Presented by the
OLEAN TIMES HERALD
JANUARY 11, 2023
A look back at 2022 in Olean area By Bob Clark, Rick Miller and Kellen M. Quigley New developments in industry and commercial sectors earned almost half the spots on the Olean Times Herald’s top 10 list for news in 2022, based on polling of newsroom staff. Reactions to national issues earned several spots, as well. Politics picked up several more spots, but the top story of the last two years — the COVID-19 pandemic — slipped to 10th place in the poll as case counts and death tolls, as well as economic impacts, began to lessen through most of the year.
1. Siemens Energy closes, Cimolai buys North Olean site Olean might need to change its name to Steeltown after a steel manufacturer purchased the largest industrial site in the city this year. July marked the end of manufacturing at Siemens Energy in North Olean, laying off more than 500 workers over a year and ending more than 100 years of heavy industry in the neighborhood.
The bulk of the project will take place inside the existing structures on the site, totalling almost 1 million square feet. In November, the IDA approved a payment in lieu of taxes deal worth almost $5 million, plus more than half a million dollars in other tax incentives for the project. For more than 100 years, the site has been home to the largest heavy industry in the city. In 1916, Clark Brothers relocated from Belmont to the site — adjacent to the Socony-Vacuum oil refinery, as the company focused production on the oil and gas industry. Through various mergers it became part of Dresser-Rand. German conglomerate Siemens bought Dresser-Rand in 2015 for $7.8 billion, and in 2020 spun off Siemens Energy, which included several areas of business that, tied to oil and gas industries, were performing poorly as focus globally turned toward renewable energy alternatives. Siemens Energy announced in February 2021 that it would close manufacturing in Olean by mid2022, laying off more than 500 workers. The site was later listed by a commercial real estate firm and sold to Cimolai-HY at auction for around $8 million. The 88-acre site
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Based on the closing alone, the story likely would have earned the top spot in the annual Times Herald Top 10 staff poll, as leaders, businesses and families prepared for a major hit to the local economy. Despite rumors of an Italian steel company being interested in the site for most of 2021 and 2022, local leaders said they were not expecting an immediate turnaround on the site. But in September, a cooperative between Italian steelmaker Cimolai and New York-based real estate firm Related stepped forward with intent to redevelop the site — this time to make structural steel for projects like the new Buffalo Bills stadium. Company officials plan to spend $56 million to refurbish the plant and hope to hire around 250 workers for the site when it is operational in 2025. The jobs are expected to pay between $54,000 and $180,000 a year, according to documents filed by the firm with the Cattaraugus County IDA.
includes two large industrial plants and a large and two small office buildings totaling about 950,000 square feet. There are another seven buildings used for storage and testing.
2. Great Lakes Cheese breaks ground Great Lakes Cheese Co. broke ground in April for its $500 million state-of-the-art cheese plant on a 200-acre site along Route 16 north of Franklinville. It was considered no small feat for a small county in Western New York — especially in the wake of the loss of Siemens Energy in Olean. The site was brought to the attention of the Great Lakes Cheese Co. after efforts to find a site to build the 486,000 square-foot cheese manufacturing and packaging facility in Allegany County failed. The Cattaraugus County Legislature paid about $400,000 for studies to show the site was shov-
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el-ready. Later, county lawmakers added about $8 million in federal stimulus funding to that for new sewer and water lines to the site. The Cattaraugus County IDA helped shepherd the project from the start, and have agreed to more than $150 million in tax incentives to convince Great Lakes Cheese Co. that this was the ideal site, given it is only about 15 miles from the Cuba plant. A payment in lieu of taxes agreement guarantees no property taxes for 20 years. The new facility, which will replace a smaller cheese plant in Cuba, will employ nearly 500 employees. There are currently more than 230 employees at the Cuba plant who will move to the new facility once it opens in early 2024. A large part of the company’s desire to build a new state-of-theart plant as close to its existing Cuba plant as possible was to keep the existing employees. The new facility, now under construction, will double production of the company’s Cuba plant. Some of the first employment at the new plant will involve processing and packaging of cheeses from different locations. Jamestown Community College will help train new employees prior to the opening of the new plant in Franklinville. The new plant will also double the amount of milk Great Lakes Cheese will purchase from dairy farmers in the region, giving farmers a stable market. The new plant will buy 4 million gallons of milk from farmers in the region and will be linked to about 600 farming jobs.
In addition, the IDA is looking to locate other support businesses in the Route 16 corridor with an eye toward additional jobs. Much of the site is located in the town of Farmersville. The Epprecht Family-owned business is privately owned with Great Lakes Cheese Company’s 3,000 employees. It was founded in 1958 and is headquartered in Hiram, Ohio. There are eight facilities in five states across the country where Great lakes Cheese Co. products are manufactured, processed and packaged. The Cuba facility produces primarily provolone and mozzarella cheese products. Great Lakes Cheese Company’s plant in Adams produces the company’s award-winning cheddar cheeses.
3. Langworthy survives twists and turns of new 23rd Congressional District The 23rd Congressional District election saw several twists and turns from the start to the election of New York Republican Chairman Nicholas Langworthy. Langworthy defeated Democrat Max Della Pia, a retired Air Force colonel 63% to 34% in a seven-county 23rd District that includes part of Erie County and six Southern Tier counties — Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Allegany, Steuben, Chemung and Schuyler. Steuben County Republican Chairman Joe Sempolinski beat Del-
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