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Electrovaya, a Canadian company that is making advanced proprietary lithium-ion batteries for industrial applications, is remodeling an existing manufacturing facility, located on 52 acres in the County's Industrial Park in the Town of Ellicott. This will be Electrovaya's first manufacturing facility in the United States, with a projected 100-150 jobs.
This development comes against a backdrop of "Employment" in Chautauqua County having plunged from 64,000 about 15 years ago to 50,000 now.
The rest of the story is necessary to understand why Electrovaya is coming here.
Electrovaya's arrival is the direct result of Chautauqua County's investment 38 years ago in the County Industrial Park in Ellicott.
As in the movie, "Field of Dreams," "if you build it, they will come."
In 1988, I joined my fellow County Legislators to provide $106,000 (the equivalent of $306,000 in 2026) to complete site preparation at the Joseph Mason County Industrial Park to accommodate the relocation of Acu-Rite Corporate headquarters and small manufacturing plant on Airport Hill in Ellicott to a new facility on 52 acres of land in the Industrial Park.
In 1988, as is still the case, business expected the County and its Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency to prepare a place for business to develop. That is a reality across America.
In 1988, Acu-Rite was the second major industry to locate in the County Industrial Park, following upon Bush Industries moving to the Industrial Park from Cattaraugus County in 1984. (Bush Industries went on to provide employment for up to 1,000 workers in the best of times for 40 years. Even at the end, with a Canadian parent corporation's bankruptcy, Bush had 230 employees).
In order for Bush Industries and Acu-Rite to build modern industrial facilities in Chautauqua County, the County's first County Executive, Joe Gerace (1975-1983) had to convince the County Legislature to build a County Industrial Park in Ellicott and then have faith that business and industry would follow.
It took a few years for the first occupant of the County Industrial Park to locate there. In the 1981 re-election campaign for County Executive, County executive Gerace was faced with a critical newspaper ad featuring a picture of a still empty field in his new Industrial Park. (That empty field soon after became the home of Bush Industries for 40 years).
While there never is a guarantee of what may develop in a County Industrial Park, it is almost certain that "if you do not build it, nobody will come."
Acu-Rite was a manufacturer of highly sophisticated measuring devices for industrial applications. Acu-Rite by the 2000s had become a subsidiary of a German parent corporation. Acu-Rite eventually left the facility in the County Industrial Park.
The same German parent corporation also had MD Electronics as a subsidiary.
The industrial building Electrovaya is retrofitting for its needs was most recently the home of MD Electronics.
MD Electronics, under the leadership of a Chautauqua County resident, provided employment for 200 workers. This Town of Ellicott plant made electrical components for various German cars manufactured in the United States. MD Electronics operated here from 2009-2017.
Unfortunately, the German parent corporation decided in 2017 to move MD Electronic's production to Mexico, leaving the relatively modern one-story manufacturing facility in our County Industrial Park empty.
A $106,000 investment of County funds in 1988 to prepare a site for Acu-Rite, is now making Electrovya and possibly 100 jobs or more a reality 38 years later.
For almost 20 years (2006-2023) neither Chautauqua County nor its Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency added a single acre to any of the County's Industrial Parks, let alone having any significant acreage "shovel ready," meaning roads, water lines, sewer lines, electric service, gas lines and storm sewers are in place, ready for a new business or industry to build a facility,
The County Industrial Parks created from 1981-2005 were virtually full, leaving no room to attract new businesses to the County or allowing existing businesses a place to expand. (Former County Executive Vince Horrigan did have the foresight in 2016 to use a New York State grant of $200,000 to repurchase from Bush Industries about 60 acres of land, already in the County Industrial Park, that Bush Industries was never going to use).
Reversing the disastrous decline in employment in Chautauqua County from about 64,000 15 years ago to 50,000 now will not be easy. More "shovel-ready" County Industrial Park lands, however, are essential for any measurable employment recovery enabling more of our children and grandchildren to have an opportunity to live and work here.
Now you know the rest of the story.
Fred Larson is a graduate of Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs
Yale Law School, was Chautauqua County Attorney from 1998-2005, served on the county's Industrial Parks Task Force member from 1998-2001 and has been a Chautauqua County legislator from 1986-1994, 2014 and since 2024.