"It’s very significant," said Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown. "Anything that we can do to enhance the visibility of the city and do it in a way that we are recruiting a company in one of four targeted industries is a very, very positive thing. And this will make us even more attractive for development."

The project is a new twist on a decade-old vision to focus on logistics, given Western New York's location on the Great Lakes, its proximity to Canada, and its position along major highway and rail lines. Some 26,000 shipping containers already make their way back and forth between New York and Buffalo every year, by truck.

"We are a logistics hub. We have been since the terminus of the Erie Canal," said Craig W. Turner, executive director of the collaboration, called Buffalo Niagara International Trade Gateway Organization, or ITGO. "What we started to do years ago was start to market it that way."

Most significantly, supporters say, Buffalo is part of the third-largest and fastest-growing metropolitan region in North America — the horseshoe zone stretching from Toronto to Rochester. The import demand of that major region, coupled with the presence of a large trans-shipment facility in the area, would result in more shipping containers being emptied locally and then reloaded with exports from manufacturers in Western New York and southern Ontario.