B-Roll, Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Delivers Remarks at Groundbreaking for Fairlife Dairy Production Facility

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul and representatives from the Coca-Cola Company and fairlife marked the groundbreaking on a new fairlife production facility, a $650 million investment in the Town of Webster, Monroe County. The 745,000 square-foot facility, being built on Tebor Road, will serve as fairlife's flagship Northeast location and is expected to be operational by Q4 of 2025. Empire State Development is providing up to $21 million in assistance for the fairlife project through the performance-based Excelsior Jobs Tax Credit Program and the New York Power Authority is providing nearly 8.5 MW of low-cost ReCharge NY power in exchange for the job creation commitments. The company selected New York following a personal pitch from Governor Hochul due to the invaluable assistance from government and community partners and the state's world-renowned reputation as an agribusiness global leader with an unparalleled, innovative dairy community. The New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, the Monroe County Industrial Development Agency, the Town of Webster, Rochester Gas and Electric, and Greater Rochester Enterprise were also instrumental in bringing the company to New York State.

B-ROLL of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the Governor's remarks is available here.

PHOTOS of the event will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Thank you, Tim, for believing in New York. This is an extraordinary day for all of us. I could not be prouder of this moment. I truly mean that. I want to thank you. I want to thank Jennifer Mann for all the investments Coca-Cola makes. I know you said you refresh New Yorkers, you also recharge us every afternoon when I have a small - those little mini ones you make now? - that's all I need. A glass of ice, that mini Coke and I can power through the night. So, thank you for keeping the Governor going. Also, I want to thank Adam Bello for your commitment from the county. It's always so important to have a partnership with the state and the county and the local - our Supervisor has joined us as well, Tom Flaherty.

And this is a big deal. I was on a Town Board for 14 years. If someone had called me and said, $650 million of investment, 250 jobs, I probably would have fallen over. So, congratulations. Daniel Webster would be proud that the community named after him is now going to continue this great legacy of excellence, and I appreciate that.

And Commissioner Richard Ball, our Agriculture Commissioner, is also an important part of Empire State Development. So, it's a great day for us. And I just want to say a couple of things. I remember the first conversation. Now one thing you know, I did grow up in an Irish Catholic family, come from a long line of dairy farmers in County Kerry and in Dublin. And when I heard that there was this opportunity for us to have the largest dairy processing facility in the Northeast, my competitive juices were just racing. I just said, "No, we're not losing this." They had me at "hello." "I've got to get this. I've got to win this."

So I called up Tim out in California and we talked about stories and what is it going to take? What is it going to take? What's it going to take? And I said, "I will personally navigate this. I will make sure that I'm there for everything. Forget about the Budget. I'm coming." I said, "I will be there every step of the way for you." And I believe my team has made that happen and our local partners. But it also takes someone like you to say, "I'm going to take that leap." And this is a new venture for fairlife to come to New York, but I'm really hopeful. I don't know who is number one in the whole east, if we're going to be number one in the northeast. Who's number one in the east?

Okay, so we'll be number one in the world, okay? So that's what I'm going for right now.

And also, I did want to recognize Bob Duffy is here too as well, a great partner who runs our Chamber of Commerce. Anything with business goes through Bob. So thank you, Bob.

So let me just give a few reflections on this. I do have to run, and I appreciate you expediting the shovel move there.

But I also said, people don't think about New York State as being a dairy state. When you go anywhere else, they think that we are Manhattan. I'm from Buffalo. I used to represent a congressional district, which was the most rural in the state, including Wyoming County, which has 20,000 people and probably 40,000 cows. And I got to know all the cows personally. You do this when you're in Congress and you have a small district. So, this is personal to me. This was a statement that this part of our state matters - that these investments, yes, could have gone to other parts of our country, but you picked this area, and you picked this community because you saw the potential. You saw the caliber of our workforce. And I will tell you this, nobody works harder than people here in Upstate New York.

It is that legacy of commitment. My dad and grandpa worked at a steel plant. People worked here at Kodak. People work in these companies a long time. So, when you recruit somebody, they're part of the family. They'll stay with you. I know how important it is, but we have over 3,000 dairy farmers here, and this is a lifeline for them as well.

This gives them hope, and I believe in them. I've toured so many dairy farms around the state. This is such a big deal to them as well. So, I'm real excited about this. We have made a lot of investments here. We've done a lot, and I also want to make sure that it's easier for all of our farmers.

My Budget reflects that. I've said, what are we doing in our Budget for farmers, for agriculture, and making sure that when there's an overtime expense that the state will absorb that for you. That we'll continue to make investments that'll help the investment tax credit for farmers, increase that dramatically.

So, we're doing a lot of things there as well, but I will tell you this. Without investments like this, without people believing in us, without this level of saying we're going to make it happen, we're not the great state that we could be. This is how we achieve our potential. You find about the opportunities, you reel them in, you persuade people - you get down on your knees and say, "Please come to New York and we'll make you never regret that decision."

I also want to say with the support we had from ESD: $20 million from ESD, $20 million from our FAST New York. FAST New York is what you see here. People say, what does that stand for? That stands for getting shovel ready sites in advance. That gives you the competitive advantage you need. Instead of saying let's recruit them, and then someday we'll find you a site, and then we'll get all the permitting and then we'll figure out the infrastructure.

No, you offer companies this. And that's what we're investing in. It's just smart governance and smart economic development. It's a good strategy and we see this bearing out here today in this enormous site. I didn't know it was going to be this big, Tim. This is really big. This is really big. But, because you're so big we also need to support our local community.

And so, we are announcing today $20 million for the town of Webster to fund a new on-site wastewater treatment plant. There you go. Take a bow. You're welcome.

We were just here announcing a $4.5 million, we call them New York Forward Grants. And again, investing in your downtown, so the employees you have will, see a revitalized downtown Webster.

So, we believe in our communities upstate, and this is proof positive of that. So, I have to wrap up and get on a plane and get back to work - but I wish I could stay, hang out with all these nice people here. Nobody's asking me for anything other than what Tim did. But I'm honored to be the Governor of a state that number one agricultural product is dairy. My family back in Ireland would be very proud of this.

Thank you very much.

Contact the Governor's Press Office