Last year when the vast Northrop Grumman airplane plant on Long Island was finally sold off, there was ample reason to applaud. The building's new owners quickly announced plans to convert the long-derelict structure to a series of Internet-ready offices for high-tech, high-paying tenants.
``Grumman represents the old Long Island, dependent on aerospace and defense,'' says Peter Goldsmith, chairman of not-for-profit Long Island Software and Technology Network, or LISTnet. ``But now, high technology is absolutely the fastest-growing industry on Long Island. There's no question there has been a passing
of the torch.''
In its first 18 months of existence, for example, LISTnet has signed up 630 corporate members. They pay $200 to $1,500 in annual dues to have the group promote Long Island as a technology corridor.
Old plant, new center
``That number is far beyond our wildest dreams,'' says Mr. Goldsmith, whose organization became one of the first tenants in the old Grumman plant, now known as the Long Island Technology Center.
Long Island's redevelopment is far from being all about high tech. But these days, with its high-paying jobs and excellent growth potential, the high-technology industry is front and center in the minds of local authorities.
In the 12 months ended June 31, 24,000 new private-sector jobs were created on the island, many of them in high tech. Those jobs represented a 2.4% increase, half a percentage point above the state's average gain.
Local groups are pushing for more. In Suffolk alone, the county's Industrial Development Agency made loans to 12 businesses totaling $140 million in 1998, four of them in high tech.
Meanwhile, Briarcliff College, a computer school, recently bought land from Grumman for a software incubator. It is being billed as a center where fledgling software companies can share resources and grow.
``Bioscience is doing well, graphics are hot and retail is hot, but the hottest thing is software,'' says Matthew T. Crosson, president of the Long Island Association, the group that serves as the chamber of commerce and economic development planner for Nassau and Suffolk. ``Assembly and strict manufacturing are too expensive to do here and will be done in parts of the country where it's cheaper to run a textile mill or steel plant.''
Ann Amrhein, Suffolk County's director of economic development, notes that basic metal-bashing has never been a Long Island strength. ``We never had those industries here,'' she says.
What Long Island now does have is an impressive array of high-tech companies and a determination to do everything possible to help them flourish. Rather than luring new businesses, the island's economic development strategy revolves around husbanding those established companies and the jobs they provide.
Many favored firms
Those favored firms include hundreds of high-tech companies -- software manufacturers that tweak programs rather than bang metals -- and biotech outfits, as well as the ancillary industries that serve them, such as printing, law and accounting.
``It wouldn't be smart to expend our economic development efforts on trying to drag businesses to Long Island from the rest of country,'' Mr. Crosson explains. ``It's much smarter to spend the energy and the dollars on what we know works here. It's not as sexy, with not as many ribbon-cuttings and photo opportunities, but in the long run it's more effective.''
LISTnet's Mr. Goldsmith, who is also director of economic development for LIA, insists that all that Long Island lacks as a technology corridor is a reputation.
``We have all the other ingredients,'' he boasts. ``Our next step is
to get the venture capital people to recognize Long Island as the gold mine and untapped resource that it is.''
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