ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Rochester Mayor Malik Evans as well as Monroe County and business leaders were on hand Thursday for a major announcement by the Empire State Development Office.

News10NBC learned that food and beverage consulting company JCS Controls and its subsidiary Ultrafil are expanding their operation in Monroe County.

City leaders and company leaders at JCS Controls Incorporated and Ultrafil gathered downtown to celebrate two major announcements: The first was that Brighton-based food and beverage company Ultrafil will begin building a research and development center in downtown Rochester at Sibley Square — focusing on aseptic dairy, milk, coffee, tea, and other low- and high-acid products. In January, the transformation will begin.

The second was that Ultrafil will add 15,000 square feet to its existing operations in Brighton.

These are steps in development that Mayor Malik Evans says are proof that economic development downtown and around Monroe County is moving in the right direction.

“Ultrafil is going to be located at a facility here downtown in the Sibley building,” says Evans. “So this is a great opportunity. They test a lot of the soups, a lot of the condiments and things that you, milk, all types of products for companies. So, not only is this great for Ultrafil and Rochester, it’s also great because with them they will also bring other businesses with them that will showcase Rochester.”

In a statement, Governor Kathy Hochul said that New York State would provide a grant of up to $600,000 for JCS and Ultrafil.

“They are going to provide, allow people to have access to high quality jobs, and high quality jobs are absolutely important,” Evans said.

“Ultrafil is a for-hire low and high acidity septic pilot scale bottling facility and R&D center that fills a much needed gap in the beverage industry in the research and development cycle,” said JCS consultant John Eaton.

Based on the company’s success in Rochester, Eaton says the Sibley building was an instinctive choice.

“JCS this year was voted number 18 in the Rochester Chamber of Commerce list of fastest growing companies. This year was their actual biggest sales year ever, so they are growing by leaps and bounds,” Eaton said.

New York’s Empire State Development is providing up to $400,000 for the JCS project. It’s funding that JCS president Greg Frechette says has added more fuel to the fire when it comes to their expansion in downtown Rochester.

“We are on track to start demolition in January. It’s kind of a long time for a lot of our equipment coming in. We’ll pretty much have all the equipment here by 2024 and then get everything started up, and our schedule says we’ll have our first customers here in July 2025,” Frechette said.