Hopes hinge on KIZ

Rich Wurzbach has a stash of lab equipment stored away in a warehouse for the day that his company finds a bigger space.

That day may have come a step closer Oct. 18, when a state board approved a Keystone Innovation Zone for York County.

"We're very eager to be a part of it," said Wurzbach, owner of Maintenance Reliability Group, which helps clients maintain their equipment. "It's really key to our expansion and our growth plans." The KIZ program fosters cooperation between academic institutions and businesses and offers state tax credits to technology companies within designated zones.

MRG uses sophisticated techniques to analyze the condition of equipment and help clients determine when a part needs maintenance. Company officials hope the KIZ program will support their plans to open a new facility with a full-scale oil analysis lab. That facility would also house MRG's main office, training facilities and an affiliated business that extends the life of cutting and metal-working equipment by deep-freezing it.

Economic-development officials have also been eager for the KIZ, which is tied up with other countywide goals.

"This is big stuff," said James DeBord, director of YorkCounts, a group that manages a variety of initiatives to improve the quality of life in the county. "We're very excited."

Besides economic benefits, DeBord said the cooperation among municipalities and universities required for the KIZ is exactly the type of work his group is promoting.

The KIZ targets four industries planners believe have bright prospects in York County - advanced materials and diversified manufacturing; life sciences; information and communication sciences; and agriculture and food sciences. The program also could spur the development of a massive technology park planned for Spring Garden Township and York.

The York County KIZ looks different now than it did when planners first unveiled the project several years ago.

A smaller part of the proposed technology park is included in the KIZ than previously envisioned.

Planners hope to expand the KIZ to eventually cover the entire technology park, according to the application the YCEDC submitted to the state.

Also, the KIZ does not include the Greenway Tech Centre in York, as originally proposed, now that the building has been fully leased by a nontechnology firm New York-based household-goods seller Lifetime Brands Inc.

New sites were added, however: the York City Business and Industry Park north of Route 30, where MRG is housed, and the former Amp Inc. building in Jacobus, a borough south of the city. The KIZ designation for the Amp site could be temporary: planners hope to switch it over to a biotech incubator that has been proposed in York, but not yet built.

The changes were made to ensure the KIZ covered areas with existing companies and with office space that would be available immediately, rather than undeveloped land, YCEDC President Darrell Auterson said in late August.

KIZ participants largely kept mum about the project in the days after it was approved. Auterson said he was unable to comment. The county's educational institutions are crucial to the effort. A York College spokeswoman said the approval was a milestone and that more work has yet to be done but that the college had no further comment. A Harrisburg Area Community College spokeswoman also said it was too early to comment. Penn State York Chancellor Joel Rodney could not be reached.

But companies like MRG are already cooperating with the schools - and Wurzbach hopes the KIZ will kick that partnership up a notch. The KIZ program, he said, would help to ensure the area has qualified workers for companies like his to hire.

His company is working with a York College chemistry professor and participates in an industry advisory council for the school's chemistry department. Wurzbach is also seeking students from York College and Millersville University to do stints at MRG.

"It's an example of where we're already acting in the spirit of the KIZ," he said.