SUNY Poly: Photonics center is going to Bausch & Lomb building

Another punch was thrown late Monday in the ongoing fight over where in downtown Rochester to locate a $600 million photonics center: the SUNY Polytechnic Institute announced the headquarters will be located in the former Bausch & Lomb building.

The announcement comes after local business leaders and the Albany-based college have battled with other local officials over where the headquarters should be.

SUNY Poly said it is the federal grant awardee and contracting entity with the Department of Defense on the photonics center, so it has the legal authority to decide where the headquarters is located.

University of Rochester president Joel Seligman and some other officials preferred the Sibley Building, which is a few blocks away from the former Bausch & Lomb building, now called the Legacy Tower.

The photonics institute plans to lease about 25,000 square feet "to support its business outreach, workforce training, back office operations and business accelerator/incubator," the college said in a statement.

"The technology accelerator/incubator will serve a dynamic dual role of housing the management and administrative functions of the photonics corporations that will be co-locating in downtown to participate in the institute, as well as the spin off companies that will result from technology transfer and the commercialization of photonics innovations," the statement reads.

Michael Liehr, CEO of the AIM photonics center, said in a statement: “In support of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s innovation-driven economic growth strategy and vision to establish Rochester as the global center of photonics research, SUNY Poly in partnership with the region’s business leaders sought a headquarters location that would not only meet the direct needs of the institute but would contribute to the city’s downtown renewal, and the Legacy Tower was the resoundingly consensus choice.”

Business leaders, including the heads of Eastman Kodak and Paychex, as well as Rochester Business Alliance CEO Robert Duffy, wrote in a lengthy statement last week that the Legacy Tower should be the place for the photonics center's business operations.

“The Legacy Tower is iconic, and its amenities are a perfect fit to house a state of the art operation like the business headquarters," Jeff Clarke, CEO of Eastman Kodak, said in a statement.

Duffy has said that the Legacy Tower is more ready to house the center. SUNY Poly said the building "requires no capital investments or lengthy and costly rehabilitation work."

The college said it reviewed possible sites and picked the Legacy Tower, which is "consistent with Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s strategy to establish iconic vacant buildings within the urban core as hubs for innovation and commercialization."

“On behalf of the 1,600 member Rochester Business Alliance, we would like to thank Governor Cuomo for making the $250 million investment that secured the photonics institute, and for locating its business headquarters and technology accelerator in downtown Rochester,” Duffy said in a statement.