The Cluster

Movement at the Center of Prosperity

The North Country Chamber of Commerce has led the way for over 30 years in building upon the economic power of movement in two ways:

CORRIDORS – Maximizing the economic opportunities inherent in the historic and continuing integration of the U.S. and Canadian economies, creating several newly dominant, globally connected north-south commercial corridors. Our Quebec – New York Corridor from Montreal to New York City has emerged as “North America’s most exciting new Bi-National economic region.”
MAKING THE THINGS THAT MAKE THINGS MOVE – Seeing the strong emergence of this international corridor of commerce and investment, we have looked to Transportation Equipment & Aerospace as the region’s great opportunity for the future, possessing a strong manufacturing culture and seeing the size and dynamism of this sector in neighboring Quebec and Ontario.

Today, we have one of the most diverse and innovative transportation clusters in the world, purposely built around four core sectors that stand alone in many places but enjoy special synergies through their shared location in our region:

Synergy Times Four!

We have purposely developed one of the most diverse transportation clusters in the world, understanding the powerful synergies among the often separated sectors of Rail, Road, Aerospace and Marine. These include the ability of suppliers to serve two or more of these sectors, as well as, shared pipelines for workforce training and skills development.

All with fast and easy supply chain links with the massive Transportation Equipment and Aerospace clusters next door in Quebec, as well as across New York State and Ontario.

1990s

RAIL

It all began in the 1990’s when Plattsburgh became the U.S. railcar production center for Bombardier Transportation, joining New York Air Brake’s U.S. production operation in Watertown. Bombardier Transportation was acquired by Alstom in 2021. These have been followed by a number of special suppliers and component manufacturers.

2009

ROAD

Next came road transportation equipment as Volvo Group selected Plattsburgh as the site of U.S. transit bus production by Nova Bus in 2009, a division of Volvo Group. In 2024, the Nova Bus facility was purchased by Micro Bird, a joint venture between Blue Bird Corporation and Girardin. Again, these major operations drew a number of component manufacturers and suppliers.

2012

MARINE

A fourth leg to the cluster came in 2012 with Metalcraft Marine in Cape Vincent and was later joined by Prelco U.S, Inc. in 2017.

2016

AEROSPACE

In 2016, the aim of attracting major aerospace activity was achieved when Plattsburgh became the global production site for Norsk Titanium and its disruptive additive manufacturing technology for titanium structural components for aircraft.

In 2019/2020, Beta Technologies, a cutting-edge electric aerospace company, selected Plattsburgh as the site of final assembly for it’s all-electric conventional take-off and landing/vertical take-off and landing aircrafts(eCTOL/eVTOL). Beta utilizes it’s Plattsburgh facility as its permanent flight test and aircraft delivery center responsible for final flight testing, aircraft painting, and customer delivery.