sibley building

A new Photonics Institute will be popping up in Rochester very soon, according to a statement made by Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday, Sept. 17. The Integrated Photonics Institute for Manufacturing Innovation will have three separate sites, all located in the city, totaling $600 million.

The first announcement about the photonics lab was released this past July and was met with wide approval, but disagreements about the exact location of the facility have been threatening to uproot the entire process.

The center’s headquarters will be located in the Legacy Tower, which was formerly known as the Bausch + Lomb building, according to the Rochester Business Journal and TWC News. Although many local leaders wanted the headquarters to be stationed at the Sibley Building on East Main Street, Gov. Cuomo stepped in and organized a compromise wherein the Institute would have multiple locations across the city.

Over the next few months, workers will begin to make room in the Legacy Building and in the Sibley buildings, as well as in the Eastman Business Park (which was already previously cleared for the Department of Defense, TWC News said).

The city of Rochester already has an estimated 15,000 workers in the photonics industry, said Sen. Chuck Schumer, so it only makes sense that Rochester would house a new institute to ensure that these jobs don’t disappear or migrate to other cities.

As the Democrat and Chronicle noted, the city’s economy has suffered quite a bit in the past two decades because of “significant downsizing” at Kodak, Xerox, and Bausch + Lomb; all three were previously “cornerstones of our economy,” the DandC reported, which provided thousands of jobs for residents in Rochester.

Kodak in particular suffered major losses when the photography industry began merging with the mobile phone industry; smartphones have essentially turned into universal remotes for daily life, and when four out of five smartphone users even use their devices to shop online, it isn’t surprising that the majority of smartphone users prefer to use their in-phone camera app.

But this sort of user convenience came at a price, and Rochester workers ended up paying that price in job cuts.

The DandC recently reported that the city lost approximately 50,000 jobs between July of 1997 and July of 2015, and the majority of these jobs came from the manufacturing industry.

The new Photonics Institute won’t be drawing in too many highly-skilled workers with four-year degrees, instead creating opportunities for middle-skill levels that require industry training — but it’s better than nothing.

There will be six different job types opening at the Institute, and local leaders have stated that they expect the facility to secure Rochester’s place among the nation’s developing manufacturing industry.