The $28-million Syracuse venture into nanotechnology is still in the works despite state budget problems, say supporters.
“We’re very pleased that our partners in Albany remain committed to this project and see its enormous potential for attracting new companies and creating jobs in the region,” said Kevin Schwab, vice president of marketing and communications at CenterState Corporation for Economic Opportunity. CenterState is a non-profit development organization that is managing the creation of the Nanotechnology Innovation and Commercialization Excelerator in Salina Added Schwab: “We’re confident that it’s going to produce results.”
The complex will be used for nanotechnology research and development. Supporters predict the project will create up to 250 jobs. The grant will include renovating a former General Electric Co. laboratory that’s been closed since 1996. The building is in what’s now called Electronics Park in Salina.
It will also allow local companies, including Lockheed Martin Corp., to use the technologies developed in the nanotechnology complex to create products for commercial and military purposes. Lockheed Martin is one of the nation’s biggest defense contractors and employs roughly 2,400 people in Syracuse.
In an encouraging sign to supporters, Gov. Andrew Cuomo included the grant in his proposed budget.
Nanotechnology is the science of manipulating matter at the atomic and molecular level — managing the building blocks of materials. Its applications include biomedical, textile and electronics industries.
Lockheed Martin has signed on to use the facility and has already pledged to employ 15 to 20 new people to work there. In addition, in September, the Silicon Valley-based company, Group4 Labs, agreed to move its entire operation to the new facility. Group4 Labs makes advanced nanoelectronics devices. The company produces a composite semiconductor material that Lockheed plans to use in its radars.
Other companies have shown interest in moving into the building, either fully or partially, said Schwab. But he could not identify other potential tenants, he said.
The next step for CenterState is to determine the scope of the renovation of the old General Electric building. The renovation, Schwab said, will likely include removing asbestos and repairing plumbing. The building was built in 1944 by the General Electric Company, which used it as an electronics laboratory. Technologies developed there have been used to create products such as CAT scans and the first implantable pacemaker. It’s been empty since 1996. Renovation will take about 18 months, Schwab predicted.
About $16 million of the state grant is set aside for renovations, with the remaining $12 for buying and developing specialized equipment.
In an e-mail interview, the CEO of Group4 Labs, Felix Ejeckam, described the project as essential to his company. “We would otherwise not be able to make our products were it not for the facility,” he said.
Eric Schiff, a professor in the physics department at Syracuse University, praised the state investment in nanotechnology. “Practically all new high-technology industries will be using nanotechnology to varying degrees,” he said. Electronics have been getting smaller and smaller for the past decade, he said, and this will essentially be the next step.
Schiff’s expertise specifically deals with solar cells, devices that convert the energy of sunlight directly into electricity. Nanotechnology techniques, he said, might soon change the way solar cells are manufactured.
Nanotechnology can be used to make “structures using new principles of production that amount to self-assembly,” said Schiff. “If new types of solar cell made with true nanotechnology techniques are able to supplant traditional ones, it will be a real revolution.”
(Shawn Arrajj is a graduate student in magazine, newspaper and online journalism.)
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