Becoming an Empire Zone Business

The Niagara Falls Empire Zone is a program of economic development incentives sponsored by New York State to encourage job creation and new investment in designated areas of Niagara Falls.  These programs are offered by New York State, the City of Niagara Falls and local utility companies, and are available to certified Empire Zone Businesses.

How to Qualify

To become a certified Empire Zone business, your firm must either:

• relocate into or open new operations within the Empire Zone, involving new investment and employment, or -

• if your business is already located within the Zone, it must invest in new or expanded operations, adding jobs.

The Application Process

To apply for certified Zone business status, you begin by completing the one-page certification application form (see below).  Once completed, return the application to the Niagara Falls Empire Zone office for local review and approval. The Zone Coordinator will then send the application to Albany for processing and approval at the state level, which can take from six to eight weeks.

If approved, the local Zone office will receive the EZ business certificate, and will meet with you to present the certificate and discuss how to access the credits and incentives for which your firm is eligible.

Maintaining Zone Certification

Once you are a certified Empire Zone Business, you remain so by filing Business Annual Reports through your local EZ office.  These reports are a statistical tool used by the EZ Program to measure the investment and employment impact of the Zones across New York State.

For More Information

For more information on becoming am Empire Zone Business, please contact the Empire Zone office at (716) 286-8830 or (716) 286-8834.

Application Resources (Adobe PDF format)

View and print the latest Empire Zone Application forms and instructions.

View and print the form to certify new locations of a Zone business.