Greg Connors has been involved in economic development in some way in Saratoga County for decades.
From his time working in real estate at Connors-Howard Realty in Mechanicville, to his two terms as Stillwater town supervisor and most recently his role as senior leader of government relations for GlobalFoundries, Connors has seen Saratoga County transform from a mostly rural area to a manufacturing and industrial powerhouse.
His goal is to build on that growth and bring in new industries too, as the new president and CEO of the Saratoga Economic Development Corp. The 45-year-old organization backed by builders, lumber suppliers, retailers and bankers assists companies looking to expand and create jobs in Saratoga County.
Tell me about your plans to expand the types of companies and development projects that SEDC can assist with?
\We’re limited by our bylaws somewhat to the sectors that we can offer benefits to. For SEDC, it’s industrial and manufacturing. Of course those are great opportunities and historically, throughout Saratoga County, there’s the GlobalFoundries story and the Quad/Graphics story and the Target warehouse. Great success stories from an economic development point of view. But in my view, there’s other economic opportunities. There’s the life sciences sector. There’s the equine industry – I’m not talking about NYRA, I’m talking about the breeding farms and large family farms. And then commercial opportunities, maybe even some retail and workforce housing.
Why bring about that change?
Those sectors, I don’t want to say they’ve been ignored, because they certainly haven’t. But I think if we can offer some of the uniform tax exemption programs to some sectors, we ought to try to identify and provide those benefits to an expanding group of sectors. So I’m working on that.
What’s the process like to change those bylaws?
Any bylaw change would have to be adopted by the membership. So I recently received the approval from the board of directors to go down this road. My personal goal is to have bylaw changes for the membership to consider at our April annual meeting.
What else is on your to-do list as you’re stepping into this new role?
I put together a 30-day and 90-day goal list. I’ve made some progress. But bylaws was one of them. Another is becoming more of a community participant. I want to be more inclusive, I want to be more participatory with our community and economic development and business stakeholders. And I want the organization to be more visible. We have over 200 member stakeholders and I think that community participation adds value to their membership.
What does that community participation look like?
Economic development is many things. And it’s many more things than it was 20 years ago. It’s important that SEDC being the county’s economic development corporation responsible for economic development and assisting with economic development is engaged in the community. I also think that economic development for Saratoga County, in a lot of ways, extends beyond the geographic borders of Saratoga. A rising tide floats all boats. Partnerships with my colleagues in Warren County and Albany County and in Schenectady County and Rensselaer County. They all have very robust, very successful economic development organizations, as we do. All of us together promoting not only Saratoga County, but the Capital Region, feeds into that rising tide floats all boats thing. My board of directors has directed me that we need to have a much more physical, engaged presence in the community.
What are some of the biggest challenges facing SEDC?
Energy is an issue. Affordable, quality, reliable energy. We represent what are identified as energy intensive users. I think there’s five or six that fall into that classification that are our members and it’s a challenge. When you’re talking about 21st century manufacturing, it’s also about the quality and reliability of that power.
New York state is not only a national leader, but also an international leader in attracting 21st century manufacturing. I think [the effort] has got to be connected in some way, to helping keep these companies in business once they get here. And one of the ways they should do that is make the large amount of energy that they need daily, affordable, reliable and high quality. If we can’t keep the lights on, and keep the equipment running, I think it’s an issue.
Does the county have enough shovel-ready land available?
We have a very large list of shovel-ready sites and building-ready sites in Saratoga County. So we’re open for business and SEDC is ready to help. There’s some vision involved, it’s not inexpensive for a developer. The governmental approval process is certainly essential. I know in talking to some developers, they would like to see that process shortened a little bit. Time is money. I know of some developers who have projects that were going through the governmental approval process, it took a little bit longer to get through the process than they originally hoped and now that their project is fully approved, interest rates are over 6.5%. The cost of commercial money is higher now. Some projects of that type are delayed.
Has the new business pipeline slowed in the current market conditions?
They have slowed down a little bit. [Developers] are taking into consideration the governmental approval process, the need for infrastructure, the need for market conditions to be just right. This is a pretty good opportunity to begin that process. If you’re talking about a two- or 2-1/2-, or even a three-year process to get all your ducks in a row, to then be able to make your finished product available to the public. Well then, now’s the time to start.
Interview has been edited and condensed.
