‘We’re back!’ Schumer proclaims upstate resurgence in welcoming new company to STAMP

Senator says I-90 Thruway corridor strategically positioned for semiconductor industry

Photos by Tom Rivers

BASOM – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer holds a photo of a finished factory for Edwards Vacuum during a celebration Tuesday in front of the company’s manufacturing facility that has been under construction since April.

Edwards Vacuum will be making a $319 million investment in the site and will hire 280 workers in 2025 and 2026, with expectations of 600 employees when the facility is at full capacity.

“What a historic day,” Schumer said Tuesday at the STAMP manufacturing site, where Edwards is building a new facility. “There is a four-letter word that makes us so happy with this project: J-O-B-S.”

Edwards leaders said the new facility at the STAMP will produce about 10,000 dry pumps a year for the semiconductor industry as part of phase one of the site. Edwards plans to eventually double the capacity to 20,000 dry pumps and have 600 employees at the site.

“Today we are not just breaking ground,” said Geert Follens, president of the Vacuum Technique Business Area for Edwards Vacuum’s parent company, Atlas Copco Group, which is headquartered in Sweden. “We are building the future.”

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer joins Genesee County leaders, officials from Edwards Vacuum and economic development leaders in a grand breaking celebration Tuesday at Edwards Vacuum in Basom.

Follens noted the facility will be emission free and carbon neutral, powered by hydroelectricity and certified by LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design).

Follens said Schumer called him about 18 months ago, pitching STAMP as a site for Edwards to manufacture the dry pumps for the semiconductor industry. Schumer gave him his personal phone number and touted the site’s proximity to hydro-power, water, a skilled workforce and the incentives through the CHIPS and Science Law. Follens also said Schumer promised his clout as the Senate Majority leader in supporting the project and the semiconductor industry, especially for the I-90 corridor.

Schumer said upstate communities have witnessed the pain of seeing many factories and businesses close in recent decades.

“Now the reverse will be true,” he said. “Parents will be moving their kids in other parts of the country as their kids come to upstate New York.”

He proclaimed a new era for Upstate New York. “We’re back! We’re back!”

Schumer hailed the CHIPS and Science Law, which he pushed in the Senate to become law for providing critical incentives for companies in semiconductor manufacturing. The incentives from the federal government have resulted in companies making major investments in the semiconductor industry, including Micron’s more than $100 billion megafab project in Central New York, and GlobalFoundries’ $11.6 billion expansion in Malta, Saratoga County.

Schumer said the investments are in upstate New York, and he expects more to follow. The Buffalo-Rochester-Syracuse region received a Tech Hub designation through his CHIPS & Science Law and last month secured a $40 million investment to implement the Tech Hub’s work with companies like Edwards. Schumer said 25 percent of microchips will be produced in the U.S. in the I-90 corridor, providing a huge boost to the upstate economy and protecting national security.

The shortage of microchips was a crisis in the automobile industry and other sectors during the manufacturing slowdown during the Covid pandemic, Schumer said. Baxter in Medina struggled to get chips for manufacturing medical infusion pumps, just one of many businesses that were disrupted due to the chip shortage.

Shelley Stein, chairwoman of the Genesee County Legislature, welcomed Edwards Vacuum to the STAMP site. She praised the many partners locally and at the state and federal levels for working with Edwards and to develop STAMP off Route 63 in the Town of Alabama.

She said economic development is a marathon and communities need to “stay the course.” Stein praised Schumer for a “laser-like focus” in advocating for STAMP and upstate.

Rob Crossen, the Alabama town supervisor, said STAMP brings much-needed jobs to a community where many family farms have gone out of business over the years.

“This is about jobs, and it’s good-paying jobs,” Crossen said. “We’re going to see license plates from other states coming here.”

Crossen said Edwards has an outstanding reputation in the communities where it has facilities. That includes seven in the United States. STAMP is the fifth new site developed by Edwards.

“They pay very well,” Crossen said. “These are middle-class jobs that people can rely on and raise a family on.”

Hope Knight, president and CEO of Empire State Development, addressed the crowd, including Sen. Schumer under a tent during the celebration on Tuesday.

“New York is the future of America’s semiconductor resurgence,” she said.

Other economic development officials also spoke, including Mark Masse, president of the Genesee County Economic Development Center, and Matt Hurlbutt, president and CEO of the Greater Rochester Enterprise.

STAMP is a regional and state-wide asset as a mega-site with access to hydroelectricity and the workforce in Buffalo and Rochester and communities in the middle, the officials said.

“STAMP is a strategic site that can compete with any mega-site in the nation and world,” Masse said.

He stressed that attracting a company and project like the new site for Edwards Vacuum is very competitive. The CHIPS & Science Law and the new Tech Hub designation “have put upstate on the map,” Masse said.

“It takes cooperation at all levels to make economic development a reality,” he said.

Hurlbutt said the Rochester economic development officials are behind STAMP as an important asset for the region. The Edwards Vacuum project was known as “King Fisher” in a code while the officials tried to sway the company to come to STAMP.

Gov. Kathy Hochul and Schumer’s support of the semiconductor industry bodes well for upstate, Western New York and STAMP, Hurlbutt said.

“We look forward to filling up the STAMP site,” he said.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer shakes hands with Kent Stobbart, vice president of operations for the semiconductor division of Edwards Vacuum and its parent company, Atlas Copco Group.

The STAMP sewer discharge has been controversial with Orleans County suing to block a pipeline from bringing treated sewer water from STAMP to the Oak Orchard Creek. A lawsuit from Orleans County was dismissed in court, but project has been blocked after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service terminated the permit for horizontal drilling.

The Genesee County Economic Development Center is proposing a different open-construction method and is seeking a permit to continue the pipeline along Route 63 to the Oak Orchard. With that unsettled, GCEDC is working to have STAMP sewer go to the Village of Oakfield. Sewer water also could be hauled by truck in the short term.

GCEDC said it will be working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Tonawanda Seneca Nation on the Route 63 pipeline, which is needed for a larger buildout of STAMP, a 1,250-acre manufacturing mega-site.