New York state Agriculture Commissioner Richard Ball reads a proclamation from Gov. Kathy Hochul at Friday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony on a $30 million expansion to the McCadam cheese plant in Chateaugay. (Provided photo — Trevor Buchanan, Malone Telegram)

CHATEAUGAY — Agri-Mark Inc. and New York state officials celebrated the completion of a $30 million modernization project with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Farm & Cheese Store and factory at 36 McCadam Lane Friday afternoon.

The ceremony was attended by state Agriculture Commissioner Richard Ball, Agri-Mark Board Vice Chairman Blake Gendebien, state Assemblyman Billy Jones, D-Chateaugay Lake, state Sen. Dan Stec, R-Queensbury, and Franklin County legislators. Also in attendance were Jeremy Evans, CEO of the Frankin County Industrial Development Agency, Chateaugay town Supervisor Don Bilow and village Mayor Matthew Clarke.

Agri-Mark broke ground on the project two years ago, and officials estimated completion sometime in 2023 at that time.

At Friday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony, Gendebien welcomed the dozens of area residents, officials and politicians in the crowd and detailed a brief history of the plant.

“The plant started in December of 1908 as a milk station operated by Sheffield farms, supplying bottled milk to consumers in New York City,” Gendebien said. “It started making cheese in 1917. It made condensed milk and baby formula in the 1930s and 1940s. Chateaugay Marketing Association, which became Chateaugay Co-op, a local organization of farmers, purchased the plant from Sheffield Farms in 1949.”

He went on to say that the McCadam family, of Heuvelton, began making cheese at the plant in 1950. The Chateaugay co-op and McCadam cheese would go on to forge a contract in 1974 to build a new cheese and whey processing facility financed by the cooperative.

According to maccadam.coop, Agri-Mark, the leading dairy farmer cooperative in the Northeast merged with the McCadam Cheese company in 2003. The Agri-Mark family also owns the award-winning Cabot Creamery and the Agri-Mark dairy and whey protein brands. Together, McCadam and Cabot represent the member farm families in America’s Northeast.

“This plant has a valuable history for the North Country and dairy farmers that have been working so hard to ship their milk here,” Gendebien continued. “It makes us feel really good to know that it has a future.”

Ball spoke to the Telegram after the event and said Agri-Mark is a benefit to the entire state.

“Agri-Mark has been such a good co-op, listening to and caring for their farmer members. They’re noted for that in a big way,” Jones said. “Growing up in rural New York and being a part of dairy and just seeing the important role that dairy plays in the social fabric of northern New York — rural New York, and the opportunity for us to connect the dots between rural New York and the biggest marketplace anywhere in the world right here in New York state — it’s kind of a special opportunity.”

Jones, who is from Chateaugay, said he was excited about what the expansion means for the future of the plant, as well as the community in general.

“It’s a great day in Chateaugay, and a lot of people put in a lot of hard work to get us to where we are,” Jones said. “I also want to thank the workers that work in this plant and obviously the dairy farmers that supply it. This is deeply personal to me, and to see this come to fruition after many, many years, and seeing this new plant come to life — this plant will be here and sustainable for generations to come. That means a lot to people that have a deep affinity for this plant. Obviously it’s the fabric of our community.”

According to reporting in the Telegram, the facility was expanded over the last two years toward Church Street in efforts to grow in manufacturing space. That space was expected to grow by about 6,600 square feet through the project, Agri-Mark officials previously said. The expansion and restoration also called for a rebuild on the cooperative’s 110,641-square-foot manufacturing center and reengineering the layout of the facility. These efforts included the purchase of new machinery and other equipment.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, who was unable to attend the ribbon cutting, released a statement supporting the expansion late Friday.

“The successful completion of Agri-Mark’s state-of-the-art cheese production facility comes at the perfect time as we celebrate Dairy Month this June,” Hochul said. “Not only will it support hundreds of jobs in the region, but it will ensure that New Yorkers and people around the globe can enjoy the award-winning cheeses coming straight from the dairy farmers of Upstate New York.”

New York state has over 3,000 dairy producers that yield more than 15 billion pounds of milk annually.

Stec said the jobs the plant will continue to provide, as well as ancillary jobs in the dairy industry to supply the plant, are important for Agri-Mark and the state.

“A 100-job facility in any town in the North Country is a big deal, but Chateaugay is a small community, so a hundred jobs is huge,” Stec told the Telegram. “Plus, it’s 500 ancillary jobs, so this is an important destination for a lot of our area’s dairy farms. So an addition like this is a signal that Agri-Mark is solidifying their commitment to the area.

“New York’s a hard state to do business in. I gripe about that all the time, but something is going right here. It’s good for this part of the North Country.”

This $16 million phase of the project built a new, state-of-the-art cheese production room designed to improve plant efficiency. The plant continued its operations during the work to modernize. Empire State Development committed $6 million in funding toward the project, which included $4 million in Economic Transformation Program funds.

The company hopes to grow its cheese production operations while supporting dairy farmers throughout the state, officials said. They hope the expansion can also promote sustainability of the state’s farm economy.

Officials said none of the 126 full-time jobs were impacted by the project, and they expected a 23% increase in cheese production to add about 512 jobs to the area dairy industry.