At Exit 48A on the New York State Thruway in the Town of Pembroke, Genesee County, a 1.5-million-square-foot industrial park is taking shape. Horizon Acres Associates, LLC, a Rockland County-based developer partnering with Geis Companies of Streetsboro, Ohio, is building a multi-phase campus of six flex commercial and industrial facilities on 115 acres of strategically located Thruway-adjacent land. The project, valued at $142 million, has received GCEDC approval and is positioned as one of the anchor industrial investments in what regional economic development leaders now call the Buffalo East corridor.

Project Specifications

The Horizon Acres campus is designed around six one-story buildings ranging from 125,000 to 500,000 square feet each, on a 210.7-acre centrally planned site at 8524 Allegheny Road, Pembroke, NY, according to the project's official development site. Building footprints include two 293,800-square-foot structures (Buildings 1 and 2), two additional 293,800-square-foot buildings (Buildings 3 and 4), one 125,000-square-foot building (Building 5), and one 280,000-square-foot building (Building 6). Buildings 1 and 2 can be combined for a single tenant requiring up to 500,000 square feet.

The facilities feature steel frame construction with concrete panel walls, clear heights of 32 to 40 feet depending on the structure, 50-foot-by-54-foot column spacing with 60-foot speed bays, and a minimum divisible unit of 50,000 square feet. The development includes 130-foot-wide truck aprons and generous spacing between buildings — a design optimized for heavy logistics, distribution, and manufacturing operations, per the Geis Pembroke development page.

The site is positioned within 500 miles of more than 40 percent of the U.S. and Canadian population — a distribution radius that makes Pembroke attractive for warehouse and logistics users serving both the northeastern United States and Ontario, according to regional economic development materials. The I-90 Interchange location provides direct Thruway access, and the site has full utility infrastructure including electricity, natural gas, public water and sewer, private water and sewer, and fiber optic connectivity.

GCEDC Approvals and Tax Incentives

The Genesee County Economic Development Center (GCEDC) board approved a final incentive resolution for Horizon Acres Associates in March 2023, according to Rochester Business Journal reporting. At the time, GCEDC described the project as the fifth-largest ever proposed in the county. The approved incentives include a sales tax exemption of $6.2 million, a property tax abatement of $11.9 million, and a mortgage tax exemption of $1.1 million, with a proposed 10-year project agreement. The GCEDC economic analysis estimated a total economic impact of $227 million, comprising $218 million in projected payroll and $9.1 million in revenues to the Town of Pembroke, the Pembroke Central School District, and Genesee County. PILOT revenues over the agreement's term were projected at $7.9 million — an estimated 39.5 times the municipal revenue that would be generated by the land's current use.

The original construction plan called for one to two buildings totaling 560,000 square feet to be operational by late 2024, with subsequent buildings added in phases as tenants are secured. The site is offered for sale or lease, with buildings constructed-to-suit or approved building sites available for purchase.

Construction and Tenant Outlook

Speculative industrial construction at this scale — where buildings are erected before tenants are confirmed — requires a developer and general contractor team comfortable with phased delivery and the risk of carrying partially occupied campuses through extended lease-up periods. Geis Companies brings experience from large-format industrial parks across the Midwest, and the design choices at Horizon Acres reflect national best practices for speculative industrial product: maximum clear height, wide column bays, ample trailer parking, and buildings that can be divided or combined as tenant requirements dictate. The steel-frame-and-tilt-up-panel construction method used at this scale is fast to erect, cost-effective per square foot, and produces buildings that tenants in manufacturing, distribution, and third-party logistics strongly prefer.

For WNY subcontractors, a campus of this size generates significant work across multiple trades during each building phase: steel erection, concrete foundations and floor slabs (typically 6- to 7-inch slabs with flatness tolerances suited for forklift operations), tilt-up panel fabrication and bracing, roofing (TPO membrane systems on wide-span metal decking), dock door and leveler installation, electrical distribution, fire suppression, and site work including paving the extensive truck apron and parking areas. A 293,800-square-foot industrial building — one of four similarly sized structures at Horizon Acres — represents a meaningful construction contract at current cost-per-square-foot rates for industrial product in Western New York.

The Buffalo East Industrial Corridor

Horizon Acres is part of a larger cluster of industrial investment at the Pembroke I-90 interchange. Since 2022, the GCEDC board has approved projects proposing over 1.6 million square feet of facilities in Pembroke alone. Other projects in the cluster include Nextgistics, a Western New York logistics company that constructed a 140,000-square-foot facility at the same interchange. The broader Genesee County industrial pipeline also includes major institutional projects at STAMP — making Genesee County one of the most active industrial construction markets in Upstate New York heading into 2026.

For WNY construction and real estate professionals, the Horizon Acres campus represents a clear signal: the I-90 corridor between Buffalo and Rochester is attracting serious institutional interest in large-format industrial and warehouse development, driven by proximity to major population centers, Thruway access, and GCEDC's competitive incentive structure. As national e-commerce and supply chain demands continue to drive absorption of industrial space across the Northeast, projects like Horizon Acres at purpose-built, highway-adjacent sites are well positioned to attract long-term tenants — and to generate construction activity in Genesee County for years to come.

Sources

Rochester Business Journal — GCEDC Approves Tax Breaks for Horizon Acres, March 6, 2023
Geis Companies — Pembroke, NY Industrial Site (geis-pembroke.com)
Genesee County Economic Development Center — Active Projects