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Sucro Sourcing, a Miami-based sugar refining company, is putting in $35 million for facility upgrades and repurposing equipment to produce the crystal commodity at the rate of about 300,000 metric tons per year.
The investment is seen as a revitalization of a manufacturing corridor devastated by Washington policies that allowed for cheaper imports, particularly from China.
Three abandoned buildings are being transformed into a sugar refinery and warehouses, resulting in the creation of 55 new full-time jobs over the next three to five years, state economic development officials said.
“Like many, my family started in the shadow of the Bethlehem Steel Plant, where my father and grandfather worked and pursued the American dream,” said Gov. Kathy Hochul. “New York State continues to reverse the decades-long industrial decline in upstate communities by investing in creating good-paying jobs, reimagining unutilized industrial space and spurring economic investment.”
Founded in 2014, Sucro Sourcing provides pure refined cane sugar for industrial customers. The Lackawanna facility will serve the food industry in upstate New York, as well as global multinational food companies.
The 12-acre site at the Lackawanna Business Park was subject to Brownfield remediation through the State Department of Environmental Conservation.
The Sucro project is one of several new developments at the Bethlehem site, including a project by Time Release Sciences and new warehouse, manufacturing and industrial space.