Schumer pitches site to lithium-ion battery company

By PATRICIA R. DOXSEY | pdoxsey@freemanonline.com | Daily Freeman

PUBLISHED: December 7, 2022 at 12:39 p.m. | UPDATED: December 7, 2022 at 7:24 p.m.

KINGSTON, N.Y. — With a second innovative battery technology firm eyeing iPark 87, the former TechCity campus could become a hub for clean energy manufacturing.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer announced Tuesday that he has met with Christina Lampe-Onnerud, CEO of Cadenza Innovation, a lithium-ion battery company, to stump for the town of Ulster site as the location for the company’s proposed multi-hundred million dollar “supercell” manufacturing facility.

In a release touting the meeting, Schumer said he pitched the site, once home to an IBM manufacturing plant, as having “all the right assets” to become the home for Cadenza’s next major manufacturing facility.

Cadenza Innovation Inc. is a Connecticut-based firm that develops and designs lithium-ion battery technologies and energy storage solutions.

“I made it clear to … Lampe-Onnerud, that I stand ready to help their potential expansion in the Hudson Valley in any way, including fighting to secure the historic federal battery research and development incentives I passed in the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act,” Schumer stated.

“The Hudson Valley and New York can be the lightning rod for the future of battery investment in the U.S., and I will not stop fighting to make sure our country’s battery future is powered by New York workers,” he said.

Cadenza is the second battery manufacturing firm to consider moving into iPark 87.

In August, Schumer announced that Zinc 8 Energy Solutions, a Canadian battery manufacturer, had signed a letter of intent to bring a manufacturing facility to the town of Ulster site. Zinc8 officials are negotiating to start with the use of about 100,000 square feet of space and plan to expand by another 350,000 square feet over five years. It has said it would create about 500 jobs at its facility.

“Cadenza is actively considering New York as the next location to scale its production, with a multi-hundred-million-dollar investment,” Schumer said. He said such a move would “supercharge” efforts to revitalize the former economic hub and put the Hudson Valley and upstate New York on the map as a global leader in clean-energy technology.

In an email to the Freeman, Cadenza spokesman Chris Carleton said company executives have made several visits to the iPark87.

“(A) combination of available potential workforce … Schumer’s and (New York’s) long-standing commitment to expanding its use of clean energy and supporting companies bringing the technology, products and services to drive the transformation from fossil fuels, and proximity to world-class colleges and universities, businesses, airports, ports and related infrastructure,” make the site particularly attractive, Carleton wrote.

Joe Cotter, president of National Resources, which owns iPark87, lauded Schumer for his efforts to attract high-quality companies to the site. “We believe iPark87 can be a hub for cutting-edge green technology and unmatched innovation,” he said in a statement.

“With state-of-the-art battery companies like Zinc8 already working to set up shop in the Hudson Valley, securing Cadenza’s spot at iPark87 would be a major win as we work to revitalize Ulster County’s former economic engine, making it a future home to thousands of good-paying clean energy jobs,” Schumer stated.

Cadenza said there is no deadline by which a decision must be made but that negotiations are moving forward. “Conversations are ongoing and continue to be quite positive,” he said in the email. “All parties are working toward a common goal. We’ll hope to be back in touch in the coming weeks with details that aren’t available just yet.”