Several months after Empire State Development announced plans by a New York City-based company to create hundreds of jobs in the Buffalo area, the ribbon was cut on its new offices. Strategic Financial Solutions, with the help of incentives from New York State, aims to create 1,500 jobs over the next five years.
The company's Western New York offices are located on Lawrence Bell Drive, between Youngs Road and Wehrle Drive, in the Town of Amherst. Town officials joined Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul and company leaders at a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday morning.
Strategic Financial Solutions, founded in 2007, assists clients struggling with credit debt.
"Debt consolidation is a program that's usually from the creditors and all it does is lower the interest. What we do is actually negotiate and settle the debt form a fraction of what people owe," said Strategic Financial Solutions chief executive officer Ryan Sasson. "We help them get out of debt in a much shorter period of time and for much less money than they owe."
Empire State Development announced last June that Strategic Financial Solutions intended to open operations in Buffalo. Through its Excelsior program, Empire State Development is providing financial incentives, reportedly up to $10 million. Under the conditions of the Excelsior program, those incentives are not received until the jobs are created.
Lt. Governor Hochul addressed the employees, telling them New York State remains committed to Western New York's economic growth, far beyond the Buffalo Billion.
"We just allocated an additional $68.8 million for Buffalo, 112 projects, on top of 600 projects and $500 million, on top of the Buffalo Billion," Hochul said.
She told those in attendance, "there's a lot of money coming to the area and it's not stopping."
