Cayuga County could be saying cheese in the near future.

Local officials are currently trying to bring an upstart cheese manufacturer to the county. Representatives from the Saratoga Cheese Corporation have been talking with the Cayuga County Industrial Development Agency about the possibility of opening a plant in Aurelius.

But such a project will take some cooperation from the city of Auburn before any shovels hit the ground or any factory doors open. While the county IDA owns the land in which Saratoga Cheese is interested, the city can decide whether or not to offer its attractive Empire Zone benefits to the company.

City and county officials are discussing the specifics of the possible project, and crews will soon be surveying vacant space within the 110-acre industrial park adjacent to Route 5 and 20 in Aurelius.

“We're optimistic,” said Stephen Lynch, director of the Cayuga County Department of Planning and Economic Development. “But projects aren't in the ground until they are in the ground.”

If the plant is built in Aurelius, it will be the first factory for the newly established Saratoga Cheese Corporation. The company would manufacture specialty cheeses such as feta, mozzarella, muenster and havarti. The cheese would be made with Cholov Yisroel milk from local farmers, allowing the product to be certified as kosher, according to county documents.

Saratoga Cheese applied in March for financial assistance from the county IDA, requesting approximately $3.7 million in tax benefits. In the application, company representatives state that the plant would create 75 permanent jobs within three years of its construction.

The application also includes 150 construction jobs that would last between 18 and 24 months.

The proposed 64,000-square-foot plant would be the base for distributing the cheese and milk products throughout East Coast and Midwest, according to the application.

The business would also serve as a kosher milk distributor and create 35 rabbinical and administrative jobs for supervising milk production on farms in Cayuga, Wayne and Ontario counties, according to the application.

Because the company will create more than 50 jobs, it is eligible to be granted status as a Regionally Significant Project and receive full Empire Zone benefits. Those benefits include tax breaks and exemptions, refunds and capital credits from the state.

But the proposed factory site is located outside of the county's only Empire Zone in Auburn. The city must sponsor the project before it can be deemed regionally significant.

This has happened once before, when Nutrition Bar Confectioners opened a plant in Ira. In May 2007, Auburn City Council approved a local law to include the factory in its Empire Zone.

Saratoga Cheese has not yet applied with the city to be named regionally significant, but city and county officials have been discussing the project. One of the points of the talks is to see how the plant would affect the city, Auburn City Manager Mark Palesh said.

“We want to make sure it doesn't hurt the city in any way,” Palesh said.

Development has been a touchy subject with Auburn officials in the past. Last summer, a proposal to increase the Auburn's share of the county sales tax fell through due to miscommunication between the City Council and the County Legislature.

Auburn officials drafted the proposal in response to the added strain from surrounding developments on the city's water and sewer infrastructure. One of the towns brought up during the proceedings was Aurelius, which has seen a large amount of development in recent years.

Auburn City Council also recently hired a consultant to examine its water and sewer contracts with surrounding towns.

County Manager Wayne Allen said he hopes the city will decide to expand its Empire Zone benefits for the proposed plant. However, the county IDA can only discuss economic development with the city, he said. Infrastructure has to be discussed with the towns.

“(The project) does make sense to everyone, because those people working in the plant would be living in Auburn and spending their money in Auburn,” Allen said. “We'll see what the city chooses to do.”

Auburn Mayor Michael Quill said he has discussed the city's Empire Zone with county officials. Instead of competing for the same dollars, the two entities are now working to improve relationships, he said.

“We're working on working together better,” Quill said. “Together, we're going to accomplish a whole lot more.”

Saratoga Cheese has been looking for that sort of cooperation while searching for factory location, according to CEO Lawrence Rosenbaum. New businesses like his depend heavily on subsidies and economic development organizations to get on their feet, he said.

Rosenbaum said Cayuga County officials have been “extremely impressive” with their support and collaboration, which is why Saratoga Cheese is looking to build its plant here.

“In every other place, we have heard only friction and narrow platitudes,” Rosenbaum said Friday. “We have found that from the mayor of the city of Auburn right to the senators, and every politician in between, they are doing everything they can to make it possible for us to come to Cayuga County.”

Lynch said the IDA has been working with representatives from Empire State Development for more than a year on this proposal. The cheese plant would be a good project for both the city and the county, he said.

“It is an example of where strong cooperation and coordination between the city and county can bring new manufacturing to the area,” Lynch said.

Staff writer Christopher Caskey can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or christopher.caskey@lee.net