NEWS

Former Kodak building tapped for photonics research hub

Brian Sharp
@SharpRoc

A former Eastman Kodak Co. building on Lake Avenue is the recommended site for the research hub of the nation's integrated photonics initiative, sources said Tuesday — with a vote confirming the selection expected Wednesday morning.

A photo illustration of downtown Rochester, future home of AIM Photonics.

U.S. Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-Fairport, and U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, confirmed the site in separate statements on Wednesday morning.

THE LATEST: Lab expected to open in late 2017

Said Slaughter: “The selection of ON Semiconductor’s Rochester facility as the site for the nation’s only Testing, Assembly and Packaging facility is a pivotal moment for our community and our effort to get the photonics institute online. I’m especially proud that this one-of-a-kind facility will be calling the nation’s most impressive industrial park home. This decision will give leaders at the TAP facility on-site expertise while helping Eastman Business Park attract new businesses and continue to grow."

The site is at the edge of Eastman Business Park, formerly Building 81 and now home to ON Semiconductor. The company will lease excess clean room, lab and office space for what is called the Testing, Assembly and Packaging facility, according to sources with knowledge of the recommendation.

“The AIM Photonics Testing, Assembly, and Packaging facility will now become a job-creating reality right here in Rochester," Schumer said. "This facility, that originally housed the R&D and cleanroom manufacturing space where Kodak pioneered the semiconductor image sensors that made digital cameras, imaging satellites, and countless other cutting edge digital imaging technologies possible, will now once again incubate the next revolutionary photonic breakthrough: photonic integrated circuits."

Members of the state board overseeing American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics will vote on the site during a meeting in downtown Rochester, sources said, with Slaughter, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and others expected to attend. Howard Zemsky, head of Empire State Development, is expected to present the proposal.

►Chasing the light: Photonics one year later

►'Independent party' selected to scout photonics facility

►State to bid photonics work, re-evaluate HQ

This facility is where the lion's share of jobs to be created by the initiative will be located, at least initially, officials have said. The institute is in the process of ordering $106 million in high-tech tools and equipment for the testing facility. AIM Photonics CEO Michael Liehr said this past summer that it would take a year to get the equipment bought, made, shipped and installed.

The deadline to open was previously set for July 2017.

"This facility situated on Eastman Business Park’s doorstep offers the U.S. Department of Defense and our government, industry, and academic partners exciting capabilities, infrastructure, and capacity to draw the best minds to and from Rochester," Schumer said, "to figure out how to manufacture low-cost integrated photonics that will power the devises and technology we will all depend on in the decades to come. It will be the only facility of its kind in the U.S. and Rochester will be at the center of it all."

The search for where to locate the TAP facility began with 19 potential sites, sources said. Not all responded to a formal request for proposals. An independent consultant was brought in this fall to evaluate the contenders and make a recommendation.

ON Semiconductor was not initially a frontrunner, sources said, but emerged during the process. The property sits north of Maplewood Drive, on the east side of Lake Avenue, connected by a skywalk to a building across the street. ON acquired the multi-story structure in 2014, when it purchased Truesense Imaging. The company, based in Phoenix, and employing 24,500 worldwide, is a Motorola spinoff, and Truesense was a Kodak spinoff that took over Kodak's high-end image capture business.

BDSHARP@Gannett.com