Submitted by CS:
NYS is passing a law to exempt property taxes and income taxes for corporations located on SUNY Campuses. There are so many questions about how much room there is left on the Amherst Campus, what will fill in the South Campus, what’s next for the downtown campus, and why ECC won’t locate the medical building on the downtown campus, etc.
The potential is there for each of these SUNY campuses to locate major employers taking advantage of the tax free status… it’s a big cherry to lure out-of-state technology companies here. But how much land is there on each campus to lure these employers?
And to echo the story on Buffalo State apartments, Buffalo State is technically a NY State college and part of the SUNY system even though it doesn’t share the name SUNY. Will Buffalo State be participating in the property tax free and income tax free opportunity? It would be huge for the West Side and Black Rock if it did. How much land could Buffalo State allocate to lure these employers? Could this be part of an impetus for Buffalo State to increase its campus to include an urban corporate office park?
Lastly, if each of the SUNY campuses, including Buffalo State, became major employment centers, then that’s the justification needed not just for Light Rail to reach to Amherst but to convert the Beltway to Light Rail.
This has the potential to be a boon for Buffalo. Where other cities have one SUNY campus like Rochester, Buffalo has potentially 4 SUNY campuses. If UB chooses another offsite location for its future Center for Excellence in Material Informatics and Nanotechnology, then there is the potential for 5. In fact, the tax free opportunity would be a huge justification for SUNY@Buffalo to do that – and locate its Center for Excellence in Material Informatics on a Light Rail route somewhere in South Buffalo or Tonawanda.