Inside the I-Corridor: Joe Stefko on New York’s Semiconductor Economy

think historically we have across, at least across the larger upstate markets, Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse, even if we haven't looked at ourselves as consistent competitors, we haven't looked at each other as strategic partners in a way that we are right now.

And so, you know, you layer on top of that the economic challenges that, you know, a lot of these upstate New York communities have faced over the last couple of generations.

And I do think at some level it created a bit of a zero sum, like Buffalo wins, that means Rochester loses.

Rochester wins, that means Buffalo, Syracuse lose.

And so what we've, again, what's been really gratifying, whether it's through the Smart Eye Corridor Tech Hub work, the regional revitalization partnership work that we're involved with, at One Rock with the state and a number of other philanthropic partners, including Ralph C. Wilson Jr.

Foundation, a new entrepreneurial ecosystem accelerator, which is focused on better connecting Rochester and Buffalo and sort of that western-southern tier.

We've now kind of pulled up that geographic lens, and we're looking at how we can be and invest more as strategic partners on some of these key initiatives.

At the end of the day, there are still Our business attraction organization here in Rochester is still fighting every day to grow businesses here in Rochester, just as the attraction organization in Buffalo is doing and just as our friends in Syracuse are doing.

But on these bigger picture strategic plays, strategic opportunities, it's been amazing to see just in the last four or five years how we've been able to operate much more as consistent strategic partners.

And I think there's a real power in that.

The economy and the levels of geography at which regions compete today are very different than what they were 30, 40, or 50 years ago, right? This is no longer Rochester against Buffalo against Syracuse, as much as it is, you know, the I corridor geography against Beijing

or against

Taiwan or against Austin, right? So we're competing much more at a kind of a truly global level.

And when you pull back and you look at a broader region, it introduces into the conversation a set of complementary assets that, you know, Buffalo has things that we don't and vice versa and Syracuse vice versa, that when we think about this as a broader strategic kind of mega region or uber region, it can give us some strategic opportunities that any market on its own wouldn't have available to them.