Business Incentives
Connecting you to grants and tax incentives to support your business growth in the Greater Rochester, NY region.
Photo by Innovative Solutions
Hit the Ground Running in the Greater Rochester, NY Region
New York State, each of the nine counties in our region (Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Orleans, Seneca, Wayne, Wyoming, and Yates), and the City of Rochester, offer incentives to encourage business investments that drive economic growth and job creation. These incentives include tax exemptions, tax credits, special incentives, grants, and loans.
The incentives provided by economic development agencies are based on total capital investment, and job retention and/or creation by a company over 3 to 5 years. Programs are available individually or bundled as part of a comprehensive package for larger capital investments that retain or create jobs as well as projects that create many high paying jobs.
Photo by M.Giambra
How to Qualify For Business Incentives in the Greater Rochester, NY Region
Incentives may apply to companies:
- Acquiring land, buildings or machinery and equipment
- Constructing or renovating buildings for business operations, including leasehold improvements
- Constructing or improving infrastructure required for new location or expansion
- Training new or existing employees
Business Incentive Availability
The availability of each type of incentive is dependent upon the unique details of the project and the costs associated with it. Here are a few examples:
- Excelsior Jobs Tax Credit (refundable credit of 6.85 percent of wages per new job)
- Excelsior Investment Tax Credit (2% for qualified investments)
- Excelsior Research and Development Tax Credit (50% of the Federal Research and Development credit up to 3% of research expenditures in New York State)
- Excelsior Real Property Tax Credit (available in certain areas and targeted industries)
- Real Property Tax Exemption on improvements to the property over 10 or more years
- Personal Property, whether Tangible or Intangible, is Exempt from Ad Valorem Taxation
- Employee Training Incentive Program (tax credit of 50% on eligible training costs up to $10,000 per employee)
- Life Sciences Tax Credit Program (refundable tax credit of 15% for R&D in New York State)
- No Corporate Income Tax for Qualified Manufacturers
- No Personal Property Tax in New York State
- Utility Infrastructure and Energy Efficiency support
- Low-Cost Power Allocations
- Sales and Mortgage Tax Abatements
- Low-Interest Loans and Interest Subsidies
- Opportunity Zone Investment Tax Benefits
- Foreign Trade Zone
- Grants
- Recruitment Assistance and Training Grants
Contact GRE to Learn More About How Your Business Can Benefit From Incentives
Easily Expand into International Markets
The Greater Rochester, NY region is strategically located in the Finger Lakes Region of Western NY on route I-90, with close proximity to major Northeast trading centers such as Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Toronto, and Washington, DC.
As a mid-sized city, we have an average clearance time of 2 hours. This provides local companies with significant time and money savings when compared with New York City’s clearance time of up to 72 hours. In addition, our entry fees are much lower than major East Coast ports, such as New York City or Boston.
The Benefits of a Foreign Trade Zone
Within the Rochester region, businesses located in Monroe County, Genesee County, Ontario County, Wayne County, Yates County, Seneca County, and Livingston County can utilize foreign trade zones (FTZs) to better manage their global supply chain costs.
- Elimination of duties on items exported directly from FTZ
- Elimination of duty drawback
- Reduction of duties/tariff inversion – allowing for the payment of duties on final products versus raw materials components
- Quota handling
- Reduction of weekly entry
- Duty deferral – duty only assessed when entered into commerce
- Less initial cash outlay
- Partial draw allowing you to use only what you need
- No time limit on merchandise to be stored in the FTZ
Try this Duty Savings Estimator Worksheet for FTZ Production to see if a Foreign Trade Zone can save your company money.
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We know Greater Rochester.
Let’s team up.
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Thank You To Our Investors
High tech companies know Rochester as the optics mecca in the United States.
Matt Sydor
Vice President, Sales and Compliance, Sydor Optics
At Toyota Material Handling North America, which is comprised of two main group companies – Toyota Material Handling and The Raymond Corporation – we are committed to leading the way in energy innovation. We believe that the Greater Rochester, NY region shares that commitment, and is the ideal location to establish our cutting-edge energy storage and fuel cell development center.”
Jennifer Lupo
Vice President of Energy Solutions, Supply Chain, and Leasing, The Raymond Corporation
Rochester has a great work base. They’re loyal. They’re smart. They’re well educated and they want to succeed.
Jim Continenza
Executive Chairman and CEO, Eastman Kodak
We keep and maintain and are investing specifically in Rochester because that is where the talent is. We don’t succeed without the right talent.
David Velasquez
Vice President and General Manager, Corning Incorporated
Rochester has the manufacturing capability, testing capability, and intellectual horsepower.
Matt Fronk
Past Chairman, NY BEST
Rochester has a deep talent pool around all of the things that we need to do to commercialize advanced materials for the energy economy.
Ben Britton
Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Ionomr
The decision to expand locally was a relatively easy one for CooperVision. The Rochester area has provided so many of the elements necessary for a successful operation.
Jerry Warner
President, CooperVision
The proximity to top colleges and industry-leading companies, in addition to the quality of life in Western New York, made the decision to open our second office in Rochester an easy one.
Mike Pinch
Director, Security Risk Advisors
“Rochester is world famous for precision optics manufacturing and photonics.”
Jennifer Cable
President, Thorlabs
We have a long history of people skilled in aerospace technology and precision optical assembly. We take advantage of the industrial base in the Rochester area. We also take advantage of the skill sets developed by our local technical institutions like MCC, RIT, or the University of Rochester.”
Tony Whitman
Cryogenic Optical Test Director for James Webb Space Telescope, L3 Harris
We have inherited an exceptional quality of life thanks to an impressive cluster of cultural organizations, unparalleled natural resources, and a resilient and welcoming spirit of community.
David Munson
President, Rochester Insititute of Technology
Once people get here and their families get used to short commute times, low home prices, the fact we have all kinds of recreational sporting activities, the quality of schools, they don’t want to leave.
Arunas Chesonis
CEO and Chairman, Sweetwater Energy
Rochester has provided ID Signsystems with the ability to grow and develop by tapping into the region’s large pool of design-focused talent, technicians, engineers and sign makers.
Paul Dudley
President, ID Signsystems
Our network of local universities, colleges, and optics companies has created a workforce pipeline that is unmatched anywhere in the United States.
Joseph Spilman
CEO, Optimax
GRE’s direction and guidance proved to be well worth our investment. Their passion to make the business environment in the Rochester area greater is very apparent.
Scott MacCaull
Workplace Interiors
There is unlimited, untapped technical talent in the area and I hope we start a wave of other companies moving to Rochester.
Austin McChord
Founder, Datto
Rochester has a long history of being a hub for telecommunications. There is a rich ecosystem of talent and services to support business growth.
Jai Ramachandran
Founder and CEO, Wire3
Rochester is the perfect size city to get business done. I’m always one connection away from anything I’m looking for.
Zack Phillips
President, Kink BMX
We have access to talent graduating from our businesses and technical institutions capable of perpetuating our success for years to come.
Marc Iacona
President & CEO, Simcona Electronics
The Rochester region provided convenient access to both railroads and major highways, as well as proximity to Barilla’s customer base in the Northeast.
Fabio Pettenati
Vice President of Supply Chain, Barilla America
We’re excited about this area. There’s high-quality milk in the region. There’s a lot of top talent. The industry, the innovation, the technical experience , the work ethic is all attractive to us.
Phil LaMothe
Vice President of Manufacturing, fairlife
The country is starting to recognize Rochester as a technical city outside of just software. We have optics and manufacturing that’s exceeding most of the baselines around the country.
Craig Lamb
Co-owner, Envative
Rochester has the resources optics companies need to transform their concepts into reality.
Dr. Duncan T. Moore
Vice Provost for Entrepreneurship and Professor of Optical Engineering
Rochester has a great base of intellectual capital in the science and technology fields at local businesses and universities.
Daniel J. Burns
Area Executive for Upstate NY, Western NY, and Pennsylvania, M&T Bank Corporation
We’ve developed vaccines to prevent cervical cancer right here in Rochester.
Peter Robinson
Vice President and COO, University of Rochester Medical Center
Among many great options, none could match Rochester in terms of talent, local supplier networks, and opportunities to partner with top-tier research institutions.
Andy Marsh
CEO, Plug Power