New York Senator Chuck Schumer says he has spoken with a top military official to urge that the Department of Defense select the Sibley Building in Downtown Rochester as the administrative headquarters for the new photonics center. Schumer says he spoke with Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work.
Schumer is citing support from local officials to house the administrative officers at Sibley since they are trying to create a strong cluster of innovation downtown. He says making Sibley the headquarters for the administrative operations for photonics would help it serve as an anchor to attract new businesses.
The Senator says the decision of where to put the photonics center's business operations will be decided by the proposal's sponsors and the Department of Defense. Schumer notes that University of Rochester President Joel Seligman and Mayor Lovely Warren support the idea of locating those offices at the Sibley Building.
Other operations involving photonics will be located in different parts of the Rochester area and across Upstate New York. During a recent stop by Vice President Joe Biden to announce that Rochester had won a nationwide competition to receive more than $100 million in federal money, $250 million in state funds and millions more in private investment, officials said they expect the project to eventually generate several thousand jobs in the area.
