SCHUMER CALLS ON POSTAL SERVICE TO HELP CONVERT UNDERUSED HICKSVILLE POST OFFICE INTO INNOVATIVE BUSINESS INCUBATOR; 'THOUGHT BOX' PROJECT WOULD CREATE HUNDREDS OF JOBS & REVITALIZE HICKSVILLE
"Thought Box 1,"an Accelerate Long Island Project In Hicksville, Would Create Hundreds of Jobs By Serving as a Business Hub For New Tech Start-ups, But Building Space Is Needed to Launch Project
U.S. Postal Service's Hicksville Facility Is In State of Disrepair, Slated To Be Sold and Could Serve as Home for LI Innovation; Schumer Calls on Postal Service to Lease or Sell Building for Project - A Win-Win for Postal Workers and Hicksville
Schumer: Accelerate Long Island and Thoughtbox 1 Should Call Hicksville Home
Yesterday, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer called on the U.S. Post office to work with the leadership of Accelerate Long Island to transform the currently underused U.S. Postal Service facilities in Hicksville into space for the new Thought Box 1 business incubator project that will create hundreds of jobs and revitalize Hicksville. The Thought Box aims to re-develop existing vacant properties in downtown Hicksville to create a multi-use space for innovative companies and entrepreneurs involved with the federal research lab in Brookhaven as well as other institutions. However, the leaders of the project have not yet selected a building for the project. Currently, the Post Office has been attempting to sell its Hicksville Facility because it is underused and in a state of disrepair. Schumer said that with its proximity to the busy Hicksville LIRR station, the facility would serve as the perfect location for Thoughtbox 1, simultaneously providing the project with a suitable site and helping the post office cut costs. Today, in a letter to the Postmaster General, Schumer urged the Post Office to work with the leaders of the Thought Box project to explore selling or leasing the space. Schumer also said that disposing of this run-down facility to the private sector would allow the Hicksville Postal Service workforce to potentially re-locate to a modern facility with better amenities.
"Providing a new home for Accelerate Long Island companies, helping the Post Office cut costs, and locating the Thought Box 1 concept in Downtown Hicksville is a win-win-win," said Schumer. "Long Island could become a new hub for technological innovation - if we commit to fostering and growing start-up tech businesses. By turning this post office into the next state-of-the-art incubator right here in Hicksville, we could demonstrate Long Island's commitment to being the next home of innovative, cutting-edge entrepreneurs and companies."
The Thought Box 1 Project, part of the Accelerate Long Island initiative, aims to create a new, large business incubator on Long Island containing 450,000-square-foot of residential and commercial space to attract start-up businesses and hundreds of jobs. In December, the project received a $3 million state economic development grant for construction of a business incubator. Canrock Ventures, a LI venture capital firm, and the LI Emerging Technology Fund, a fund dedicated to Accelerate LI technologies, will be the Thought Box Center's first tenants, and will bring the eight technology companies on Long Island they have already invested in with them, bringing with them from 200 to 500 employees. On day one, the Hicksville Thought Box could have at least one technology anchor with over 500 employees.
Supporters of the project are hoping to locate the project near the Hickville LIRR stop in order to attract commuters riding by rail. However, a site still has not been selected. Fortuitously, the Post Office has currently outgrown their current facility in Hicksville, and have had difficulty finding a bidder for the property.
Schumer, in a letter to Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe, called on the Post Office to examine the feasibility of turning this excess postal facility in Hicksville, as well as others, into a job-creating engine for Long Island. Schumer noted that the Hicksville Post Office is currently very underutilized and would serve as an ideal location for the Thought Box. The Post Office could benefit from selling the unused space and moving into a smaller facility. Schumer noted that as the Postal Service continues its work in finding new efficiencies and cutting costs, there is a tremendous opportunity to leverage existing federal assets to create jobs and foster innovation on Long Island.
Accelerate Long Island, a collaborative initiative between Long Island's business, academic, and government leaders, focuses the resources of the region - world-class research and a highly-skilled workforce - to create economic development in the local bioscience industry. For the first time in the history of Long Island, a regional innovation cluster is forming around core institutions at the forefront of biomedical research - Brookhaven National Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, North Shore - LIJ Health System's Feinstein Institute, Hofstra University, and the lead applicant, Stony Brook University.
A copy of Schumer's letter is below.
Dear Postmaster General,
I write today to urge you to join me in an important endeavor that has the potential to transform the economy of Long Island and usher in a new wave of good-paying jobs and investment in the region. Accelerate Long Island is a newly formed organization dedicated to advancing the commercialization of technologies developed at Long Island's major research institutions. Despite massive federal investments in research at places like Brookhaven National Laboratory, Long Island suffers from too much invention and too little commercialization, which costs the region new jobs and capital investment. In order to create a new environment where the business, research, and investment communities work together to fix this problem, Accelerate Long Island must build innovation hubs for high-tech companies that provide attractive transit, housing and cultural opportunities for skilled workers. That's why today I am requesting that you work with the leadership of Accelerate Long Island to transform excess United States Postal Service facilities into new Innovation Hubs. As the Service continues its work in finding new efficiencies and cutting costs, there is a tremendous opportunity to leverage existing federal assets to create jobs and foster innovation on Long Island.
According to a groundbreaking new report from the Long Island Index, since 2005, growth in federal R&D funding in the region rose 54 percent between 2005 and 2010 while national federal R&D funding declined by 12 percent. However, the report went on to note that Long Island "lacks a culture of collaboration that is essential to becoming a world-class innovator. In short, it's not just the ingredients (talent, capital and technology) but the recipe (networking, commercialization and entrepreneurship) that is the secret to regional success." Another indicator is venture capital. Despite its prowess in attracting federal research dollars, Long Island only received .5 percent of the U.S. venture capital in 2010. As the Index report described, the lesson from other leading innovation regions is that venture capital is attracted to innovation habitats that create a strong environment for business start ups and expansions.
Despite these challenges, there is a movement on Long Island to address these problems head-on. The Thoughtbox initiative developed by technology entrepreneur and venture capitalist Mark Fasciano could be the recipe for that success. In conjunction with Accelerate Long Island, the Thoughtbox initiative aims to re-develop existing vacant properties in downtown Hicksville - one of them a U.S. Post Office facility in the process of being sold - to create a multi-use space for innovative companies and entrepreneurs involved with the federal research lab in Brookhaven as well as other great institutions like Cold Spring Harbor Lab, Stony Brook University, the Feinstein Institute at North Shore LIJ, and Hofstra University. It is our understanding from the Postal Service that this facility has outlived its usefulness and that the building is likely beyond repair. Therefore, by working with Accelerate Long Island, you could achieve two objectives at once - improving the work environment for your Hicksville workforce by moving them to a new location in Hicksville and disposing of an underutilized federal property that would allow job growth to flourish. It is imperative that you insure the existing Hicksville postal workforce has a new home close in proximity with adequate parking. I urge you to also work with local facility managers to select a new site.
Canrock Ventures, a LI venture capital firm, and the LI Emerging Technology Fund, a fund dedicated to Accelerate LI technologies, will be the Thought Box Center's first tenants, and will bring the eight companies on Long Island they have already invested in with them. According to Fasciano, Canrock will commit to locate their portfolio companies at Thought Box Center and will mentor each of the tenant companies. The anchor tenants of the Thought Box will be technology companies ranging from 200 to 500 employees. These larger mature companies want to locate at the Thought Box because of the proximity to the train, integrated housing, and for collaboration with the cutting edge technology developed at the startups, some of whom can grow to become acquisitions. On day one, the Hicksville Thought Box could have at least one technology anchor with over 500 employees.
Therefore, I implore you to being a dialogue with Accelerate Long Island to examine the feasibility of turning this excess postal facility in Hicksville, as well as others, into a job-creating engine for Long Island. It has also come to my attention that there are postal facilities in downtown Garden City and Melville - two other business hubs - that could complement the efforts at Hicksville's Thought Box.
Sincerely,
Charles E. Schumer
U.S. Senator