VOORHEESVILLE — The village’s largest business will be getting $700,000 in incentives from the state, the Empire State Development announced this month.

Atlas Copco Comptec LLC, located in the northwest part of Voorheesville, applied earlier this year for entrance into New York’s Empire Zone program, which is designed to attract new businesses and encourage existing ones to grow by offering tax incentives.
Since Atlas Copco can be classified as a regionally significant manufacturing project, it can apply for Empire Zone status, wrote Randal Coburn, director of the Empire Zones Program, to Albany County Executive Michael Breslin in response to a request from Breslin in July. Coburn noted in the letter that the company would be obligated to add 50 new jobs by 2012, should it be "designated as a regionally significant project in 2007."
The company, a subsidiary of the Atlas Group, based in Sweden, manufactures large centrifugal compressors which are sold around the world for use in "Air Separation, Electronics, Chemical/Petrochem, Fuel Gas Desulphurization and waste water treatment," the company says.
"The business has increased very rapidly over the last 4 years which has led to an increase in employment of approximately 100 jobs," the company wrote in its application for entrance into the Empire Zone. "Currently new products are being developed to grow the business even further... In the upcoming 5 years we are projecting 67 new positions mainly in Engineering, Aftermarket and Production"
The application goes on to describe the duties of each position the company expects to fill. It also says, "We will try to accommodate all of the new jobs at our 46 School Road facility; however, due to some space constraints, it may be necessary to locate some of the new jobs at our 70 Karner Road facility."

On Sept. 10, the Albany County legislature voted unanimously to support the expansion of the Empire Zone to include Atlas Copco’s 44.5 acre parcel in Voorheesville and 3.5 acre parcel in Colonie. On Nov. 27, the Voorheesville village board also voted unanimously to support the expansion of the Empire Zone into the village.
Providing that Atlas Copco meets the milestones, like job creation, it will receive a $500,000 Manufacturing Assistance Program capital grant to cover part of the cost of new machinery and equipment and a $200,000 capital grant to be used for "infrastructure and site work," according to a press release from Empire State Development.