The firm says the investment is a sign of its commitment to the area.
Carrier is investing $30 million in its DeWitt plant and following through on a pledge to donate a park to DeWitt. The firm says the investment is a sign of its commitment to the area.DeWitt, NY—Carrier Corp. this morning said it will invest $30 million to tear down buildings, upgrade some offices and landscape the DeWitt campus, which is home to the company’s largest research and development center.
The big empty factories that border along Thompson Road will be replaced with wide open green spaces.
The $30 million investment comes on top of the $5 million redevelopment plan Carrier announced in November 2007.
“Carrier is committed to making its Syracuse campus sustainable for our employees and the community,” company President Geraud Darnis said in a news release. “This planned investment will improve facilities for our 1,100 employees on the campus while reducing excess, vacant space.”
Carrier designs and makes air conditioning and cooling equipment. For years its factories made air conditioners for buildings and equipment that chilled shipping containers. The last of the factories closed in 2004.
That same year the company named its DeWitt facility one of its lead global research and development centers. Since then it has spent $1.1 billion in the campus, including $350 million in engineering, the company said.
“Syracuse remains central to our engineering strategy,” said Ray Moncini, senior vice president of operations.
As part of its plans, Carrier will move a laboratory that tests chillers, which are part of large air conditioning units, to a North Carolina factory. The move affects six of the 1,100 employees on the campus, said Jon Shaw, speaking for the company.
Carrier will soon complete its initial plan to demolish 450,000 square feet of buildings on Route 298. The $30 million investment will allow the company to replace another 1.2 million square feet of aging buildings with green space.
The public has already seen some demolition. The former TR 3 building on Route 298 is gone, and Carrier’s administration and research building is currently being demolished and should be completely down by August, Shaw said.
Eventually the former factories that have large Carrier logos on them that can be seen from Carrier Circle will come down too, he said.
As it takes down some unused buildings, the company will upgrade offices in TR 5, a building located in the center of the campus.
“The investment is to strengthen the sustainability of the campus,” Shaw said.
Carrier has already donated a 24.5 acre recreation center to the Town of DeWitt to use as a public park.
The Carrier campus has a long research and manufacturing history. General Electric tested jet engines there during World War II, and Syracuse University had some facilities there too, Shaw said. Carrier first moved some of its facilities to the site in 1947, he said.