Our member Saratoga Technology + Energy Park, a project of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NSYERDA), has re-launched its STEP website with a handsome new design, detailed information on key buildings in the park, updated tenant news, and information on funding opportunities relevant to all companies in the clean energy space.

SUNY Fredonia Technology Incubator, which is planning a newly constructed incubator facility in downtown Dunkirk, has advanced its membership in BIA/NYS to the Supporting level, which recognizes outstanding commitment to the association. This is the second such vote of confidence in recent weeks, and we expect further such announcements. Our thanks to incubator director Jeff Corcoran!

The Center for Economic and Environmental Partnership's incubator program has joined BIA/NYS as a member. CEEP Inc. is a nonprofit charitable entity originally created by the Environmental Business Association of New York State. CEEP has leased space for use by incubation-stage companies at our member NYSERDA Saratoga Technology + Energy Park in the Town of Malta.

Effective this month, the Environmental Business Association is no longer a supporting member of BIA/NYS. Ira Rubenstein, formerly the executive director of EBA, is chairman of CEEP's board and continues in his role as board member and treasurer of BIA/NYS.

The Rochester BioVenture Center, a wet-lab incubator managed by High Tech Rochester, has formally become a member of BIA/NYS. Recently rechartered as an affiliate of the University of Rochester, HTR also owns and operates the Lennox Tech Enterprise Center, which has been a BIA/NYS member since September 2006.

As the operations of these two incubators become more tightly integrated over the next 18 months, the two memberships may be consolidated. In the meantime, we thank HTR and its departing president Paul Wetenhall for their strong support of our association.

Our member Broad Hollow Bioscience Park was cited by economist Pearl Kamer of the Long Island Association as one reason for transit-oriented development around a reopened Long Island Railroad station at Republic Airport.

That station was closed in 1986, just before the final closure of Fairchild Republic Aircraft Company, but will now be key to plans for 1.2 million square feet of commercial, residential and commercial space. Ms. Kamer was quoted by The New York Times as saying that as Broad Hollow spurs development of a bioscience cluster along Route 110, there will be a need for new housing nearby.

Broad Hollow is in the process of opening its second incubator building.