KINGSTON – RBW, a lighting design and manufacturing company based in Brooklyn, has finalized an agreement with the Ulster County Industrial Development Agency that clears the way for the company to move their headquarters to 521-599 Boices Lane in the Town of Ulster.
Fifty jobs will come to the county with salaries starting between $48,000 and $135,000 for newly created positions.
“I am thrilled to welcome RBW – a certified B-Corp that upholds rigorous standards of ecological and social sustainability – to Ulster County,” said County Executive Pat Ryan. “Projects like RBW are exactly the type of businesses that align with the vision that we have outlined in Ulster 2040 for a stronger, more equitable, and more resilient economy. These types of additions to our local economy play a huge role in creating the energy and momentum to build a ‘People-Centered’ economy in Ulster County.”
Managing Partner of RBW Charles Brill, said their purpose is “to use light to positively transform environments, communities, and lives.”
In RBW’s application to the Ulster County IDA, the company estimates $14 million in annual sales and nearly $1 million in supplies purchased in the Mid-Hudson region.
The project plan includes renovating 98,000 sq. ft. of the Boices Lane property, which has been largely vacant for the last five years. RBW calls the undertaking “The Factory of the Future” and has plans to include a new roof, solar panels, energy efficient LED lighting, daylight harvesting, dimming controls, and the use of collaborative robotics at an expected investment of $3-5 million.
The future RBW site is directly adjacent to the former IBM buildings that were acquired in 2019 by the county, and which are in the early stages of redevelopment as a hub for makers, artists and food/beverage manufacturers known as Enterprise West.
