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ON Semiconductor Corp. on Wednesday officially opened its $6.6 million expansion at Eastman Business Park, a move that is expected to create 34 new jobs at the facility over the next two years.

The expanded test and assembly operation has been several years in the making, beginning when ON Semiconductor in 2014 purchased Truesense Imaging, a Rochester-based provider of high-performance image sensing devices, for some $95 million in cash.

“A few years ago when we acquired Truesense, when I first came (to Eastman Business Park), I can tell you it was a little depressing,” said Mark Goranson, senior vice president of global operations. “We saw the old Kodak buildings that were largely empty and we were talking about trying to make this business cost competitive.”

One of the areas ON Semiconductor officials were considering was Japan, Goranson said, because of the cost-effective nature of doing business there. The company’s now Rochester general manager Michael Miller worked with local and state government, Greater Rochester Enterprise Inc. and others to make the move both cost-effective and viable for the long term.

“Many of you know that part of the success in this area comes from the fact that this region—only one of three in the state—won $500 million just a short time ago under an initiative called the Upstate Revitalization Initiative,” Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul said at a press gathering at ON Semiconductor this week. “The Finger Lakes Forward initiative has brought new money, new energy and new excitement to this area, and that is part of what we’re talking about here today.”

The state’s investment in ON Semiconductor includes a $4.3 million Finger Lakes Forward URI grant, as well as $1.7 million through the Excelsior Jobs Tax Credit Program, in exchange for job creation commitments.

“These are good-paying jobs that we desperately need in this area so you can support a family (and) send your kids to one of the outstanding educational institutions in this area,” Hochul said. “So this is a quality-of-life place to work.”

Phoenix-based ON Semiconductor is focused on energy-efficient innovations in an effort to reduce global energy use. The Rochester site develops and manufactures image-sensor devices for commercial, industrial and professional imaging applications, including machine vision, surveillance, traffic monitoring, medical and scientific imaging and photography.

The expansion includes both a Class 100 clean room and a Class 10 clean room, a requirement for image sensors. A ballroom design, or open concept, allows flexibility for new products and ease of design change. Automated equipment will help increase output at the expanded facility.

“We understood what it took to keep this facility here. We knew the work that was going to be involved,” Miller said of his pitch to officials. “The grant money that was received … enabled quite a bit of work here.”

The company employs 185 at its Lake Avenue facility and more than 30,000 worldwide. The Lake Avenue facility also houses the American Institute for Manufacturing (AIM) Integrated Photonics headquarters and its test, assembly and packaging facility, which is slated to open later this year.

“One of the things I’m really proud of is the teamwork we have in this community because Mark and Michael and ON, they had choices. The fact that they expanded here makes a difference,” said Bob Duffy, president of Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce, noting that the AIM Photonics center was another factor in ON Semiconductor’s decision to expand in Rochester.

“I want to thank Mark for his leadership and for recognizing that there’s no place like Rochester and nobody does it better than Rochester, New York,” Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren said. “I want to let you know you have a great team here.”

Warren toured the facility a year ago following a chance encounter with Miller, she noted, a tour that enlightened her to the work being done at the facility.

Monroe County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo, who grew up in the Kodak Park neighborhood, said she remembered the area in its heyday, as well as during its downturn.

“To see the transformation and what’s happening now in Kodak Park is a testament to what we all know: that Monroe County and the City of Rochester and the people in Rochester and Monroe County have the heart, we have the spirit, we have the talent,” Dinolfo said. “The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well right here at Eastman Business Park and you are really making it happen.”

The ON Semiconductor project builds on and continues the success and rebirth of EBP, the site where Kodak began manufacturing photographic film and paper more than a century ago. Today, the campus supports about 100 companies, employing more than 6,000 people.

“What this is going to end up doing for us is make us more competitive, because we’ll have assembly test operations here now so we can have faster time to market. We’ll actually have much improved quality because we don’t have to ship the product back and forth,” Goranson said. “So we expect much improved quality operations and costs.

“So with all of these advantages we decided to go with the investment here and expand the factory here, largely due to Michael and his team and the government of New York,” Goranson said.

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