The Sovena olive oil facility currently employs more than 150 full-time workers.

Rail spur off the CSX line key to attracting park’s new tenants

While other former military bases around the country have struggled to reshape themselves, the Griffiss Business and Technology Park in Rome, N.Y. is one of the most successful enterprises of its kind in the United States. A former 3,500-acre Air Force base, it is now the site of a bustling business and technology park employing more than 5,800 people.

One key to the park’s success is its access to avenues of transportation.  It has several four-lane state highways, three interchanges with Interstate 90 (New York State Thruway) within 15 miles of the park, and a rail spur into the park from a CSX main line.

Sovena USA is one of the park’s largest and most recent tenants.  The Company was founded in 1991 in nearby Utica.  It is the country’s largest importer of olive oil.  When the company began looking for another location, a promised upgrade of the park’s rail spur was one of the incentives that helped to lock in the deal.

“What we were able to do was to save jobs and create new ones because there were other locations that they were looking at,” said Rome Mayor James Brown.

In August 2007, Sovena opened a new 185,000-square-foot facility at Griffiss with five rail lines — off the main spur — serving its operations.  Rail tank cars bring the bulk olive oil to the facility for packaging and reshipment.  Oil is pumped to 59 storage tanks to be transported by rail and the facility is capable of holding up to 380,000 gallons (1.4 million liters) of oil.  It currently has more than 150 full-time workers.

“The Rome site’s close proximity to rail lines was a factor for this location,” said Steve Mandia, Sovena USA chief executive. “Without that collaboration with the development agencies, (Mohawk Valley) EDGE and all the elected officials, we would have probably gone to another area.”

“The overall project focused on improving the existing railroad in the park, specifically so that Sovena USA could open their olive oil distribution plant,” said Mark Reynolds, Senior Vice President, Mohawk Valley EDGE.