Latest / The Wilmac Wire / Matt Hurlbutt | The Business of Growing Rochester, Leading GRE, and Local Momentum

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Matt Hurlbutt | The Business of Growing Rochester, Leading GRE, and Local Momentum · The Wilmac Wire

• Emily Miller: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Welcome back to the Will Mac Wire. We have a return guest for you today. And if you've been with us since the beginning, and I mean the beginning, beginning almost two years ago, you will remember Matt Hurlbut. He was our first non-Will Mac guest on the Will Mac Wire. Season one, episode five aired May 2nd, 2024. So. When this episode airs will be a little over two years since that last came out, but ⁓ it felt very relevant to bring him back on the podcast, to introduce him to new theme, to having Steve as a co-host. And it was a really great, interesting conversation. So Matt Hurlbut, president and CEO of Greater Rochester Enterprise, AKA GRE, whose job basically, the organization's job is to grow the region. Small, small thing, right? ⁓ And if you want a snapshot of what that looks like, besides listening to today's conversation with Matt, I encourage you to go check out RochesterBiz.com. And that is B-I-Z. So we hit on Matt's career journey as we always like to start. And he spent almost 20 years now at GRE. ⁓ He has grown from business development into president and CEO. And it was really interesting to hear him talk about economic development and selling a region. All of the... different components that come into that decision and the type of knowledge he has to have and his team has to have on the region in order to sell it properly. We also discussed what GRE actually does day to day, including how they work with national site selectors to bring companies like Amazon, Fairlife, and Re-Ju to Greater Rochester. We also talked about Rochester's economic identity. What Kodak, Xerox, and Bausch & Lomb built here. what that legacy left behind and how that region, how our region has filled the void with new industries and new jobs, especially industries like optics and photonics. We also discussed kind of the interconnectedness of GRE and many of the other Rochester based organizations like the Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce, like the Rochester Downtown Development Corporation, One Rock, some friendlies of the podcast and where they all fit into the greater scheme of our region. We talk about the opportunity that this region has and why we should talk about it more and bring it more to the forefront of people's minds. It was really great to have Matt back. Thank you to him and the GRE team. They're great neighbors in our building. We love seeing them often. Let's get into today's episode. Welcome to the Will MacWire. I'm Emily Miller, joined by my co-host, Steve McDonald. On this show, we talk the drivers, the leaders, innovators, and decision makers pushing customer interaction technology and AI forward. And because we're proud to call Western New York home, we also spotlight the drivers in our own community, the people and organizations shaping growth and innovation right here. Let's get into it. Joining us from right here in Rochester, New York, he's a SUNY Brockport grad who spent eight years leading Rochester Works before making the move into economic development. He joined GRE in 2008 and has worked his way up from managing director all the way up to president and CEO. He's personally helped bring companies like Amazon, Fairlife, FedEx, Freight, Panasonic, Toyota material handling, and many more to the greater Rochester region. He was named the Economic Developer of the Year in 2025 by the New York State Economic Development Council. He's been named to the RBJ Power 100 list five years running. Welcome back to the Will MacWire, Matt Hurlbut. Thank you. It's nice to be here. Appreciate that. That podcast looks a little different from last time we recorded. does. It's a little intimidating. Oh, don't be intimidated. Come on. for our listeners, Matt was our first non-Will Mac guest on the Will MacWire. That was season one, episode five, and that aired May 2nd, 2024. So almost two years ago, exactly. Were we even in our office? I think, yes, we were in our office, but we recorded upstairs for our listeners to Will Mack and GRE are in the Five Star Bank building in downtown Rochester. GRE is up on floor 19. Yes. So they're about nine floors up from us and we recorded right in his, in your conference room. Yeah, that's right. It was a good time. So to I remember being real nervous for that one, but I'm feeling a little bit more comfortable for today's. That's all right. I appreciate the bio. Oh, yeah. do have to give a shout out to Geneseo. My undergrad was at Geneseo. was? All those night alumni out there, hoorah. I was just saying Steve's a Geneseo alumni. Oh, yeah? Yeah. didn't know that. Oh, yep. Okay, so Matt. I'm going to tell you stories about that. We might get into it. That might be the night episode. Yeah, the night episode. Okay, so Matt, we're going to start with a really quick icebreaker to help our listeners get to know you a little bit better. It's called This or That. I'm give you three questions and I'm going give you two options for each question. You just choose your preference and explain why. So the first one is Rochester in the fall or Rochester in the summer? ⁓ Rochester in the summer. Yeah. Any particular reason why? Golf, I think. There's just so much going on. Festivals. The fall is a close second. I do love our falls and they've gotten longer. So, but I think summer, we've had so many people here, the Jazz Fest. We bring visitors to town during the summer and do familiarization tours. And I've got a number of family who have birthdays. That's nice. I'm talking to you, Kristen. So, yeah, I think summer has to be the winner there. Gotcha. When you have certain people coming from out of town, do ever take them golfing? Yeah, we've had people golfing, including our friends from Edwards. We've had a number of other folks, site selectors over time. And it's part of the whole ambiance, coming here, do some familiarization tours, visit Oak Hill, and really see what the community is all about. Very cool. I just took. Spring because spring doesn't exist here and and winter. Spring's been happening lately. Yes. It went to summer. It's a very short track. We were just talking about that. We're recording in April and it just snowed this morning. April 20th. April 20th and it snowed this morning. Okay, first one done. Next one. Attending a conference or going to a boardroom meeting? I like, well probably a conference because I like to meet new people, work the room. ⁓ I enjoy that, whether it's traveling or being here. So I'd probably go for a conference. a number of board meetings over time, and I don't think you get the same interaction. Very true. We're in conference season right now, too. Have you guys got any ones coming up that you're going to? Yeah, we just had someone at the Sites Electors Guild, and that's a temperature check, if you will, on what's going on, what's really going on, in various ecosystems, other regions, as well as we do a little headhunting on our own. Working with site selectors trying to make sure they understand what we're up to. Cool. Very nice. Okay. And last one. Building a relationship or closing the deal? ⁓ that's tough. I like to get the deal done. Yeah? Yeah. That's fair. All right. Although that, you know, they're closely aligned. So I like it when things, we like it when we win. When things align, for sure. All right. And that's That's our This or That icebreaker. Easy peasy. I know Steve knows. I've done a couple that have been tough and I didn't think they'd be tough and the person is like, ⁓ I'm like, ⁓ no. So sorry. enough. I looked at these three and they were pretty simple ones. All right. So approved. We're good. ⁓ All right. So Matt, we always like to start a bit with our guest career path. So we're going to just kick things off. We'd like you to tell us a little bit about your background and how you ended up at GRE in... Yeah, well, goes way back. mean, you know, starting, graduating Geneseo, worked in retail management a long time ago. ⁓ Learned I didn't want to do that, but ⁓ took a stint in county government, worked for the county executive, and then had the opportunity to run employment training programs in Monroe County. And then we, I was there when we created Rochester Works, change in federal law. ⁓ Helped create that office and then eventually some of the quote-unquote one-stop functions making that ⁓ ideally run more like a business which I've always found interesting to try to you know just be more creative and innovative on the workforce side and then we won a large federal grant ⁓ which led to some additional partnerships. I had the joy of running that project. was a wired initiative back in 2006. in addition to my day job at Rochester Works. ⁓ And then that built some relationships with GRE at the time and about 20 other partners throughout the region ⁓ on some workforce innovation strategies. And ⁓ one day I got ⁓ a call from the CEO at GRE to see if I was interested in an opening that happened there and then started in a BD role, moved up to VP and have been CEO for going on, I think about eight years now. How long has GRE been around? GRE was created in about 2002. ⁓ So we've been at it for over 20 years now. And it was just some high net worth folks who kind of saw companies making announcements in other cities and wondered, why isn't that happening here? That looks like they should be here. And they did an analysis. at that time, was really marketing the region on a regional basis. Each county has an economic development agency. But that convening, that collaboration across the nine counties, and being proactive on the marketing side and being built to respond to those requests for information. So that's kind of the big piece about us that most people don't know is that we're built with the tools to respond to site selector requests in 24 to 36 hours. So all of the data, the sites, the understanding about utilities, incentives at every level, college enrollment, graduation. Companies that have expanded or contracted in the market, which interestingly enough from a site selection perspective, ⁓ a downsizing may create an opportunity on the talent side for a company who's expanding. So all of those attributes are, and our ability to respond quickly to that with those tools and some tools we've added ⁓ recently ⁓ set us up to do that. And they do that on purpose too. They don't want to deal with communities that don't have their act together. So that ability to be coordinated, to be able to speak with one voice is critical. And we've built on that over time. Who was the county executive when you were? I believe when I started at Rochester Works, that was Jack Doyle. How was that? That was fine. Different environment then. Jaguar was county executive. Bill Johnson was the mayor. Tom Mooney was president of the Chamber of Commerce. Sandy Parker was at the IMC, Industrial Management Council. They were not connected at that point. So, you know, different group of people, but still some of the same key selling points, the same attributes. College town, great tech and optics, photonics, imaging. Changes at Codex, Ericsson-Bosch, along the Big Three are significantly different then. And, you know, so the work is the process of it back then, you know, you used to be able to have a week and put a three ring binder together and FedEx it to someone. Now they don't do that. They don't do that anymore. So now you've got this massive file, 70 to 200 pages of information. My favorite line, and most people don't see this, is on a Deloitte request for information, they say, if there anything in here is inaccurate, we won't deal with you. So you have to be accurate with information. People look at it like sales. You have to be able to back up when you say something. The sites, the requirements, make sure you're reading everything, double checking everything, and you've got to fit it in all the little boxes. How often are you dealing with a major consulting firm, like a Deloitte or a BCG? I'd say once or twice a month at least. So they get involved in a lot. Yeah, they do. And it's funny, my wife met a guy once. will remain nameless and they had created a new data element to their process. So we were putting information into their system and literally that time we had two weeks but he introduced himself as I'm the guy who's ruined your husband's life for the past couple weeks. Yes, that's true. Because you have deadlines, you've got to it done. it was those conversations around I'll be home when this thing is done. So there's an intensity to it. because of those deadlines, but that's why we try to make sure we're on top of everything and we understand who's in the market, what they do. That's also critical to answering those questions. So for us, it's fun, but it's competitive. Sounds it. Yeah. Yeah. So you've now been at GRE for nearly 20 years. ⁓ would say too long. No, no. You've worked your way up. So what has What has kept you there? Like what's motivated you to keep going back every day? Yeah, I think, you know, ultimately I want to make a difference. So I enjoy, just like your previous questions, learning more, meeting new people, both on a local level as well as ⁓ opportunities to bring something here ⁓ and especially helping people understand, even sometimes in our own community, what's here, why people are here. That's, you know, that's fun. It's challenging and I see a lot of opportunities. So, ⁓ you know, I'm a big kind of system thinker, so I can see the collaborative aspect of what we do and the need ⁓ to work as a team is very important to me personally and professionally. Our team is outstanding. So the people I work with really, I think, keep me there as well as our support. The people that we work with ⁓ who are investing in us, who we work with at state and local levels, some of the businesses that we've worked with over time here and the things you learn are, you know, make it fun and the time has really gone pretty quickly. Yeah. So I really, I never thought I'd be there that long to be honest with you, but there's always something new, something new to learn. And the fun part is putting things together that might not even be a project, it's just helping companies connect and the next thing you know, they have a creative kind of explosion and a new business launch or something grows quickly. So not to dive too deep into the later questions, do you spend, it sounds like a lot of the, which I would think would be the super interesting, changing all the time is getting the new businesses in. How often are you spending time doing all the RFPs, recruiting, selling, everything that takes to get a big company to come in, versus once they're in and then managing and dealing with it, or can you just be like, all right, hands off, our community has it, I gotta keep bringing. Yeah, think that's over the past few years. And if you've seen us speak, we talk about this. So the complexity of the world around us, would say over the past, well, really going back to COVID. ⁓ COVID was, I think, our first record year. And then the next year we announced over a billion dollars of investment and more jobs. So the dynamics around COVID and the changes across the world since then have kept us on our toes. And companies we've worked with, large or small, need more project management, if you will. So we're much more involved ⁓ rather than just here's the site, here's the facility, okay, they're going to renovate it, move in, and everything's done. There's a lot more interaction now as companies want to move very quickly and ⁓ there's a number of layers, federal, state, even within the industry, know, tariffs over the past year. rules that are changing and as the site is ⁓ selected and you see this ⁓ certainly with Fairlife because it's so dynamic and people are so aware, but also with small companies, typically that's a different person who sites the operation and may even locate it and then someone different comes in to run it. then it's maintaining those relationships to make sure they have what they had and it could be simple like co-ops. or it's a battery ⁓ company doing research, are they connected with Ryan Grafelli at RIT and all the assets at RIT or the U of R on fusion energy and lasers and things like that, and then making sure all of those supports have come to fruition. that takes more time, and then you're also trying to feed the pipeline, so there's a lot more to it now. And I think that has changed as things have gotten just more complicated. So do you have, and I'm looking at these questions that I don't want Do you have a team or a few people that help you with the pipeline and then a few different people on your team that help you with the project management? Yeah, interestingly enough, so we're doing a lot more data from a, we've bought some data tools over the past couple years and we're really working more closely with our local industry associations. You've seen some news around our partnership with New York Photonics. RTMA is an example, so. That's helping us in our NSF work, and I know that's a little later in the program, but that focus on what's coming next is helping us to feed the pipeline and better understand the industry, but then also brings us back to our local firms, helping them, promote them, the career opportunities, the earning potential here in Rochester. So it's all connected. So yes, we have a team on the data side, but... you know, the data goes along with marketing, telling the business story, which goes along with outreach. So it's all connected. And I enjoy that too. It's kind of funny because even as I'm president and CEO now, I like the deal. So I don't mind getting involved even in a 2000 square foot search because I've been in a lot of buildings here and I know where they are. And that's where sometimes I get myself into trouble. So I get in the places I shouldn't be. I have a good team. And that's the fun part too that people don't often see is that we one of us can step in or step out of a deal and you shouldn't lose anything because of that. Very cool. We jumped ahead a little bit, but I want to hit on it before we move any farther with that. But for listeners who aren't familiar, like how would you describe what GRE does in simple terms? So we like to say, and you've seen some marketing around this, so GRE was created, I use the term concierge. We like to say, so in one call, We can get you access to information on sites, facilities, state, local incentives, utilities, and it ⁓ is that ability to connect, which is the fun part about our work. It goes back to this community. We're a large metro, but it's very easy to connect here. So we do that and make it easy for the company, whether it be resources, the incentive discussion, the real estate, even if they work with many of our brokers, and we've got great partners in the real estate realm, so we don't compete with them, but it's all creative to that process. So making sure they've got everything they need. Site facility, regional demographics, supply chain. We've mapped supply chain assets for photovoltaic manufacturing at a 400 mile radius. And again, it goes back to the tools to do that. Or prototype assistance. We've had some top 50 firms who are working on sensing issues who have come here to talk to with our optics companies. Again, we're built to do that. And we can do that under a non-disclosure agreement. They come in, they visit, they talk to people who are experts in their field. And then ideally, ⁓ they find a solution and do it here. ⁓ So that's really critical in that one call. Really, there's no question we can't answer. And then help a company find success. They could be a firm that's already here in the region, or somebody evaluating the Metro for an investment, or maybe they're even looking elsewhere and they just don't know what we've got to offer and we can pull that together quickly. Now the back end of it is a little different than like a one rock. in chamber because everyone's nonprofit, but they're getting investment from government. You guys actually have local business investors backing you guys. Yeah, about 80 % of our support comes from local businesses. And then we act as kind of a, I guess, a sales funnel for our other economic development partners. So kind of building that pipeline, promoting each of our counties for investment. And then doing the supportive work, the sites, facilities, the regional demographics so that we respond on behalf of the whole region. And that's another big thing too, is that we're much more likely, we submit as many sites or facilities that fit the requirement as possible, we're much more likely to get a site visit if we've got multiple sites for them to visit. And we don't favor one geography over another, it's all about making sure that company has everything they need. to grow here and ideally they've got multiple options and then their engineers get involved and pick a finalist if you will. So when we talk about Rochester region, this is the second or third podcast we've had when we talked about the region, what technically are the counties that cover the Yeah, it's our nine counties. So Monroe is in the middle and you look at Wayne County, Yates, Seneca, Ontario, Livingston, ⁓ Wyoming, Genesee, and Orleans. Okay, so everyone that's around. And we have partnerships and this is isn't as well known, but for years ⁓ we've worked with our colleagues in West Buffalo, Niagara. As you look at those Western counties, we've seen deals going back to Mueller Quaker. was originally Alpena, now it's an upstate milk opportunity in Batavia. We've done a lot of work promoting, I would like to say we were chasing semiconductors before they were cool, promoting the stamp site in Genesee County for a large fab. And then those projects became so massive ⁓ that they ⁓ ended up in Columbus. the large 1400 acre site in Clay, which will still be good for us. have Edwards there now and another large data center opportunity there. ⁓ And then also helping our companies on the east build out sites so they can take advantage of what will be the semiconductor supply chain, not just for Micron, but for global foundries and ⁓ others in the state. So I see a lot of opportunity and then it's just getting some of these things wrapped up. Fairlife, you mentioned, has been front and center lately. What did that process look like in getting them here from your standpoint? Yeah, that was Project Dizzo. That started in summer, I'd say late June of 2022. So we worked with them for at least 18 months before that was announced. And it was a 100-acre site, 1.2 to 1.4 million gallons of water a day. The ability to handle that. So right away, that constricted the amount of sites that we could submit for that. They did have a real estate partner. So we worked with them. This is kind of the funny part. They got a big commission out of that. But we helped them find the site that could meet their needs. then I think January, or I'm sorry, December of 2022, they came to town with supply chain folks, Fairlife and Coca-Cola, because Coca-Cola had purchased them, to analyze, what sites, let's look at your sites. We were just in Pennsylvania. Let's see what you can do. And can you meet our timeline? So then it's breaking down all of that detail, permitting, ⁓ utilities, water, sewer, very important, that changed over time, power, and then the timeline to meet that. So we had two sites that they visited, I think that following January, and then it was really crunching numbers all the way through, making sure everybody had everything they need to make a good decision and then move forward. And we're still, that's a great case of we're still very involved with them as our other partners, as they are shipping product they started last week. So making sure that things are still in line, finishing up the site and some of the other supports to make sure they have great success. So interesting, I've always thought about this recently. So how often is a local real estate broker involved in it as well with you? Yeah, I say at least maybe 56. 60 % of the time, depending on, you know, sale, lease. In this case, it was an out of town real estate group that was involved, ⁓ which was similar on Mueller Quaker back in 2011. So sometimes they're a site selector, sometimes they're a real estate firm. ⁓ And then it's just helping them to make sure, it's funny going back to Mueller Quaker, the site that won that project, they originally didn't want to look at because they saw a conflict with the upstate milk operation in Lockport. So we had to convince the site selector that it wouldn't be a conflict and create ⁓ undue burden on the business to locate in Genesee County in the sense of the milk shed and how it's not, you've got plenty of milk to supply both operations. So that took some convincing. And that's the challenge when people look, you know, they're used to certain markets and they don't understand how our market works, especially on the labor analytics side. They tend to put a dot on a map, draw a 30 mile radius and say, that's your labor shed, not here. Because people drive from much farther out for those opportunities. And we've got a history of being able to demonstrate that. But you've got to get, that's where the relationship building comes in. You've to get in front of those people and convince them that's how it actually works here. So that's up in Webster. Yep. And we talked about. briefly Xerox and Kodak and Bausch and Laman probably 10, 15 years ago is more pressing like, man, they're leaving, what are we gonna do? But now it seems like there's open real estate that they used to have in some pretty desirable area. mean, I would assume that part of Webster, right? With the water, Ontario being right there and a lot of open land, old buildings. Is that how you guys map that stuff out higher? And you're like, all right, this is a perfect opportunity for someone to come on here and that's- Yeah, Tessie bought three of the big Xerox buildings. There's some opportunity there. We recently had an announcement with a company that was doing some battery innovation work coming out of Binghamton that's occupying 20,000 square feet in the Xerox campus. promoting that for additional investment ⁓ is something that we've worked on, which is actually how we ended up with Fairlight, that site. some struggles before and we've marketed it for other opportunities and then made some improvements on the site. As going back to Brilla in 2007, that site finished second on a prior Deloitte search. So we like to make sure we show well. And then even when you don't win, you stay close to those consultants and show a good site or a good facility and the fact that we respond well and accurately with integrity and monitor the process the right way. And it's very similar on other side of town with some of the sites we've got on the west part of Monroe County and Genesee County and others. So we've got some really good sites that we can leverage. I've had my own real estate badge since I started. It's kind of a funny picture. With Kodak as well and going back to life cycle, we expect Glencore to start that up again later in the year. ⁓ I've been all over Eastman Business Park ⁓ and we've had some folks. who have been visiting. saw the Riju announcement earlier in the year that's significant. that's another great ⁓ story about, know, translating in Kodak speak what that park can do to people who are looking for 50 acres and don't understand you don't need a retention pond because it's Kodak. They've got the ability to handle that water flow and then you don't have a ⁓ substation nearby, but you've got your own power plant. So all of that. ⁓ ability to handle some really interesting companies and then bring them here to see it is kind of what we focus on and have done over time. Okay. So you've mentioned a bunch of different components. Timeline, utilities, water. are there, is there commonality between like... as to why some of these companies choose Rochester. like, do you face certain objections more often than not? Well, I think you always run into the New York state thing. And I've been on the road visiting site selectors and I've been told by site selectors, especially when you're in say places like Dallas or Atlanta or North Carolina. ⁓ Maybe even sometimes in New York City, I visited site selectors in New York City. ⁓ And there you have a lack of understanding of upstate from the New York City side. ⁓ or a common feedback is my clients aren't interested in New York State. And then you start talking about what they're doing and we give kind of a quick overview on Rochester. ⁓ Are you aware, and you may even have someone who did some work at Xerox or Codex here for say, Ernst & Young or somebody and they're not aware of what's going on now. So that's kind of our first entree is, ⁓ know, the companies that are hiring here, what are colleges, universities, other firms are doing here, why they're investing. ⁓ And then it's breaking down data, know, cost per kilowatt hour, the ability to get hydropower, ⁓ lease rates, ⁓ those have gone up, but we still are very competitive, time to build, and then the more recent announcements we've seen. And our technical talent is world renowned. So the smart people, ⁓ even going back to some printing projects I've had over time or packaging science, if people are good on the site selection realm, they know our capabilities and then it's just getting some of those numbers together. ⁓ So, yeah, overcoming kind of the resistance to New York, but then even on that side, zero corporate income tax for manufacturers. We have no personal property tax. They do in Texas. you ⁓ got to understand, like we like to ask what's keeping you up at night. And if you're trying to break down or put a new material into a product, which a lot of people are right now, we can do that. We've got people who are very smart, who can get things from pilot to commercial scale quickly, and the infrastructure amenities to have some success here. Yeah, I would assume, and we've talked about it, it's just our reputation of being a tough state to do business with. Once you can break through that, we should have a pretty solid discussion about Rochester. ⁓ You mentioned site selectors numerous times, and this is where we're probably naive on this. Does a site selector work for the actual company? Is it a third party? Okay. Yeah, it's usually a third party. So I talked about Deloitte, but Ernst & Young, Gravelis, there are a number of firms out there. And there are some individuals who have even left some of the bigger firms who are paid to help. And this is what's sometimes they're paid to find a site, like the real estate example I cited. So they just do the site. Then there might be a different tax advisor. that sometimes it's a firm that does all of it. So they put out ⁓ a request for information and have you complete all of that after they've done kind of a desktop review. So they're asking you to provide really in-depth information and validate what they think they know. And this is what's kind of interesting in the world of AI and internet searches, because not everything on the internet is accurate. you know, if they're looking at supply chain information, we saw a lot of this ⁓ in the energy innovation realm. especially when the federal programs were out there on new battery technology and some of the components that go into EVs and things like that. So it's breaking all of that out to help those folks, especially foreign direct investment opportunities, understand what's here. And when they think of New York, sometimes they think only of New York City. So it's that manufacturing expertise. And before COVID, we were doing a lot of back office, high function IT software, cybersecurity. ⁓ ⁓ searches for 50 to 100,000 square feet of space, that's changed because space and that dynamic has changed. Although I think that's coming back. We see palacity here growing and a number of others. So ⁓ yeah, it can be all of that. Or it can be, you know, give us sites and then we're going to come and ask for all of this regional information. So we're prepared to do that and ⁓ as well as give them, this is the tricky part. Sometimes they're not asking the right questions. So when they come here and the scope changes. And I've even had deals myself going back when someone wanted 100,000 square feet, it could be 50, 50 or 60, 40. We walked into the first facility that morning with my boss and the CEO said, what am I looking at? I need 100,000 with another 100,000 behind it. Well, that's not what your site selector told me. So you have to adjust on the fly. Like, yes, we can show you that. Ideally, we're listening, you as we walk through space and it's a manufacturing operation, you understand they've got a significant software component. Well, would you like to visit the Golisano Institute for Computing? Can we do that? Yes. We had Toyota material handling here and they've they had some questions about sensing technology. So we visited the Institute for Optics at U of R and the Photonics Center at RIT with two hours notice. So that connectivity is what we really That's what makes us, I think, most successful is that ability. Yes, I can get you there. Can you really? Are you sure? We fly out at five. Yes, we can do that. Do you have to build relationships with all these site selectors like previous? Do you know who these people are? Are they in the industry? There can't be that many. There's constant. Yes, we do that. we just had, Jared Jones was just at Site Selector Guild building relationships. And as those folks, change, we want to stay top of mind. So a number of us have had meetings with those folks, as well as some other industry associations. One of our best relationships is really working with the New York Photonics Cluster, as well as our friends from Edwards, who have brought us to industry supply ⁓ events. So they're introducing us. That's the best thing that can happen. Walking Photonics West with the New York Photonics Cluster is the most powerful endorsement we could have. And we're meeting with the top companies who are all trying to work in that photonics, integrated photonics, laser, optics base, which solves problems for communication systems, quantum computing, medical device, semiconductor supply chain, all of it. So that's where I feel like that's, you know, our secret sauce and the knowledge capabilities with that, looking at the Luminate Center and helping to... people to understand your phone does not work without technology from Rochester. And that's really cool and I think gives us some good opportunities for the future. Yeah, it's a powerful narrative, for sure. So ideally, yes, they were site selectors. We want to be there before that. we also want them to know it's kind of interesting from a marketability standpoint, they may be looking at Austin, Raleigh, some of the obvious kind of tech hubs, if you will, for the nation. Well, why are we looking at Rochester? And we've helped them load up for that to say, well, there's some things about Rochester you might not know. Right. Before we move into further conversation on Rochester's momentum, and to give you a chance to drink some water, because we're asking you a lot of questions. That's OK. So you talked about it a little bit, but GRE's work spans both attracting new businesses and then helping existing companies grow. So how do you think about balancing those two different priorities? Yeah. So that's interesting. We have this program called Economic Gardening, which has been supported by local foundations for a number of years. So that's ideally it's suited towards helping companies that are one to fifty million dollars in revenue privately held, identify new markets and grow sales of products or services outside the region. ⁓ Interesting standpoint is that accounts for about forty, fifteen percent of firms in a typical metro of which Rochester is one, but forty percent of the jobs. We do a lot of outreach, and this is actually where some of our tech hub work comes in too. So we do a lot of outreach to existing firms, helping them grow and connect to resources, which also helps us understand what they do here so that we're better prepared to answer the requests for information. So 80 % of economic growth is largely from within. Right now we're doing about 40 % of our 80 some projects are attraction, so we're more skewed toward the attraction opportunity, and that's across all industry sectors. Manufacturing, there's some business office work in there too, IT if you will, food and beverage. But yeah, most of that growth is gonna come from within, so it's a little bit of both. So we're constantly calling. local firms and we really amplified this in our NSF work, the National Science Foundation work on the Stellar Initiative, which is next generation laser capabilities, which helped us better understand who's here in optics, photonics and imaging. Also gave us line of sight on the attraction front to bring new leads in, but also helped us work with companies like QED, who just announced and is working on an $18 million expansion. Optamax has expanded multiple times, OptiPro, ⁓ EvolveOptic and so many more that are continuing to grow here. ⁓ And then looking at other enabling technologies for fusion research and other things. So it's leading to more work. Then the hard part is for us, ⁓ we only have so many people, so we've got to balance all that stuff. So the challenge for the team is making those outreach calls, handling the work. And then when you have the, I have a question from an existing client, you're solving that question. So our calendars are pretty full. But it's a good thing. We're busy across the region. There's good opportunity. And we see a number of things coming online really in every county. As you know, we were recently with Oxbow on their new facility they're hiring. Edwards is going to be hiring with their new facility in Genesee County. And I think that's going to be good. Yeah, just for our listeners. So GRE closed 2025 with 33 project wins, $239 million in new capital investment. 187 new jobs and 1,546 jobs retained. So those are just some quick stats from your website. It's very impressive. ⁓ do you see anything in particular that's driving that momentum within the past year? Yeah, think, well, some of it is the outreach. I work with our optics, photonics companies, getting closer to those firms. ⁓ has been helpful and that's also given us some good opportunities on the attraction side. ⁓ We've seen, you know, from a business standpoint, if you will, where we've got some repeat customers and then we've got customers that are telling other firms, you, so and so told me to call you. know, Rick Plimpton told me to call you or our friends from Edwards told me to contact you. ⁓ Even our friends at Lifecycle, now Glencore have engaged us with some firms. So that's good and that's hopefully a credit to the work that we do ⁓ and people understand that. And then there's ⁓ also just referrals ⁓ from some of our development partners who are doing some of the real estate work ⁓ as we can be supportive of their efforts so we can bring some of those college university partnerships, some of the data elements to the real estate transactions that they're working on. ⁓ And ⁓ so I think it's coming from a multitude of opportunities. And then we're seeing some companies come back who continue to grow because they're in the right space for material science and packaging science. We're doing a lot of work right now in agriculture, food and beverage processing. So we see more opportunity there as well as we learn more about who's growing here ⁓ and how that may lead to some other fair life of the future. So speaking of that, the two, what I would call the biggest. Fairlife and Micron also in the past couple weeks have had some big news, Fairlife is pretty much going live. Yep. And Micron broke ground. Yeah. Do you want touch it? Both huge, congrats. Yeah. Do you want to touch base on those while we're? Yeah, well, Fairlife ⁓ is making products, ⁓ should be on store shelf soon. So that's really good. And that's a benefit to the farmers ⁓ across upstate New York. That's significant. So, ⁓ and then when we look at Micron breaking ground, even though that's in Syracuse, we've seen a lot of supply chain inquiries leading up to that. So all of Upstate, ⁓ as well as the companies that are already here, this is very important. So yes, there will be some supply chain companies that will locate in Upstate New York, ⁓ but there are also many companies who are already here that are making components ⁓ for all of the chips and science related investments when you look at Samsung, TSMC for example in Arizona, ⁓ Intel who has paused their operation outside of Columbus but ⁓ as that activity picks up that will benefit our optics, photonics, imaging firms and a lot of advanced manufacturers who are here. There are also a number of firms here who make components for data centers so they're picking up work and then you go back to the the agriculture, food and beverage side, we're within one day's truck drive of 128 million customers. So you want to get things on shelves, we're the right place to be for that. So that's all good. And the diversity, that's the hard thing to explain about Rochester. It's all of that, which is good. So yeah, Micron breaking ground. And as they start to build, I think our activity load will pick up too. Yeah, and I think in general for our local listeners and public around upstate New York, these are huge for growth of our economy. I don't know if the general public gets to hear that enough and what a great job you guys did and how difficult it is. ⁓ know, you're, what, unfortunately, the small amount of people that maybe don't see this as a pro have the loudest voices somehow. And in reality, this is so positive. for our community and for our area that we probably have to start voicing it a little bit better and a little bit more on how great this is. Yeah, and I think that's the hard part because, you know, one of the things that we do, we've got good media partnerships. We try to promote local business and sometimes people don't understand why. It does help us tell the story of Rochester. So we've got this kind of Midwestern mentality. We don't brag enough. We fixed the Hubble telescope. I mean, we've done some really amazing things here. And the people that work at the laser lab kind of walk around saying, ⁓ shucks, they're doing fusion energy research. so it is pretty significant. We're one of the few places in the world you can play with lasers. I mean, you feed people our healthcare science. We didn't talk a lot about healthcare, but our translational science activity with our Rochester Regional and the University of Rochester, the ecosystem here, the ability to solve problems is pretty unique. And we have a great quality of life and we kind of just shrug it off ⁓ and we need to brag a little more. ⁓ To that point, know there's, is it stamp going on in Genesee? ⁓ That is very exciting. A company that builds data centers is coming and hopefully. Yeah, Stream Data Centers. $19 billion investment, two million square feet. It's ⁓ a game changer for that site, for that community. Leading Edge, AI, ⁓ hyperscale data center and regardless of the news, know, very energy efficient, is not a polluter and is going to provide some good jobs but have a huge impact on that community as well as driving, again, data, the world data, artificial intelligence, jobs for our college graduates. There's going to be a lot of good opportunity with that right in between the Buffalo, Rochester, Metro. Yeah. Super exciting from our standpoint. Obviously Micron is part of the AI technology stack, but at the very bottom level and getting a company like this data center streamlined, right? That grabs the attention of a Google AWS because they're renting space from a company like this or looking, hey, why don't we just. also go into New York and build their own data centers. So I think this is great news and we should be speaking out loud about it all over the place. Well, and the other thing, we've got AMD here. They're designing their fabulous semiconductor firm. ⁓ They're designing next generation chips. We've got critical manufacturers of applied materials this year. ⁓ Again, going to our OPI friends, as well as Fister who announced an investment at Rochester Tech Park. So they're helping build out the grid. You know, it's all of those things all at the same time. Our friends at B &L, CooperVision, so we can see. So, it's all pretty significant stuff. And exciting. Yes. Very exciting. Yeah. All right. So, Matt, before I start to wrap us up, ⁓ when you look out over the next five to ten years, like, what does a thriving Rochester look like for you? What do our listeners need to know to help us get there? Yeah. Well, I think ⁓ First of all, we'll have a state park at the falls in downtown Rockshire, which is pretty cool. And I think you'll see a lot more people living in office space ⁓ downtown. And that whole hub around the falls will be activated. the investments at Rock the Riverway, we haven't talked as much about that. ⁓ getting people on the street, I think it'll be really fun. And then that the connection with medical device to kind of personalize medicine, you will, sensing technology, optics, integrated photonics. will lead to less energy at those data centers. That's really our future. ⁓ So I think we're, again, you're gonna see this really next generation investment, R &D hub, and a lot more activity across some of those industries that we talked about. Edwards certainly at full status and then phase two at FairLife going on and some new ⁓ farm to table opportunities for us too and additional food and beverage processing. some big downtown activity. Yeah, I think the message has kind of been consistent across the board here and for our listeners too, just to like pay attention to this sort of stuff too, to seek it out, to ask questions, and then for people like us in this room to keep talking about it for sure. So wonderful. Okay, do you have any other questions for Matt before I ask Matt our final? Good to go. All right. Okay, so Matt, is there anything else that we didn't chat about that you'd like our listeners to be aware of, whether it's You're involved with it. You're on a board that's involved with it. GRE is involved that you'd like to share. No, I think it, you know, again, just contact us. Anything we can do to help. doesn't necessarily have to be a massive corporate expansion project. We didn't talk about Corning, you know, their investment here. But ⁓ we, and that's the biggest misnomer of the work that we do. There's nothing too small for us. So I joked about 2000 square foot requests, but we work with a lot of emerging companies that might not know where to go. We are happy to play that role as concierge to make sure they get to the right place. And also they know kind of what they're headed into. These are the questions you're going to be asked as you look to raise money, as you look to engage. These are some of the common questions. ⁓ And making those, that connectivity and working with our other partners, you know, we love to do that stuff. So, ⁓ and then I would remind all of your listeners to brag a little bit. We want to know if somebody's doing something innovative there in Rochester. We want to know why they're here and help them tell that story. Love it. I lied. I do have two questions. That's why I knew it was coming. One, do the Corning's, Constellation, Paychex, Wegmans of the world get in and help? If it's ⁓ Fair Life, a really important one, will they come in and help support you and kind of be reference? referenceable in one way another. Yes, yeah, we had leaders from Wegmans and Constellation among other firms engaged and interestingly enough in that Fair Life process, I think that's when that was one of the critical moments and how we approach our work that's very important is that having, I think my understanding is that's kind of when we caught up to Pennsylvania. that ability and that's what we really, people don't see that, but that ⁓ as we do our work, meeting with local executives, our friends at Wegmans Constellation, we have folks there from L3, the county executive was there as well, as they sit down and those executives are able to talk with them, so what's it really like to do business here? These guys have told us all this stuff. And largely, they validate that. And ⁓ are willing to engage long after that. So that's kind of the fun part that not everybody sees. And then it does have to, depending on the deal, you have to have, do you have a building with 200,000 square feet? know, can we get into it, that type of stuff. But yeah, this community shows up. And that's also the fun part. So people are willing to take meetings. The president of U of R, the president of RIT, the president of MCC, Nazareth, St. John Fisher, people are willing to assist and show up. And that, I think, really helps us win. Awesome. And then the other thing goes right in the community. We talked briefly about the chamber, but how do you guys kind of see yourselves sitting in this puzzle of GRE, the chamber, One Rock, and technically you have the county exec, mayor, everyone. It seems to me, who's in a little part here and there, that you guys actually get along pretty well and work together compared to what I've heard of other cities. How do you look at that? How do you try to... work together, who does what, that sort of thing. Yeah, well, it kind of goes to what I said before. So when we talk about one call, you know, we'll bring those other partners in. So we're kind of the tip of the spear, if you will, or the sales funnel. So we've got the tools to do that. The chamber does a great job celebrating membership and like the small business work they do. And on the advocacy side, we don't do that. And One Rock is kind of that united way for economic growth. So securing more resources for ourselves, the Rochester Downtown Development Corp and the Chamber on their talent side. And they've ⁓ picked up some public pieces of their role in the tech hub and some other things. So everybody does have a lane. ⁓ And sometimes I might look confusing for the outside, but we're pretty adamant about sticking to our role and our mission in that space. And then again, doing that referral piece. you're talking to the right people and then assisting. So the communication and collaboration is kind of daily. Awesome. And other communities operate very similarly. that's kind of, it's interesting, Richmond, ⁓ Columbus, Raleigh, I think even Austin. ⁓ it's all about communication. really is, keeping up with it. That's the hardest part is that over my... time there, my tenure with state, local officials, you do have companies like, that's not what they told me. What did they tell you? So getting people aligned on what the opportunity is and then making sure everyone's on the same page, it does take time, but you gotta build trust to do that. Tougher than what it would seem. Yes. To keep everyone together. Out of curiosity, are the two or three cities that we end up having to compete with the most? Yeah, well, food and beverage, it's always Pennsylvania. ⁓ especially serving East Coast markets. We've seen Columbus a lot ⁓ or Northeast Ohio, ⁓ Madison, Wisconsin, sometimes Raleigh, but more so Ohio. We see Ohio a lot across multiple industry sectors. And it can be Cincinnati, can be Cleveland or Columbus. ⁓ Indiana a few times here and there, but we've also competed with Texas and Arizona when we were working with Samsung. a number of years ago. So, it kind of depends on the company. But I'd say off the top of my head, those are kind of the three main flyers. All right, I'm done. Great additions. All right, Matt, for our listeners where people can connect with you or follow GRE, you can find Matt on LinkedIn under Matt Hurlbut. And then for GRE, you can find them on social media on LinkedIn and Facebook at Greater Rochester Enterprise and on Instagram and YouTube at Rochester Biz. That's B-I-Z. Last but certainly not least, you can find them on their website, RochesterBiz.com. If you're a site selector, if you're looking to expand, you should check GRE out. Yes, definitely. All right, Matt, thanks for being on the podcast. I have to shout out some people on your team, Stacey Henning, Adriana Henry. Katie Bresnan, many of the people that we get to ride the elevators with every day in our buildings. thank you and your team for all you guys do for Rochester. We appreciate you joining us on the home Thanks for the opportunity. Thank you for listening to the WillMac Wire. If you liked today's conversation, make sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts or watch full episodes on our YouTube channel. You can also learn more about WillMac technologies and our work in customer interaction technology at willmactech.com. We'll be back soon with more conversations with the drivers, those shaping our industry and those building right here in Western New York. See you next time.