In the second new-tenant announcement in as many weeks, our supporting member the NYSERDA Saratoga Technology + Energy Park (STEP)® has announced that The Radiant Store, an installer of solar-thermal hot-water systems, has become a new tenant at 10 Hermes Road at STEP. For the NYSERDA news release, click here.

Clough Harbour & Associates (CHA), a leading energy and environmental engineering services company headquartered in Albany, has become the newest tenant at our supporting member the NYSERDA Saratoga Technology + Energy Park (STEP)®. CHA will locate at STEP's 107 Hermes Road building. You can read the official NYSERDA press release here. 

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has announced a major reorientation of the RPI Incubator Program, a founding member of this association and often recognized as the first university-affiliated business incubator in the United States.

In several interviews with local press, including one with The Troy Record available here, Rensselaer Chief of Staff and Associate Vice President Laban Coblentz described the institute's plans to focus most intensively on providing assistance to young companies developing energy and environmental technologies.

As part of this shift, RPI will relocate the current tenants of the aging incubator building on Peoples Avenue to other space in and around Troy, including both university-owned and private properties. After the move, some companies will remain in the Incubator Program, and others will be "graduated" if their status permits.

With an emphasis on services rather than a single location, and deeper partnerships with on-campus entities such as the Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship and the Office of the Vice Provost for Entrepreneurship, RPI projects that the capacity of the Incubator Program to serve university spin-offs and other startups may rise.

Since its founding in 1980, the RPI Incubator Program has graduated a number of companies that are now prominent in the "Tech Valley" landscape, including Albany Molecular Research Inc. and MapInfo, now the Business Insight division of Pitney Bowes.

Breonics, Inc., a bioengineering firm, will take 1,700 square feet and create three to five jobs at our supporting member the Harriman Business Center Incubator. Breonics is engaged in clinical trials across the nation of a perfusion technology designed to sustain the viability of organs targeted for transplantation, thus expanding the organ donation pool.

The new tenant was announced by Empire State Development, the state's economic development agency and corporate parent of the Harriman Research and Technology Development Corporation. HRTDC is redeveloping the state office complex at the Harriman Campus, as part of a program to position the Capital Region as a technology leader. For the full press release from Empire State Development quoting many of the partners in this development and explaining the role of the incubator and its close partners at SUNY's University at Albany, click the preceding link.

Congratulations to Breonics president Ernie Green, and also to HRTDC president Peter Wohl and vice president Richard Usas!

Our supporting member NYSERDA's Saratoga Technology + Energy Park (STEP)® has released the January 2010 edition of its newsletter, available below as an attachment and very soon on the STEP website. Please take a moment to download it.

The issue features coverage of various activities related to building the STEP "knowledge community," including a recent session for campus career offices on internship opportunities for college students at STEP and its tenant companies. That session was facilitated by the BIA/NYS executive director. 

Our supporting member NYSERDA Saratoga Technology + Energy Park (STEP)®, the master developer of an energy-and environmental technology knowledge community in the Town of Malta, is seeking private-sector developers of a "lifestyle center" that will add retail and other amenities to the rapidly developing research park. STEP is adjacent to the Luther Forest Technology Campus, where GlobalFoundries is building a new semiconductor fab, and the lifestyle center will serve employees at both facilities. For the official notice, see NYSERDA's Program Opportunity Notice 6. For news coverage, see the Times Union.

The board of the Harriman Research and Technology Development Corporation (HRTDC) recently reconvened and confirmed the appointment as president of Peter Wohl, director for the Capital Region for Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC). HRTDC is a subsidiary of ESDC and is developing the Harriman Business Center Incubator, a supporting member of BIA/NYS. Click the first link for the ESDC press release or see the Albany Business Review for additional coverage.

The Albany Times Union ran a Sunday feature highlighting recent progress at our supporting member the NYSERDA Saratoga Technology + Energy Park (STEP)®, where employment is expected to reach 150 by year-end. The article notes the strong synergy between NYSERDA STEP and the Global Foundries semiconductor chip "fab" rising next door at the Luther Forest Technology Campus.