STRENGTHEN THE ACCESS OF VALLEY BUSINESSES TO NEW YORK CITY MARKETS

Challenge: With a regional economy composed of thousands of small businesses and few large ones, the Hudson Valley suffers from the lack of a coordinated system to get its goods to market.  The largest market, of course, is the New York City metropolitan area.  Accessing this market has administrative costs for every business that tries, and intangible costs in the form of upstate-downstate friction.  Several industries – food and tourism, for example – have made some headway in accessing the New York City market, but these ad hoc efforts have not been adequate.

Working with the Empire State Development Corporation,  create within its New York City office a special unit solely for the purpose of Upstate doing business with Downstate to link HRV business with NYC markets and resources, perhaps as a demonstration region for replication around the state.  Suggested responsibilities of this office are as follows:

• Organize across industries including tourism (entice City residents to visit upstate attractions); agriculture (e.g. selling healthy foods to the New York City school system); emerging energy technologies (innovative solar and wind companies in the Valley).

• Link to New York City venture capitalists.

• Link back offices for FIRE and other industries in the Valley.

Consider private funding sources to avoid implications of favoritism on the part of state agencies.