The deliberate enlargement of the North Nation Colocation Providers (NCCS) facility, positioned within the former Reynolds/Alcoa plant in Massena, is being undermined by proposed Massena rules.
For the final seven years, NCCS has proudly invested in its workforce and its neighborhood, spurring job progress and turning into a serious neighborhood companion. The corporate began in Massena in 2017 with a handful of contract staff. Right now, NCCS employs over 80 full-time staff by providing aggressive wages and beneficiant well being and retirement advantages. NCCS is enjoying a essential function in driving the native and regional financial system by bringing tech and non-tech-related job alternatives to the North Nation, producing substantial tax income for the City of Massena and St. Lawrence County, and offering important earnings to different companies in our space that depend on NCCS.
Nonetheless, NCCS’s future operations and neighborhood funding is threatened by proposed Massena rules that might single out our business and prohibit NCCS from pursuing its deliberate $100 million enlargement, denying our neighborhood a much-needed financial jolt.
NCCS’s present web site is over 70 years previous and is in a relentless state of restore. In 2024 alone, NCCS will spend a number of million {dollars} to renovate the house. This band help method to facility renovations is much from cost-effective, and finally, new constructing building will probably be vital.
The present constructing can also be missing in measurement to accommodate rising applied sciences. To maintain up with knowledge middle demand and to take action at a stage that permits NCCS to stay aggressive, the corporate might want to renovate current infrastructure and assemble new environment friendly buildings to scale its operations.
Nonetheless, if a brand new constructing is constructed for the needs of cryptocurrency mining, which is what the Reynolds/Alcoa facility is getting used for at present, excessively onerous and price prohibitive cryptocurrency mining rules will apply to our new building. These rules will apply regardless of NCCS working in an industrial zone, in a constructing that causes no visible or noise nuisance to our neighborhood members, and in a protected method compliant with all relevant code necessities.
These attributes are key – nobody is complaining about visible or noise nuisances at our web site, and our web site is acknowledged to be protected and professionally run. Subsequently, there isn’t a purpose for brand new constructing building to be prohibited and topic to the misdirected cryptocurrency mining rules. The City ought to deal with NCCS like several industrial zone firm that wishes to develop by making the corporate topic to the conventional web site approvals however not extreme further necessities.
NCCS has invested wholeheartedly within the city of Massena as an employer and neighborhood companion. The corporate gives medical advantages for free of charge for particular person well being plans, in addition to an automated 5% employer contribution for 401K advantages impartial of the worker’s participation. NCCS hosts quite a few worker engagement and enrichment alternatives and proudly serves as a serious donor of native organizations and occasions. If NCCS is unable to develop outdoors of its current footprint because of misguided and burdensome rules, the corporate will be unable to put money into its workforce or neighborhood at its present charge. Finally, these rules threaten NCCS’s future existence in Massena and the roles which can be related to it.
Now, I urge the Massena City Board to undertake acceptable exemptions to any proposed cryptocurrency rules that might permit NCCS to proceed to function and develop, together with by establishing new buildings, so NCCS can proceed to function in Massena and put money into the native and statewide financial system.
I additionally encourage members of the general public, workers, and neighborhood leaders to affix us on the April 17 City Board assembly to point out their assist for NCCS, its operations within the North Nation, and its dedication to the native financial system.
David Fogel is the CEO of NCCS
