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Time To Package New Sites That Build City’s Future

Chautauqua County is probably a longshot to land an Amazon distribution center.

Jamestown would love to be considered a longshot.

At least the county has shovel-ready sites in Ripley and in the Mason Industrial Park to offer a company like Amazon that needs a lot of space. The Grand Island project was to occupy 145 acres. The best site in Chautauqua County for such a project is a 140-acre county-owned property near Shortman Road in Ripley. The site is located just off Exit 61 of Interstate 90 while still being in close vicinity to Interstate 86, U.S. Route 20 and New York State Route 5.

There is just nothing that big in Jamestown, and that’s truly unfortunate.

Jamestown is in desperate need of a large-scale development project that brings not only jobs but a big injection of taxable assessment to lower property taxes for the rest of the city. The city has a lot of strengths — low-cost utilities through the Board of Public Utilities, proximity to Interstate-86 and, by extension I-90, as well as an airport that doesn’t service commercial air service but can handle freight. The city’s weakness is a lack of available space for something like an industrial park. The bulk of the vacant space in the immediate vicinity of Jamestown lies within the towns of Ellicott or Busti. While developing that land would help the south county, it wouldn’t do much for Jamestown.

A drive down the city’s industrial corridor on Allen Street makes one think space could be cleared by demolishing long-vacant manufacturing buildings to create a shovel-ready site in Jamestown. Demolitions of that nature take money the city doesn’t have and the patience to invest money knowing the payoff might not happen quickly. The Shortman Road site in Ripley has been vacant for years, but county officials had patience that their investments in the site may pay off. Industrial parks in and of themselves are not enough to attract companies to our area. Again, we note how long the Shortman Road site has sat unused. But those shovel ready sites are mighty handy when an opportunity presents itself. And right now Jamestown has nothing to present to a company like Amazon.

The fact that behemoth buildings can stay vacant for two decades and still be standing is a sign of a city clinging to its past and the hope that maybe, someday, someone will come in and fill that space. We’ve been waiting and hoping long enough. Furniture makers of that scale aren’t beating down our door.

Jamestown needs the space available for the next generation of business to employ its residents and help support its municipal services. We can’t cling to the past. It’s time to package sites that support the city’s future.

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