Real-world investment and jobs. SPARC fires up that kind of life
What do you want your life to look like? Schoharie County collaborates on the answers: Meaningful work, a sense of place. This is how the work gets done
SEEC CEO Julie Pacatte welcomes Middleburgh Coffee entrepreneurs Dasha and Patrick Mattia to SPARC’s Igniting Prosperity forum.
Looking for somewhere you can be your own boss?
A sense of place?
Where traffic…is waiting for cows to cross the road?
Where kids (still) bike to school…
…and neighbors ask “Where’ve you been?” when you miss a day at the local coffee shop?
Upstate NY’s Schoharie County has just the SPARC you need to light a fire under that kind of life.
Using real-world investment and job recreation to Ignite Prosperity.
Schoharie County IDA CEO Trevor Bender was one of the SPARC Igniting Prosperity panelists.
We know what we want and what we can do. Confident that when we work together, we thrive, SPARC–Schoharie County Partners for Advancing Resilient Communities–used Economic Development Week 2026 to highlight initiatives already underway for:
Entrepreneurs and arts groups
State and county leaders
And educators and agriculturalists already thinking outside the box.
The take-away?
>>Collaboration is key.
>>Economic development is a long-game.
>>Collaboration is key.
>>And that long-game thing.
MVEDC’s Steve Smith introduces Igniting Prosperity panelists, from the left: Scott Ferguson, Caroline Myran, John Cresicmanno, Cassandra Harrington, and Julie Pacatte.
Current and former Sharon Springs Mayors Paul Novko and Denise Kelly.
“Nothing really happens in isolation,” Steve Smith, chief cheerleader and executive director of the Mohawk Valley Economic Development Council told the audience in Cobleskill-Richmondville’s High School Auditorium.
And SPARC, said Marion Terenzio, SUNY Cobleskill president and a co-chair of MVEDD’s Regional Council, is “a partnership that values who we are.” That sense of place.
“This is how the work gets done,” said Allison Madmore, ESD regional director.
SPARC collaborators (and Igniting Prosperity panelists), all working to get the work done:
Marion Terenzio, SUNY Cobleskill president and MVEDD Regional Council co-chair, and Bill Federice, Conesville supervisor and chair of the Schoharie County Board of Supervisors, welcome the SPARC forum audience.
Caroline Myran, Schoharie County Office of Agricultural Development.
John Crescimanno, Schoharie County Office of Economic Development
Trevor Bender, Schoharie County Industrial Development Agency
Cassandra Majestic, Destination Marketing Corp.
Julie Pacatte, Schoharie Economic Enterprise Corporation
Scott Ferguson, SUNY Cobleskill’s Institute for Rural Vitality.
They all agreed: Our dues have been paid and they’ve paid off big time with grants that have included:
Village of Schoharie, a $10M DRI winner.
Village of Sharon Springs, a $2.25M NY Forward winner. (Sharon Springs’ enviable success with grants began with a bad news story, former Mayor Denise Kelly said: DEC fines for failing sewer and water infrastructure. Lemons/lemonade.But a word of warning: grants are a lot of work.)
Schoharie County, a $30M ConnectAll winner for a door-to-last-door broadband buildout–a promised game-changer for access to markets, education, virtual health care and so much more.
Schoharie County Farmer’s Market (opening May 24), $73,000 from the USDA for marketing.
Hoshino and Empire State Greenhouses–both anchor projects for $32M in state ACHIEVE funding and now moving into the funding phase.
SEEC, $1.2M from NYS for its Digital Strategies Initiative, help with website development and e-commerce for 40 Schoharie County businesses.
And that’s just the short list.
HOSHINO
International developer Hoshino Resorts’ first project in the United States will be a multi- multi-million dollar onsen ryokan–an exclusive mineral spa incorporated into the natural landscape–overlooking the Village of Sharon Springs.
Work on siting the project–a real world investment in investment and job creation–began six years ago, said SEEC’s Pacatte. Developers searched as far away as California and as near as Saratoga Springs before settling on Sharon Springs.
“Sharon Springs won that site. Why? Everyone showed up.” Including SPARC partners Destination Marketing (hot off the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s induction of Ichiro Suzuki with tips to share) and SUNY Cobleskill and IRV with workforce development help. (The water didn’t hurt. Sharon Springs has a centuries old history of visitors drawn by its spas.)
EMPIRE STATE GREENHOUSES
Empire State Greenhouses’ $400M vertical house project is a partnership with SUNY Cobleskill and the IRV that promises to create more than 100 jobs, internships and research opportunities, and markets for other local growers.
That long-game thing? IRV’s Ferguson: “It’s been in the works since 2016 or ‘17 and we still have a ways to go. But it’s going to be cutting edge technology and greater than living wage jobs.” So well worth it.
To recap: Real-world investment and job recreation behind the scenes. Where everyone is providing that SPARC. We know what we want and what we can do. The seeds are here and they’re taking root.
Final thoughts and goals?
>>SEEC’s Pacattte: Business retention and expansion is in our hearts–along with digital strategies and placemaking
>>Ag Development's Myran and IRV’s Ferguson: Keeping our land in farming, connecting new and established farmers, and SUNY value-added and entrepreneurial help is the future.
>>Economic Development’s Crescimanno: We’re uniquely positioned in Upstate NY to do some great things–while maintaining that agricultural identity.
>>Cobleskill Supervisor and chair of supervisors’ Economic Development Committee Werner Hampel: Economic development is the catalyst to attracting–and keeping–the next generation. “I see tremendous potential for growth.”
The future is now. Behind the scenes.Where everyone is providing that SPARC. The seeds are here and they’re taking root.
SUNY Cobleskill and IRV’s Scott Ferguson talks about his vision for Schoharie County, a future that relies on and incorporates agriculture in all its forms.
