Economy of Buffalo, New York
The Buffalo area economy consists of a mix of industrial, light manufacturing, high technology, and service-oriented private sector companies.
Instead of relying on a single industry or sector for its economic future, the region has taken a diversified approach that has the potential to create opportunities for growth and expansion in the 21st century.
It also includes: Buffalo Hearing & Speech Center, Buffalo Medical Group Foundation, Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute, Kaleida Health, Olmsted Center for the Visually Impaired, Cleveland BioLabs and Upstate New York Transplant Services.
Entrepreneurial resources and life science business consultants accelerate the growth and development of emerging companies found within the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus and Upstate New York Region.
For example, Buffalo BioSciences is a technology commercialization partner to the New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics & Life Sciences and contributed to the launch and early success of Empire Genomics –- a firm based on research conducted at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center by Dr. Norma Nowak[7] enabling the delivery of personalized medicine.
HSBC has reduced its local operations in Buffalo, and Upstate NY as a whole, as it closed its retail banking centers.
PNC Financial Services and First Niagara Bank had significant overlap in Western Pennsylvania and had potential antitrust issues in that area.
[17] This is in large part due to Buffalo's location directly in the middle of the Northeastern Trade Corridor.
[18] Del Monte Foods' Milk Bone dog biscuits are still manufactured in a small factory on the city's East Side.
[21] Through the 1960s and 1970s freight traffic via Buffalo declined, air travel and the New York State Thruway took railway passengers away as well.
[22] General Motors also runs the Tonawanda Engine plant by the Niagara River,[23] and there are additional chemical and technology companies that continue to operate factories throughout the city and region.
In addition, Tesla has partnered with Panasonic and New York State to operate Gigafactory 2 on the former Republic Steel site.
It awards $5 million to its winners each year, and also offers them mentorship, workspace in the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, and tax incentives from the state of New York, among other benefits.
[27][28] The loss of traditional jobs in manufacturing, rapid suburbanization, and high costs of labor have led to economic decline, making Buffalo one of the poorest among U.S. cities with populations of more than 250,000 people.
[32] The city's move away from heavy industry and toward a service and bioinformatics economy [citation needed] has brought improved air and water quality, which benefit not only residents and tourists but the bioregion as a whole.
[34] Money from state governor Andrew Cuomo, plans for different construction programs, and hundreds of new jobs have brought strong economic change to the area.
