Today's Monroe County Industrial Development Agency board meeting can be summed up in a simple phrase: hotels and drinks.
The COMIDA board approved incentives for two E. J. Del Monte Corp. hotel projects, for an expansion at the Genesee brewery, and for Fee Brothers to add more warehouse space. The board also approved incentives for the expansion of a multi-use building in a Greece office park and for NOHMS Technology, a lithium sulfur battery technology development company located in the Eastman Business Park.
Fee Brothers on Portland Avenue in Rochester makes cocktail mixes, bitters, and botanical waters. And over the past several years, its business has tripled, says Joe Fee, who along with his sister is the fourth generation of the family working at the business.
The company plans to expand its warehouse because there isn't enough room to store products, Fee said. The company plans to invest $534,000 to add 5,160 square feet of space. The COMIDA board approved property tax incentives for the project, and the company expects to create the equivalent of two full-time positions over the next three years.
The E.J. Del Monte Corp will receive $122,048 worth of sales tax exemptions for a $2.4 million hotel project. It plans to renovate its Courtyard by Marriott hotel on Paddy Creek Circle in Greece and turn it into a Fairfield by Marriott. The company will also receive $831,200 worth of sales and mortgage tax exemptions for the construction of its $18 million Hilton Garden Inn, which will be part of the College Town development on Mt. Hope Avenue.
North American Breweries plans to add a 3,500 square foot building to the Genesee Brewery, a $3.9 million project. The new building will house a new pasteurization and conveyor line for canning and bottling the brewery's products. The company sought sales tax exemptions on $1.8 million of construction work, since the equipment is already tax-exempt under state law. The sales tax exemption granted to the company is worth approximately $60,000. The brewery has 542 employees.