Jeff Platsky

jplatsky@gannett.com | @JeffPlatsky

A plan by Modern Marketing Concepts to convert the former Link building in Kirkwood into office space, trumpeted by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in August 2015 as a landmark in job creation for the Southern Tier, is dead.

“We could not make it work,” said Dan Babcock, MMC founder and chief executive. “It did not make economic sense.”

The company is walking away from $14.5 million in state and local incentives to instead expand its marketing operation at other nearby properties.

“If we do the project the way we want to do it, we don't need any assistance,” Babcock said late this past week.

Jobs will be added, just not the 600 first announced. Babcock declined to disclose the number of jobs to be added in his amended expansion plan. At the time of the original announcement, Babcock said he employed 330 people at his current facility at the Kirkwood Industrial Park, a building he acquired when Universal Instruments vacated the structure 10 years ago.

Whether the former Link factory and offices for what was once the nation’s foremost flight simulator makers will eventually be turned into a multi-use office complex is uncertain, at best.

Complications such as an asbestos-laden building and an existing tenant, L3 Communications, which could not be relocated, also played a role in dooming the deal. L3 develops and produces flight simulators at the site for some of the military’s top secret airframes.

Because L3’s current location passes stringent requirements for so-called “black hole” programs, relocating the enterprise or walling it off from other commercial tenants could have posed an insurmountable problem for the Modern Marketing Concepts plan.

“I felt the building wasn't ready,” Babcock said.

Babcock's company provides sales and marketing support for companies in the health care and building products industry, operating behind the scenes to enhance sales prospecting and brand management.

Now, The Agency, formerly called the Broome County Development Agency, is presented with the challenge of finding a new developer for the 436,000-square-foot office building. Babcock suggested an organization seasoned in developing decades-old office space may be the preferred vehicle for rehabilitating the structure that has been mostly vacant for more than 20 years.

"We obviously want to sell the building," said Kevin McLaughlin, executive director of The Agency. "There has been interest in the past."

He said Babcock remains committed to growing his business and expanding employment, just not at the former Link site.

On a bright summer day, officials from across the region gathered on the first floor of the former Link building to celebrate its rebirth. That celebration proved to be premature.

"This is a really, really big deal, and it is something to celebrate." Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at the time.

Modern Marketing Concepts was scheduled to occupy 115,000 square feet, with other, unnamed tenants to occupy spaces of 100,000, 50,000 and 15,000 square feet, with another 90,000 square feet still available.

Work planned for the building included interior demolition and reconstruction, improvements to the heating and air conditioning system, elevator replacement and asbestos abatement, among other improvements.

Among the amenities planned for the facility were an on-site workout area, café and health care center.

Babcock was to acquire the former Link Flight Simulation facility from The Agency for $4.5 million. He was scheduled to invest an estimated $10 million in construction and $2.5 million in furniture and fixtures, according to the documents.

Scuttling the deal comes as a major blow to the Binghamton region's economy, which had been counting on projects such as the MMC expansion to rejuvenate a beleaguered economy. Over the past 10 years, the region, which includes Broome and Tioga counties has lost 9,100 private sector jobs, 10 percent of its total. New York overall has gained 755,000 private sector jobs, an increase of 10 percent. Nationwide, the private sector job count is up 6 percent for the same period.

Dick's Sporting Goods announced the construction of $100 million, 650,000-square-foot distribution center in the Conklin Corporate Park four months ago. Much of the site work for that project has been completed with foundation already poured and set. Dick's, founded on Binghamton's East Side in 1948 but which relocated its corporate headquarters to Pittsburgh 22 years ago, expects to employ 466 people at the 123-acre site when it opens in the first part of 2018.