Greater Utica Chamber launches What’s Upstate initiative

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UTICA — The Greater Utica Chamber of Commerce recently launched a new website to inform future, new, and current residents about all the attractions, activities, and amenities that the Mohawk Valley region has to offer. The chamber’s What’s Upstate initiative uses a comprehensive website (www.whatsupstateny.com) that highlights Oneida and Herkimer counties. “It’s really about showcasing […]

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The chamber’s What’s Upstate initiative uses a comprehensive website (www.whatsupstateny.com) that highlights Oneida and Herkimer counties.

“It’s really about showcasing the best of the best our area has to offer,” says Sean Farrell, special projects officer at the Greater Utica Chamber. “We have so many new businesses moving into the area, and we need to fill jobs.”

The website is a tool employers can share with their new and prospective employees to give people an overview of the area.

Rather than just using links and pictures of area attractions, the site uses storytelling to convey the region’s offerings. Lifelong residents, those who moved away and then returned, and those who relocated here from somewhere else all share their stories about the Mohawk Valley and what they love about it on the site.

“I wanted it to be relatable,” Farrell says. The website is broken into four main areas — live, work, explore, and tour — to provide information on housing options, business opportunities, attractions for area residents to enjoy, and information on how to plan a visit to the Mohawk Valley to experience it firsthand.

To get the word out about the new website, the Greater Utica Chamber is promoting it through social media and held a launch event on July 8 at the Boilermaker Expo at Mohawk Valley Community College.

“We have a great group of ambassadors,” Farrell adds. Those ambassadors will be out and about at area events promoting the website and the region.

The response to What’s Upstate has been great so far, he notes. “When you launch something like this, you open yourself up to criticism,” he says, but he’s only received positive feedback so far.

He encourages area residents to visit the site and to also share with others what they love about the Mohawk Valley. “Be a cheerleader for the area,” Farrell says.

Harbor Point project in Utica moves forward

Construction, Design & Real Estate, Regional News, Sports, Entertainment & Tourism, Subscriber Only

UTICA — After years of delay, things are progressing again with the City of Utica’s plan to turn its waterfront area into a destination for residents and tourists, alike. On June 16, the city announced it formally took ownership of the 1933 building from the New York State Canal Corporation, which is a major step

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UTICA — After years of delay, things are progressing again with the City of Utica’s plan to turn its waterfront area into a destination for residents and tourists, alike.

On June 16, the city announced it formally took ownership of the 1933 building from the New York State Canal Corporation, which is a major step forward in its Utica Harbor Point project.

“The harbor has been talked about for decades and decades,” Utica Mayor Robert Palmieri says.

Just a step away from North Genesee Street, the harbor area was truly a hidden gem—hidden away by buildings. Now that the city has ownership of the 1933 building, work is underway to demolish two adjacent buildings and remediate the area for reuse using American Rescue Plan Act funding. The City of Utica is in talks with two interested developers.

No reuse plans are finalized yet, Palmieri says, but he envisions restaurants, stores, apartments, and water-use business like kayak rentals along a waterside promenade.

“Water has always captivated everyone,” he notes. “This is going to be a destination.”

The project dates back to 2008 when then-Gov. David Paterson signed legislation allowing the transfer of about 15 acres of state land around the Utica harbor to the city. The intent at the time was for a local development corporation to steward the land and foster an environment for private development to flourish.

The city established the Utica Harbor Point Development Corporation (UHPDC), with the city as the sole member, which is guided by an 11-person board. To date, the UHPDC secured nearly $20 million in state and local funding to create a master plan, establish design guidelines, construct improved access to the area, extend utilities to the site, reconstruct the concrete bulkhead around the harbor, and improve pedestrian access between downtown Utica and the harbor.

Palmieri cites the construction of a Starbucks just outside the harbor entrance as proof the project is truly finding its footing.

“Starbucks only goes where they believe in an area,” he says, adding that walkability, livability, and “job-ability” are three benchmarks the company seeks.

Another nearby project, the Nexus Center multi-surface sports complex on Oriskany Street West dovetails well with the Harbor Point project, Palmieri says. Part of the harbor plan calls for development of about five acres of recreational fields just a short walk away. Families with members participating in tournaments at the Nexus Center can walk over to Harbor Point to enjoy some outdoor time, grab a little lunch, or just enjoy the water, he says.

Growth across the entire downtown Utica region, he says, is booming and all the regions from Bagg’s Square to Varick Street will benefit.

MVCC Center for Leadership Excellence graduates 2022 classes

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UTICA — The Center for Leadership Excellence at Mohawk Valley Community College (MVCC) recently celebrated the 2022 graduates of its leadership-development programs, including Leadership Mohawk Valley (LMV), Neighborhoods Rising, Supervisors Institute, and Leadership Academy. The Center for Leadership Excellence says it “connects and inspires leaders from across the Mohawk Valley to think and lead in

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BOOMERANG STORY: Mohawk Valley native rediscovers the region’s assets

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UTICA — Growing up in the Mohawk Valley, Sean Farrell knew there were lots of wonderful things to offer, but it took years of living elsewhere for him to realize his home region was truly where he wanted to be. After graduating from Whitesboro High School in 1987 and Utica University in 1992 (then called

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After graduating from Whitesboro High School in 1987 and Utica University in 1992 (then called Utica College), Farrell was ready to spread his wings. As a speech communications and dramatic arts major, he planned to take Hollywood by storm.

“I drove across the country to L.A.,” he recalls and got set up in a studio apartment just a block away from Hollywood Boulevard. That very night, someone broke into his car, stealing everything inside.

“That was my welcome to California,” Farrell quips.

He spent just over a year living in California before heading back east — living in the Hamptons on Long Island for a time before heading south to Atlanta, Georgia, and eventually to Florida. He had been working in retail but entered the vendor side of retail while in Florida working for various designers.

A job with Calvin Klein sent Farrell back to California, followed by a job with Macy’s that sent landed him in the Big Apple for six years.

In 2010, a friend of his lost her child to cancer and Farrell returned to the Mohawk Valley to help his grieving friend.

“I only intended to stay for two years maximum,” he says. During that time, Farrell helped his friend and also started a nonprofit called Anjali’s Army in memory of the child she lost. The organization raised money for children with cancer.

Over the two years he was operating the nonprofit, Farrell found his views of the area had changed and he wasn’t so eager to leave. Instead, he had a better idea for using his years of experience outside the region.

“Everything that I learned, I should maybe put to use in my own back yard,” he recalls thinking. That led to a job in marketing at the House of the Good Shepherd in Utica.

“Personally, I became reinvested back in the area,” Farrell says. He rediscovered so many wonderful things that he appreciated while growing up in the Mohawk Valley but had forgotten about along the way.

Today, Farrell is the special projects officer for the Greater Utica Chamber of Commerce, where it’s now his job to tell everyone about why the area is so great.

“It really dawned on me that there’s no place else like it,” he says of the Mohawk Valley. Housing is affordable and you can’t beat the traffic, he says.

From mountains to beaches, there is plenty for outdoor lovers, and with venues like the Stanley Theatre and Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, the area offers numerous cultural opportunities for art lovers like himself, Farrell says.

The growing diversity in the region has brought in new people, new cultures, new foods, and new opportunities to learn about all of them.

Farrell highlights all of it on his latest project with the chamber called “What’s Upstate.” With a website full of stories from people like him who left and came back, and plenty of stories from people who never left, What’s Upstate is Farrell’s way to entice people, especially those like him who moved away, to give the Mohawk Valley another chance.

First Woodhaven homes listed for sale in Rome

Construction, Design & Real Estate, Regional News, Subscriber Only

ROME — The first of 250 new homes where military housing once stood hit the market in Rome recently. Bonacio Construction, Inc. of Saratoga Springs just wrapped up work on the first seven homes of the 250 planned for its Woodhaven housing development on Park Drive in Rome. And Julie & Co. Realty, LLC, also

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ROME — The first of 250 new homes where military housing once stood hit the market in Rome recently.

Bonacio Construction, Inc. of Saratoga Springs just wrapped up work on the first seven homes of the 250 planned for its Woodhaven housing development on Park Drive in Rome. And Julie & Co. Realty, LLC, also of Saratoga Springs, held its first open house the weekend of July 9-10.

“We had, I think, about 25 groups that came over two days,” says Alex Cooley, property agent with Julie & Co. Realty. There will be open houses just about every weekend, and possibly some weekdays, over the next few months until the homes sell.

“We actually just got one under contract,” Cooley adds. That leaves just five homes left for sale, as of press time, as one of the homes serves a park model.

Cooley says the feedback has been great so far. “They’re beautiful homes,” he contends. The homes come in two designs, the one-story Woodstock and the two-story Gansevoort, and three different interior/exterior color palettes. Prices start at $352,000 for the Woodstock and $395,000 for the Gansevoort.

What makes these homes unique is that they come with an 18-year PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) program that will initially offset the property tax burden. “Hopefully, it’ll make things more affordable,” Cooley says.

“One of the roadblocks to homeownership in this area was taxes,” says Kate Jarosh, asset manager for Bonacio. The company worked with the City of Rome and the Oneida County IDA to hammer out the PILOT program, which gradually increases the assessed, taxed amount until it reaches full value after 18 years.

“It’s a nice ramp, so there are no cliffs at the end,” Jarosh notes. Another feature of the PILOT is that it stays with the property, so if an original owner sells, the new owner will benefit for the remaining years of the PILOT.

Woodhaven isn’t Bonacio’s first housing project in Rome. The company broke ground in 2019 on its Air City Lofts luxury apartments in Griffiss Business & Technology Park, the first phase of which opened in 2021.

“Griffiss is kind of a hidden gem,” Jarosh says of the former Air Force Base turned business park. The park is home to 72 businesses with nearly 6,000 employees — more people than were on base during the height of the Air Force installation, she notes. “With that, people have to live somewhere.”

In talking with those employees, Bonacio learned that many commuted from nearby Utica or even as far away as Syracuse. Few, Jarosh says, seemed to live in Rome due to a lack of housing.

Air City Lofts provided one solution to the housing shortage, she says, and Woodhaven is an extension of that for people looking for more than an apartment.

“The cool thing about Woodhaven is its proximity to a number of things,” she says. Of course, it’s a short commute for anyone working in the park. For families with teenagers, the Rome Free Academy high school is just around the corner, and the nearby Rome Family YMCA provides activities for all ages. “It’s a neat area that’s kind of the nexus of a lot of things,” Jarosh says.

Bonacio is working with businesses in the park to make sure they are aware of the housing, as well as other new-to-the-area companies like Wolfspeed in Marcy.

Bonacio plans to begin construction soon on the next seven homes, breaking the buildout into chunks for flexibility to alter designs if the market warrants, Jarosh says. It expects to complete the development in 2036. Bonacio is close to completing the purchase of an additional 10 acres near the YMCA that it will use for another housing development.

Innovare’s quantum workshop nurtured connectivity

Health Care, Regional News, Subscriber Only, Technology

ROME — The Innovare Advancement Center at Griffiss Business and Technology Park recently hosted the fourth annual Quantum Information Science Workshop (Q4I), an initiative to foster connectivity between government, academic, and industry collaborators in the field of quantum innovation. The event took place over three days — July 12-14. The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL)

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Skydome indoor drone-testing facility to transform Rome UAS test site

Construction, Design & Real Estate, Manufacturing & Engineering, Regional News, Subscriber Only, Technology

ROME — As they took flight at the end of the ceremony, two drones stretched out a ribbon that officials would cut to formally open the $13 million Skydome at Griffiss International Airport in Rome. Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente, Jr. and Hope Knight, president, CEO, and commissioner of Empire State Development, handled the ribbon

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ROME — As they took flight at the end of the ceremony, two drones stretched out a ribbon that officials would cut to formally open the $13 million Skydome at Griffiss International Airport in Rome.

Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente, Jr. and Hope Knight, president, CEO, and commissioner of Empire State Development, handled the ribbon cutting.

Skydome is located in a former airplane hangar and is described as the “largest indoor drone test facility in the nation,” the office of Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a July 14 release. The office also described Skydome as a “transformational investment” in New York’s unmanned aircraft systems [UAS] test site at Oneida County.”

Skydome will support collaborative efforts between the Air Force Research Laboratory Information Directorate (Rome Lab) and the New York UAS test site, leveraging the region’s high tech commercial and academic ecosystem supporting the development of technologies for small, unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) to operate safely and securely in the national air space, per Hochul’s release.

“It will support collaborative-research efforts between the test site and the Air Force Research Laboratory in Rome,” Picente said in his remarks during the July 14 ceremony. “As a one-of-a-kind facility, we know the demand for this facility is strong with customers from all over the world.”

Oneida County created and developed the $13 million project, which includes $4 million in county funding. In addition, the state provided a $4.5 million grant from the CNY Rising Upstate Revitalization Initiative and $4.5 million grant from the Mohawk Valley Upstate Revitalization Initiative.

New York State Senator Joseph Griffo (R–Rome) also secured a $950,000 grant for the facility.

“The advancements that are taking place here are further cementing the region’s status as a hub for innovation and they will help grow the regional ecosystem for emerging … technology,” ESD’s Knight said in her remarks at the event. “Drone technology is truly cutting-edge technology with a growing list of uses and applications from e-commerce to public safety. The Skydome will be a game changer for this region and for the industry and it represents another win in the Mohawk Valley and for this region to be recognized as a global power.”

Picente also provided this observation in Hochul’s announcement about the Skydome project.

“Like the Wolfspeed chip fab, and the soon-to-be completed MVHS Wynn Hospital and Nexus Center sports complex, the opening of Skydome is another transformational project that will spur new jobs and investment in Oneida County, and further demonstrates why we have one of the most robust and diverse economies in the Northeast,” Picente contended. “From its inception, this ambitious county project set out to solidify Oneida County and New York State as the global epicenter for drone research and development and with today’s Skydome opening, we have done just that.”

With the completion of Skydome, New York state is now home to the largest indoor anechoic chambered unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) experimentation facility in the U.S., Hochul’s office said. It will provide year-round, indoor testing of advanced drone technologies, including artificial intelligence-based flight controls and “autonomous swarms” of small drones.

Oneida County works in partnership with Syracuse–based NUAIR, which oversees the 50-mile drone corridor between Rome and Syracuse, Picente noted. The drone corridor is helping to find ways to safely integrate drones into the nation’s airspace.

“NUAIR has been managing the New York UAS Test Site since the [Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)-designation] over 10 years ago and we continue to have a great collaborative partnership with the State, Oneida County and surrounding organizations,” Ken Stewart, CEO of NUAIR said. “With our 50-mile drone corridor, bespoke private 5G test range, and [now the] addition of Skydome, Central New York continues to be the leading destination for UAS and Advanced Air Mobility companies to land and expand their operations.”

In her remarks at the grand-opening event, Rome Mayor Jacqueline Izzo said the region’s been working to “solidify our relationship” with the Air Force Research Laboratory and “strengthen its ties to our community.”

“And we make sure that the Air Force and the [U.S.] Department of Defense understand this lab’s relevance to the overall mission. And I think today, with the opening of this facility; the commitment of our state, county, local governments … it was drawn on paper, but to see it come to life now is truly amazing and it is a unique facility. And it will allow the lab to come over and do classified and non-classified testing here. It’ll allow other people to come from around the country to this FAA test site to do things that are unique to the unmanned aerial systems,” Izzo said.

Tech Barn to serve as gateway to Marcy Nanocenter campus

Construction, Design & Real Estate, Regional News, Subscriber Only, Technology

MARCY — Planning is moving forward on the Tech Barn mixed-use project that will serve as the entrance point to the Marcy SUNY Parkway corridor and set the tone for the Marcy Nanocenter campus beyond it. Park Grove Realty LLC of Rochester landed the developer’s contract for the project late last year and has been

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Park Grove Realty LLC of Rochester landed the developer’s contract for the project late last year and has been busy this year designing a project worth of Mohawk Valley EDGE’s vision, says Andrew Crossed, co-founder and managing partner at Park Grove.

“This project will potentially be the first thing everybody sees when they drive into SUNY,” he says, so it needs to be state-of-the-art and high-level with high- tech businesses Wolfspeed and Danfoss Silicon Power just a little further up the road.

The mixed-use development project is centered around a main building that includes 20,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space with apartments above. The entire project includes a secondary commercial building, two additional apartment buildings, a parking garage for tenants, and townhomes. In all, the project includes 42,000 square feet of commercial space and 232 apartments ranging from one to three bedrooms on approximately 25 acres.

“The apartments would be very high-end, market-rate apartments, which we feel is very needed in the marketplace,” Crossed says. Commercial tenants could include professional services that support the Nanocenter campus or convenience businesses.

“We’ve been working with Wolfspeed with what they need to attract people,” he says. Wolfspeed’s silicon-carbide chip fabrication facility opened in April and already employs more than 300 people. When fully operational, it will have 600 or more employees.

The Tech Barn apartments will feature a number of amenities including a pool, fitness center, fire pit and seating area, wine lounge, private wine lockers, and a dog park, Crossed says. “It’ll be very connected to the rest of the campus.”

Crossed says he’s very excited to be working with Mohawk Valley EDGE on the project. “We just think that what they have done on this campus has been great for the community as a whole,” he says.

Park Grove will spend the next several months putting its design before the necessary planning boards for approval. “We anticipate that going through the summer into the fall,” Crossed says. He is hopeful the project will break ground in the first quarter of 2023, but that will be impacted by external factors include construction labor shortages and increasing construction costs.

Construction costs have already increased about 35 percent since the beginning of this year, he says, and that can have a big impact on the project with a total price tag exceeding $60 million.

Park Grove did receive $1 million in Consolidated Funding Application funds from the state for infrastructure improvements on the site, and that will help move the project along, Crossed says.

In the meantime, the company is fine tuning the design with in-ARCHITECTS, a Syracuse–based architecture firm. Additionally, Endwell–based Delta Engineers, Architects, & Surveyors is the project’s civil-engineering firm.

Once Park Grove breaks ground, Crossed expects the first building to take about 14 months to construct.

Founded in 2015 by Crossed and Andrew Bodewes, Park Grove Realty is a real-estate development and management company based at 46 Prince St. in Rochester. The company focuses on multi-family residential, mixed-use, and commercial projects.

NBT provides financing for transformative Mohawk Valley projects

Banks & Credit Unions, Construction, Design & Real Estate, Regional News, Subscriber Only

UTICA — NBT Bank officials say they are pumped about the economic and development transformation taking place in the Mohawk Valley and their role in helping to procure financing for some of the projects. “It’s a great story what’s going on in the Mohawk Valley,” John H. Watt, Jr., president and CEO of parent company

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“It’s a great story what’s going on in the Mohawk Valley,” John H. Watt, Jr., president and CEO of parent company NBT Bancorp (NASDAQ: NBTB), says. “It’s an exciting business opportunity for us in a market we know well.”

NBT Bank has about 100 employees and 10 branch offices in the Mohawk Valley region.

David Kavney, NBT Bank’s regional president for both the Mohawk Valley and Central New York regions, share’s Watt’s enthusiasm about the Utica–Rome area.

“There’s a lot going on and it’s exciting to be a part of it,” he says. Both Watt and Kavney sat down with CNYBJ on July 7 at the banking company’s Syracuse office.

The Mohawk Valley projects NBT has participated in include the following pair.

Olbiston Apartments

Formerly a “grand example of stunning Utica architecture,” the 124-year-old Olbiston Apartments building at 1431 Genesee St. in Utica had fallen into disrepair and had been deemed unsafe in July 2021, the bank notes. As a result, nearly 60 tenants were displaced.

In late 2021, NBT Bank worked with borrower the City of Utica to provide the initial funding that allowed for the purchase of the property from the absentee landlords, enabling initial repairs to be made protecting the property through winter from further damage, NBT says. In conjunction with and support from New York State Homes and Community Renewal, Housing Trust Fund Corporation, and the New York Governor’s office, this also helped “jump start the process” toward obtaining construction and permanent financing with low-income housing and historic tax credits.

Following a full gut-renovation/restoration, the historic property, built in 1898, will provide affordable and workforce housing for 153 households, including 32 studios, 92 one-bedroom units, and 29 two-bedroom units for affordable-housing tenants, NBT says. The total project cost is estimated at more than $55 million.

Utica Harbor Point

The Utica Harbor is a historical landmark on the Erie Canal. It is a vestige of the great NYS Canal System during the “Barge Canal” industrial period and boasts “a proud history,” NBT notes. The goal of the Harbor Point Redevelopment Project is to revitalize the 148 acres of Utica Harbor waterfront area into a 500,000-square-foot mixed use area with “vibrant business and recreational destination for the City of Utica and surrounding areas.”

In 2018, NBT provided the bridge financing for the site-preparation work and the repair of the Canal bulkhead, supported by a $6 million Empire State Development grant issued in 2013. This financing enabled the project to advance the overall property development in conjunction with the City of Utica Master Plan,” NBT says. Today, this work is about 95 percent complete with final work underway to be able to sell the properties.

“Both of these projects presented our team an opportunity to do what they do best — partner with amazing businesses and organizations to support the exciting and ongoing transformation of our community,” Kavney says. “I can’t stress enough how exciting, I mean truly thrilling, it is to be able to roll up our sleeves and help make sure these two important projects are a success. Both transactions involved unique structures due to the complexity of the funding sources and number of partners involved. But it all comes down to collaboration, open communication and having a shared vision.”

NBT Bank offers personal banking, business banking, and wealth-management services from offices in seven states, including New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and Connecticut. NBT Bank and NBT Bancorp are both headquartered in Norwich. NBT Bancorp had assets of $12.1 billion, as of the end of the first quarter.

Briggs & Stratton, Sherrill Manufacturing boost business activity in Sherrill

Manufacturing & Engineering, Regional News, Subscriber Only

SHERRILL — The city of Sherrill has two employers that are known for driving economic activity in the community — Briggs & Stratton Corp. and Sherrill Manufacturing, Inc. Whether it’s hiring, manufacturing, or online sales, both companies and their employees generate economic activity for Sherrill’s downtown area, according to Brandon Lovett, city manager in Sherrill.

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SHERRILL — The city of Sherrill has two employers that are known for driving economic activity in the community — Briggs & Stratton Corp. and Sherrill Manufacturing, Inc.

Whether it’s hiring, manufacturing, or online sales, both companies and their employees generate economic activity for Sherrill’s downtown area, according to Brandon Lovett, city manager in Sherrill.

“From what I can see, there are more cars downtown. There are more people downtown, so there’s more activity,” says Lovett. “It’s certainly not to the level it was when Oneida Limited was here … but we have certainly seen the uptick of pedestrian traffic, of vehicle traffic, of commercial traffic.”

He also credited the Oneida Indian Nation, which built its first Maple Leaf Market here about three years ago. Lovett called the project a “significant investment” in the community.

Briggs & Stratton

The Sherrill location of Briggs & Stratton (NYSE: BGG), as of July 14, had an hourly employee count of 680 and was “working to hire a significant number of people,” Lauren Vagnini, director of communications at Briggs & Stratton, tells CNYBJ in an email.

As of July 14, the firm had 50 hourly positions open, including manufacturing operations such as assembly, weld, and material handling. Briggs & Stratton also has salaried positions available in engineering and operations.

The number of positions available is due to “continued growth” within the Sherrill facility related to “strong product demand” and the company’s recent announcement to contract manufacture STIHL’s new line of zero-turn mowers, Vagnini says.

On-site hiring events are scheduled each Wednesday between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. at the Sherrill plant, which is located at 100 E. Seneca St.

Briggs & Stratton opened its $10 million, 552,000-square-foot commercial-products manufacturing facility in Sherrill in September 2019.

With the company’s commercial-market growth, Briggs & Stratton needed a larger facility for production of its Ferris and Snapper Pro brand mowers, originally manufactured in Munnsville in Madison County.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin–based Briggs & Stratton is the world’s largest producer of engines for outdoor power equipment, and a designer, manufacturer and marketer of lithium-ion battery, standby generator, energy storage system, lawn and garden, turf care, and job site products, per the company’s LinkedIn profile.

Sherrill Manufacturing

In addition to the business activity at Briggs & Stratton, Sherrill Manufacturing is also boosting the economy of the city of Sherrill.

The co-owner of Sherrill Manufacturing says its internet business more than doubled during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Its business with the U.S. government through the General Services Agency (GSA) has also improved following enactment of the Support Procurement of our Nation’s Stainless Steel Act (or SPOONSS Act) in early 2020.

That’s according to Matt Roberts, co-owner, president and COO of Sherrill Manufacturing, who spoke with CNYBJ on July 11.

Sherrill Manufacturing, situated at 102 E. Seneca St. in Sherrill, is the last remaining flatware manufacturer in the U.S. Both Roberts and Greg Owens founded the company in 2005, when the firm acquired substantially all of the flatware manufacturing assets from Oneida Limited, per the Sherrill Manufacturing website. The company currently has about 76 employees.

Sherrill Manufacturing is known for its Liberty Tabletop brand, which is a division of the business.

SPOONSS Act impact

As Roberts explained it, the GSA (the purchasing arm for the federal government) a number of years ago decentralized its purchasing process. Sherrill Manufacturing would send all of its government flatware to two main warehouses in Burlington, New Jersey and French Camp, California.

When GSA decentralized, a lot of the purchasing was made in the form of micro-purchases and Sherrill Manufacturing lost a lot of that business, according to Roberts.

In addition, some of the other distributors that served the GSA were selling products that were touted as “made in the USA” but they weren’t, he added.

He went on to say that U.S. Representative Claudia Tenney (R–New Hartford) first introduced the SPOONSS Act in 2017 and former U.S. Representative Anthony Brindisi (D–Utica) also supported the measure after he took office in 2019.

SPOONSS Act is legislation to require the military to purchase American-made flatware, like the kind produced at Sherrill Manufacturing. The measure was included in the final National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which President Donald Trump signed into law.

The law is starting to give the company a lift.

“What we’re seeing with that is that it’s slowly ramping up our GSA business,” says Roberts. “What we’re starting to see is that our GSA [business] is growing. Not super-fast, but it’s growing. It’s very noticeable.”

Besides its GSA activity, Roberts notes that Sherrill Manufacturing’s internet business has “grown like 250 percent” and it’s become the “biggest part of our business” due to the pandemic as people stayed home and bought online.

“This year, [it’s] not up as much as it had been in the past. I think inflation has a lot to do with that,” he adds.

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