centerstate

Shaping the Future of Central New York: A Community-Driven Approach to $500 Million in Transformational Investments

CenterState CEO

Economic Strategy

Empire State Development (ESD) and CenterState CEO are key leaders in shaping economic policy and business growth in New York State, with a focus on the Central New York region. ESD is New York’s chief economic development agency, and CenterState CEO is a business leadership organization representing 2,000 companies. Both entities aim to drive transformative community investments and possess a rich history of public-private collaboration.

In late 2022, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced that they had recruited Micron to invest $100B in the development of a Central New York state-of-the-art semiconductor manufacturing plant. As part of this historic investment the Governor and Micron committed to a $500M Community Investment Fund to provide capital to a defined set of community priorities.

The $500 million Community Investment Fund presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Central New York. To guide these investments the Governor and Micron asked for the development of a Community Priorities Document. A Community Engagement Committee (CEC) formed to guide the development of this Document and CenterState CEO engaged Fourth Economy to support the CEC in this effort. Creating the Document required a detailed understanding of community priorities to ensure that investments will bring meaningful, long-lasting impact.

Our Approach

Fourth Economy led a multi-pronged approach to serving as both a strategist and a community liaison. We facilitated various types of stakeholder meetings and public listening sessions to ensure inclusive access and wide-ranging community input. The data captured was analyzed to identify recurring themes and areas of focus. What made our approach unique is our emphasis on creating a feedback loop between the community and decision-makers through the development of the Community Priorities Document (CPD). This document will guide the actions of the decision-makers responsible for the Community Investment Fund and other leaders through the region.

The Results

The final deliverable is a comprehensive Community Priorities Document (CPD), designed to serve as a living guide for deploying the $500 million Community Investment Fund. It has already begun to shape preliminary strategies for community development in the region. As a result of our work, early steps have been initiated to implement projects that directly align with the themes identified in the CPD. The CPD will be revisited over time to ensure it reflects the ongoing realization of community-defined objectives, thereby sustaining the dynamic nature of this investment in Central New York’s future.