Phone (607) 203-8936
Our manufacturing legacy is fueling cutting-edge innovation
The Southern Tier is building on its strategic location and re-energizing a regional legacy of advanced and industrial manufacturing, in part through industry-university partnerships, to bring new ideas to life: from cutting-edge transportation equipment and powerful batteries that make cell phones and rail cars more efficient to advancing train technologies at light speed.
Supported by a highly educated work force, the Southern Tier is committing and building for the future through vocational job training programs to prepare the workforce of tomorrow. From Binghamton to Ithaca, the region’s plan for strategic growth includes urban redevelopment and revitalization of cities; updating historic buildings as places for top talent to live and work and a focus on transforming the food and agriculture industry. Take a look at all that’s happening in the Southern Tier.
Key Industries in the Southern Tier
Homeland and Cybersecurity
Distribution
Financial Services and Insurance
Agribusiness
Dozens of higher educational institutions throughout the region, including top-ranked Cornell University, Binghamton University and Ithaca College, offer research teaching, training and networking resources, and also act as major economic drivers for the area. The Koffman Southern Tier High Technology Incubator in downtown Binghamton provides an entrepreneurial ecosystem for emerging companies and supports SUNY Broome Community College student entrepreneurs and startups. SUNY Broome’s College Culinary Arts Center, on the site of a repurposed Carnegie Library, provides training and hands-on experiences for students planning culinary and hospitality careers.
Innovation thrives in the Southern Tier, home to one of New York State’s six Centers of Excellence: Binghamton University’s Small Scale Systems Integration and Packaging Center, part of its Innovative Technologies Complex. Renewable energy is powering up at the complex, with research and testing of battery energy efficiency and storage at the state-of-the-art NECCES Battery “dry room.” The university’s also partnering with NYS industries to lead New York’s “node” in the NextFlex Flexible Hybrid Electronics Manufacturing Innovation Institute – part of a national program to support advanced manufacturing in the U.S. And the Grow-NY business competition supports entrepreneurial innovation drawing on the region’s agricultural strengths.
The region’s major anchor businesses include Corning, Raymond Corp., Lockheed Martin, Hilliard Corp., and Anchor Glass Container Corp. The region also is a rail manufacturing hub—Alstom Transportation Inc. is expanding in Hornell, in Steuben County and TTA Systems is a leader in rail transit vehicle vehicles, systems and components. DICK’s Sporting Goods, a national sporting goods chain that got its start in the region, opened a 650,000-square-foot distribution center in Conklin in 2018 and, in 2019, its first in-house eCommerce fulfillment center.
The region’s industries are supported by access offered by the Binghamton (BGM), Elmira-Corning (ELM) and Ithaca-Tompkins (ITH) regional airports, and a vast freight railway infrastructure operated by Norfolk Southern, New York Susquehanna & Western and Canadian Pacific. The Elmira airport is among upstate airports receiving funding from a state competition for upgrades and expansion. And there’s easy north-south access provided by I-81, which connects the Southern Tier with Canada and the mid-Atlantic and Southern states.
Southern Tier By The Numbers:
104.2
innovation index of the Southern Tier compared to the rest of the U.S.
$2.3B
yearly payroll generated by manufacturing in the region (2019)
5,300+
farms call the Southern Tier home
Population (2023)
Labor Force Status (2023)
Age Distribution (2023)
Education Attainment (2023)
Data source: ZoomProspector (Applied Geographic Solutions)
Doing Business in the Southern Tier
Tax-Based Incentives
Operational Support
Growth Support
Innovation Development Support
Regional Office
The Southern Tier regional office works hand-in-hand with new and existing businesses to help identify economic development programs to support business growth and expansion—for building new facilities, relocating a business, expanding operations and workforce and entering new and global markets.