Hornell IDA Board of Directors
December 13th, 2019
HORNELL, NY – Thanks to some diligent work by Executive Consultant Shawn Hogan, the IDA has chosen to market out their two opportunity zones within the city to outside businesses. Hornell is the only city in the county with designated opportunity zones.
A company called the Opportunity Exchange will be marketing the two fairly large zones for a fee of $2000 per year. One of the zones Hornell hopes to get bites on is the old St James Hospital building once it’s vacant.
“There is no sense in us reinventing the wheel,” explained Hogan, “but for a mere $2000 a year, Opportunity Exchange helps us reinforce our opportunity zone strategy, help us develop a website and portal, and expand Hornell’s visibility as far as opportunity zone projects. It will also link us to over 650 investors nationwide.
“We only have two zones currently,” said Hogan, “some of the bigger cities have upwards of 25 or 30.” According to Hogan, Opportunity Exchange will help link our vacant zones to the right businesses. “This company has over 400 investor accounts, and over $4 billion on the books in total project value and 75+ project investments made.”
Some of the clients dealing with this company to market their real-estate are: The state of Alabama, the city of Cleveland, Louisiana Economic Development, and Virginia Economic development.
“For $2000 for a 1 year contract, it is definitely worth getting involved and getting national exposure,” said the former Mayor. “I highly recommend this to the board in hopes that it will lure in businesses to our available re-estate.”
“This is something we can’t turn down,” chimed in Griffin, “We have one big area that needs to be filled (the old St. James Hospital), and if this program can get someone to take that over, it’s worth every penny.” Mayor John Buckley also commented, “We can’t let that building sit idle for too long. The longer it sits idle, the harder it will be to get an investor in there.”
