy in spring 2014, will serve the company’s commercial customers in the northeastern U.S.

It will be Time Warner Cable’s first consolidated business-services center.

Fitzpatrick calls the company’s business-to-business arm, branded as Time Warner Business Class, “the fastest growing area of Time Warner Cable.”

Time Warner Cable qualified for up to $2 million in performance-based Excelsior Jobs Program tax credits from New York state in return for its proposed investment and job-creation commitments, says Fitzpatrick.

The firm will pay for the remainder of the project cost using company assets, a Time Warner spokesman said in an email message.

Mark Bethmann, president of Bell Group, based in Syracuse’s Armory Square, worked with Chicago, Ill.–based Jones Lang LaSalle to help Time Warner Cable find the space for its expansion, the spokesman said.

Paradise Companies 2, LLC will serve as Time Warner Cable’s landlord in its new space, the company said.

When asked about the architectural services involved, the company indicated Time Warner has “some existing partners who are really familiar with our needs and help us maintain a level of consistency within our facilities.”

The Pioneer Companies of Syracuse is serving as the contractor on the project, according to Time Warner.

Time Warner Cable provides video, high-speed data, and voice services in the U.S., connecting more than 15 million customers to entertainment, information and each other.

Time Warner Cable Business Class offers data, video and voice services to businesses of all sizes, cell tower backhaul services to wireless carriers and enterprise-class, cloud-enabled hosting, managed applications and services, the description said.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com

Several local governments in Central New York are among 68 governments statewide that will share in $4 million in grant funding to implement initiatives to streamline operations and “save taxpayer money.”

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the grant awards on Nov. 12.

The New York State Department of State will distribute the Local Government Efficiency (LGE) grants to 18 projects through which local governments are collaborating to reach operating efficiencies and savings goals, the governor’s office said in a news release.

The grants play a “central role in our efforts to empower” municipalities to increase efficiency and reduce costs for taxpayers, Cuomo said in a news release.

“With our support, local governments across the state are pursuing innovative approaches to their core operations. This ultimately enables local officials to more effectively control costs and reduce taxes levied on home and business owners in their communities,” Cuomo said.

The grants include an award of more than $87,000 for Onondaga County and the Central New York Interoperable Communications Consortium. The state is also awarding more than $361,000 for the consolidation of fire services in the towns of Lysander and Van Buren, according to the governor’s office.

In the North Country, the town and village of Gouverneur will use an award of $396,000 to consolidate their wastewater-treatment plants.

The state also awarded the Mohawk Valley Water Authority a grant of more than $112,000 for a western Mohawk Valley regional-water study, the governor’s office said.

In the Southern Tier, the state awarded Elmira Heights and Horseheads a grant of more than $49,000 for consolidation-feasibility study.

The village of Watkins Glen will also use a grant of nearly $44,000 for the Project Seneca Sewer consolidation study, according to Cuomo’s office.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com