Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Announces Grand Opening of Constellation Brands’ New $50 Million Global Headquarters in Downtown Rochester

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul today marked the official grand opening of leading beverage alcohol company Constellation Brands’ new headquarters in downtown Rochester at the historic Aqueduct Building located along the Genesee River. The Fortune 500® company renovated six buildings at the Aqueduct Campus located between East Main and Broad streets. The renovations to the nearly 170,000 square-foot riverfront campus include the qualified historic restoration of the Aqueduct buildings’ windows and other architectural features and the addition of a rooftop patio and bar that offers 360-degree views of the city. The new office space was also designed to optimize a combination of hybrid and remote working arrangements. As part of the company’s move to the state-of-the-art facility, it expects to create more than 80 new jobs, in addition to the more than 300 jobs being relocated to the Aqueduct location. Roughly 200 employees will continue to be based out of its Canandaigua office.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the Governor's remarks is available here.

PHOTOS of the event will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

You know, when you wish upon a star, sometimes your dreams come true. It's incredible to be here for this grand opening of Constellation Brand's new headquarters, and as a result of a shooting star over the City of Rochester every night — a sign of hope and a promise of better days to come, because that's what's happening right here in downtown Rochester.

And it's a symbol of a true belief in a community. People never gave up. That star is the guiding light to what other companies can do in repurposing buildings that have been long abandoned; hopeless. But that shining star sometimes shows up and people see the light.

I want to thank Bill Newlands, the CEO of Constellation Brands, for your confidence in this project and getting it over the finish line. Garth Hankinson, the CFO. It's all about the money, Garth. Thank you for making that happen. Jim Bourdeau, the Chief Legal Officer as well. Rob Sands. I've known Rob and Richard a long time and they are people with a vision that has transported a small business here in the Finger Lakes region to a global powerhouse. A Fortune 500 company that is renowned all across this globe. That to me is a huge source of pride and I will never take for granted what you have done for this city. Let's give him another round of applause.

I have some of the most amazing local elected partners here, and I've come here many, many, many years — not just as lieutenant governor, but also when I was a county clerk, I'd find my way here as a state official and committee person and all the different roles I played.

I want to thank people like Joe Morelle for putting up with a lot. He cut his teeth in local politics and the State Legislature, and found his way to the halls of power, supposedly. Right, Joe? But the power lies in our communities and Joe has never forgotten where he came from, and he's been a great voice for this community in Washington. Let's give him a round of applause.

Our Mayor, Malik Evans. Someone who is so intent on lifting the people of this great city up. Whether it's education, public safety — you know, transforming communities into places that they always should have been — new housing; we've worked so, so closely on projects. Let's give another round of applause to the Mayor.

I've said this before, Adam Bello is who you want to be in a foxhole with when there's a crisis. What he did for this community should never be forgotten — how he got us through the COVID pandemic with a calm, steady hand that understood the power of local government in that time. And when I became Governor, we were just thinking we're out of the woods, and all of a sudden, Omicron slammed us again and we had more deaths and more cases than we'd even had the previous year and a half. So, I thank you for your friendship there, but also your tremendous vision for this County of Monroe, and I thank you for your leadership as always.

I want to thank our great local partners. I'd like to give a special round of applause for your dedication — the leaders Senator Jeremy Cooney, Senator Samra G. Brouk, Assemblymembers Lunsford, Clark, Meeks, and a special guest, Anderson, who's joined us here today. Let's give them a round of applause. They helped bring home the bacon, our locals fry it up, but our legislators work with me to bring it home. I want to thank all of them for their work.

Bob Duffy — when there's a challenge, I always say, “Who you going to call? You're going to call Bob Duffy.” And thank you with the stadium work. Let's give a round of applause for the work you're doing there, Bob, but also the work you've done with the Chamber of Commerce as CEO – transformative. And I want to thank you for being the voice of the community that certainly gets listened to in the halls of our State Capitol. So, thank you very much.

And again, everybody knows this, but you referenced what it looked like two-and-a-half years ago. It was exactly one month and a day after I became Governor that we were here.

This is one of the first places I came to as Governor of the State of New York because I wanted the people of upstate to know – especially this Finger Lakes, Western New York region – that I would never forget where I came from either. That I believe in this area and for the first time in over 100 years, to have someone who's actually from this part of our State, would make a difference.

As we're heading into beyond two-and-a-half years now and heading into three years, this building, this project, this complex of eight buildings says to me that we're just getting started.

What you need is partners and businesses and local officials, state officials, all rowing in the same direction. And that's when magic happens. And so, we're getting there, friends. And to all of you who never gave up hope, I can tell you it's easy to surrender to the negativity; the pessimism that can sometimes take over the psychology of a community.

I know what I'm talking about because I'm from Buffalo, born in Lackawanna. Family worked at the steel plant – Grandpa worked there, lived the American dream to be able to raise his eight kids and my dad worked there as well. His brothers worked there.

Just like Eastman Kodak, just like Bausch & Lomb – those legacy businesses that you thought were going to be there forever, that your children would work there someday, and because of foreign competition and people going elsewhere and all the challenges we had in the 70s and 80s, it all evaporated. Leaving communities shaking their heads. “What's our next act? Where are we going?”

And for a time being, our greatest export were our children. We educated them at great institutions like we have here in Rochester. Did they stay? They wanted to stay, but they took that plane or that bus out of town. That happened to every one of my siblings: big Irish Catholic family, I'm the only one who could stay.

So, I believe in this. I believe in this region to my core and all of you do as well. And I don't ever take that for granted because it has a psychological effect on a community. When you open a project like this after years of people going by just shaking their heads saying, “Oh, isn't that a tragedy? What a beautiful architectural building. The brick is so spectacular.” But who could possibly muster up the courage to do something in that space?” And we have found the saviors. The people who believed.

And the psychology of this community, the young people who work here, the ones who want to be in-person now. Yes? Remote work is so yesteryear, right? Okay. You're not going to get a date sitting in your basement, okay? You're going to meet – I know, I can say that. I married a guy I met at the workplace when I was a teenager. So, it does happen.

But also, the creative collisions that happen, right? You're going to bang into somebody when you're walking through one of these incredible employee spaces. Whether you think you're on a beach or you think you're out west in the mountains, this culture has been created to stimulate creativity, to take this company to a whole new place. Everyone should take advantage of that.

I was talking to a CEO of probably the most major company in New York City. I won't name names, but he said to me, “Everybody should be at work because someday, I'm in an elevator and a young person says to me, ‘can I ever have a cup of coffee with you?’” He says, “I'm going to say yes, and I might mentor that person and I may take them to the next level, but their colleague sitting at home isn't having that cup of coffee with me.”

So, I want everybody to rethink the experience when you have a company that makes the environment of the workplace so attractive. How could you say no to this? But it feeds on not just what happens in these buildings, but also out on the streets, more people walking the streets, going to activities after work, stopping at a local bar.

All of a sudden, it all starts clicking again. That's why this project matters so much at this time. When people may have said, you know, “Will we ever be who we were?” No, we're not going to be who we were. We're going to be better. This says we're going to be better, and that star will keep shining brightly.

So, back on that day, September 22, 2021, we announced over $9 million in tax credits and incentives. And I knew that this area ─ I mean, it's Genesee River right there. How many cities can say they have a river like this raging through its downtown? People love being near water. It's magical. But a $50 million investment by Constellation at the time, 170,000 square feet in this Aqueduct campus, and we promise we're going to work on the aqueduct, right? We move along with that local team. I want that done. Okay. Okay. I want to come back and say we got that done as well. It's all about bringing energy and this is going to guide other companies. Other companies are going to want to be part of this.

They're going to say, “What a space, what else is down there for us? We don't want to miss out because the talent will follow places like this.” Because the talent will follow places like this. And I know what the best companies are in a race for the best talent. It's a good problem to have. We have a lot of jobs. We have smart people. We just have to make the connections.

And I think that there's just incredible, incredible opportunities. So over 300 people coming downtown here, I bet it gets even bigger than that. I think that's just the beginning, and I applaud you for everything you've done for the people of this community — the psychology of this community, breeding a new sense of optimism. And it's so important that we can make transformational changes like this.

People will look back, not just as we are today looking back on September 2021 — but on this beautiful June day in 2024 and say, “That was the day everything changed for Rochester, the Finger Lakes — and indeed the State of New York.” So, congratulations to everyone. Could not be prouder to be here. Truly, truly proud.

And as someone who has been here so many times, I think I said this story once before, but I did bring a boat once, a couple years ago, down the Genesee River — realize you can't go as far as I thought. Luckily, I stopped. We pulled over at Corn Hill, tied up. Decided to stop and have some lunch. It was beautiful.

I was kind of new at boating, didn't really know how to tie the lines real tight. The current is strong, the front part of the boat starts drifting away. That was me leaping from the edge, probably about that far — but I saved the boat. Okay. So, I love this area. This is, this is a great place. Thank you very much.

And with that, let me bring up Bill Newlands — the person who never stopped believing. And again, you helped wish upon a star and the magic happened. Thank you.