Franklinville has emerged as the “priority site” for a new $500 million Great Lakes Cheese manufacturing plant
Chris Potter
Allegany County officials aren’t waving the white flag, but neighboring Cattaraugus County has taken the lead in its bid to land a $500 million Great Lakes Cheese manufacturing facility.
Great Lakes Cheese is considering a site in the Franklinville/Farmersville area as it plans to replace its current home in the Allegany County town of Cuba with a new, larger facility. The company initially targeted a site in Allegany County at the Crossroads development, but the proposal fell apart when it became clear electrical capacity was not sufficient for the operation.
The Cattaraugus County Industrial Development Agency has since been working to attract the company.
“They’re basically where we were in January-ish, as far as getting things approved for that site,” said Allegany County IDA Executive Director Craig Clark. “(They’re) looking at utilities yet, and obviously they have to do all those site works that we did very fast tracked in about four months. I would guess it’s four to six months out they’ll know for sure if it’s going to work. They haven’t found any roadblocks yet, but that doesn’t mean they won’t.”
The Evening Tribune