Funding in Limbo for $25 Million SUNY Poly Silicon Carbide Project

No one seems to know where the money went for SUNY Polytechnic Institute's new $25 million silicon carbide chip manufacturing facility.

Last week, The Pike Co. of Rochester pulled workers off the project, part of a $500 million research partnership between SUNY Poly and General Electric Co. called the New York Power Electronics Manufacturing Consortium.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced plans, including $135 million in state funding, in 2014 for the consortium, which aims to create a market for power control chips made out of silicon carbide that GE developed at its Niskayuna research center.

Pike is one of the most experienced high-tech construction firms in the state and was hired by GlobalFoundries to oversee more than $2 billion in expansion projects at its Fab 8 computer chip factory in Saratoga County over the past five years. The company also was involved in the design of a second chip factory at the site that has yet to be built.

The company's owners, Thomas Judson Jr. and Rufus Judson, also are major Cuomo donors, having given a combined $30,000 to Cuomo's election committee since 2010.

Pike wrote a letter to SUNY Poly officials on July 26 saying it was stopping all work on the silicon carbide project "due to a lack of payment" for work dating back to February. Pike said it had been unable to pay vendors and subcontractors on the project as well.

Bill Tehan, Pike's chief financial officer, said the company hasn't been told why it isn't being paid, or when the payments might come. He said the total contract is for $25 million.

"It's not an insignificant amount," Tehan said.

Cuomo and state legislators approved $33.5 million for the silicon carbide manufacturing facility in the state's most recent budget, and Empire State Development Corp., the state's economic development arm, had scheduled a public hearing on the funding back in March. However, it appears that the ESDC board has yet to sign off on the funding, according to public records.

The state comptroller's office says it has not received any disbursement requests for SUNY Poly projects since April and it has no knowledge of the status of the silicon carbide project. A Cuomo spokesman did not know the status of the grant money either.