Hyzon moves HQ to Illinois, has pulled out of Monroe County

Listen to this article

Hyzon, which is attempting to become a global supplier of zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell commercial vehicles, has completed the sale of its Honeoye Falls property and no longer calls Monroe County home.

The finalization of the property sale coincides with a recent relocation of the company headquarters from Honeoye Falls to Bolingbrook, Ill., and elimination of a presence in New York.

While the publicly traded company has made no public announcement regarding the departure from Honeoye Falls, the 2023 fourth quarter financial statement filed in March lists Bolingbrook as the new headquarters. The Chicago suburb also is home of Hyzon’s production and innovation center.

“It’s really a business that never really started,” Honeoye Falls Mayor Rick Milne said today. “When Hyzon came to the village, everything was really positive. This was going to be their world headquarters, they were going to bring in people, they were going to bring in development.

“It just never happened.”

In 2021, state and local leaders — from then Gov. Andrew Cuomo and then-Lt. Gov Kathy Hochul to the local legislative contingent — trumpeted investment in a nearly $8 million renovation of the 78,000-square-foot Hyzon facility at 475 Quaker Meeting Rd.

By promising to increase its local workforce from 10 to 100 by 2023, Hyzon was to receive up to $1.6 million through the Excelsior Tax Credits program. The County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency also approved $481,000 in tax incentives.

But over the past 18 months the company encountered major hurdles, from little to no sales of its vehicles to a $25 million settlement of fraud charges filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that followed the ouster of former CEO Craig Knight.

Earlier this year, the NASDAQ had threatened to delist Hyzon, whose stock was trading at 0.79 on Wednesday afternoon. The stock had a high-water mark of $16.50 in February of 2021.

“In the beginning things were positive and then it just went dark,” Milne said. “We never saw any real traffic in the village from them.

“From the village’s standpoint, their leaving does not hurt the village.”

Fulcrum Holdings LLC, an affiliate of Rochester-based consultant Enalas, paid $3,075,000 for Hyzon’s former Quaker Meeting House Road property. The deed was filed with the Monroe County Clerk’s Office on Monday.

Hyzon’s Q4 financial report said the sale agreement was signed in November, with an April closing date. Hyzon recorded a restructuring charge of $2.8 million in connection with the sale and move of the headquarters.

Enalas founder and CEO Benjamin Pearson said on Wednesday morning that a new tenant and plans for the property will be announced in the near future.

“In reality, the village will be better off going forward,” Milne said. “We’ve got a great business coming in.”

[email protected]/(585) 653-4020