Potsdam Recruits Wireless Jobs to Greater Adirondack Region
Brookfield Renewable Energy, a power provider with hydropower plants near Potsdam, was one of 96 companies saved from Empire Zone decertification in July 2009. Around the same time, the village and town of Potsdam made a deal with Brookfield Renewable Energy to create and fund a Potsdam Growth Fund. Using those funds, Potsdam just announced it was able to fund CVL Wireless LLC, a Canadian wireless company that intends to create jobs in Potsdam. That's great news! Apparently, in addition to Slic Network Solutions' progress, and the county's emphasis on expanding rural broadband Internet access, Potsdam's colleges were a deciding factor in choosing where to locate its U.S. operations.
This has actually become an interesting strategy for promoting economic development that some areas around the country are using. A lot of municipalities have actually used this strategy around the country to attract businesses and create jobs while profiting at the same time.
In St. Lawrence County, we have the Seaway Private Equity Corporation, which operates through CITEC, and it would be interesting to see what kind of work they're doing over there. I'd love to learn more about these folks, as I think there's some great potential for private equity investment as part of a regional economic development strategy if it's done the right way with experienced private equity professionals guiding investment decisions and with political support from state and local government.
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