BRUNO ANNOUNCES $1.3 MILLION FOR EXPANSION OF UNIVERSITY AT ALBANY EAST GREENBUSH CAMPUS

Funds To Go Towards Land Purchase

Thursday, October 12, 2000

Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno today announced that he has obtained $1.3 million in state funds for the University at Albany Foundation to purchase an additional 28 acres of land near the University's campus in East Greenbush for a planned expansion.

Senator Bruno made the announcement at the grand opening of the Center for Comparative Functional Genomics at the East Campus.

"This facility, which is designed for biotechnology research and health education, has been extremely successful and is bursting at the seams," Senator Bruno said. "The additional land will increase the University's East Campus property by 50 percent and provide more room to grow."

"Today is another special milestone in the life of the University, and indeed the Capital Region," University at Albany President Karen R. Hitchcock said. "The visionary leadership of Senator Bruno has made all of these wonderful accomplishments possible by providing a cutting edge research facility where our university scientists can work side by side with industry scientists, thus accelerating the time-to-market for the new products arising from such research collaboration."

"I want to thank President Hitchcock for her vision and leadership and Governor Pataki for his support in helping this facility to become successful beyond anyone's imagination," Senator Bruno said. "All the operations here are at close to 100 percent of capacity and the new land acquisition will give them even more room to grow and attract more businesses and jobs."

The money is included in the 2000-2001 state budget. The land to be purchased is currently owned by the Carpinello family and Bonner-East Greenbush LLC. It will increase the size of the campus by 50 percent, from 58 acres to 86 acres. The University estimates that this will add at least seven new building sites to the campus. Senator Bruno said future requests for additional funding will be considered as proposals are put forward for development of the property.

"This sends another clear signal that New York State is very serious about competing on the national stage in the area of biotechnology research and development," Senator Bruno said. "We have strong capabilities in academic research, bioscience and computer technology to take us into the future."

The UAlbany Center for Comparative Functional Genomics comprises research facilities for transgenics, imaging and microscopy, molecular biology, biochemistry and the development of computer techniques to quickly search databases to analyze DNA sequence information. The Center's mission is to promote high technology research that studies the activities of genes, proteins and all DNA sequences of an organism.

Senator Bruno said this type of research will result in the attraction of new biotech, biomedical and pharmaceutical companies and the creation of new high tech jobs in the Capital Region.

In 1995 Senator Bruno secured $5 million for the Foundation's purchase and renovation of the former Sterling-Winthrop property off Carpinello Road in East Greenbush to house biotechnology research and development companies and the University at Albany's School of Public Health. Today, the facility is home to successful companies such as Albany Molecular Technology, which recently announced plans to expand and add new jobs.

Senator Bruno noted that today's announcement follows the news earlier this week that IBM is planning to build a $2.5 billion computer chip manufacturing facility in Dutchess County that will create 1,000 new permanent jobs and could result in additional high tech research and development in the Capital Region.

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