ALBANY-Move over, California. New York’s Capital Region is emerging as the Silicon Valley of the East. After Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced that the state will welcome five companies to create the next generation of computer chip technology, the Capital Region will soon become home to 6,900 new jobs.

This $4.4-billion agreement between the state and private investment comes at a time when New York’s nanotechnology sector is just heating up--and industry leaders predict that these developments will positively affect commercial real estate. “The good news is that there is a tremendous surge in the technology world and jobs coming in,” Richard Sleasman, managing director at CB Richard Ellis’ Albany office, told Real Estate Forum in June 2011. Albany was named by Forum editors as one of the nation’s top 10 emerging markets to watch.

Now with Intel, IBM, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, TSMC and Samsung set to develop office space and research labs in Albany, Canandaigua, Utica, East Fishkill and Yorktown Heights, each firm will focus on creating the next two generations of computer chips to power computers, electronic devices and national security applications.