HVEDC seeks 50 acres
HVEDC seeks 50 acres
The Hudson Valley Economic Development Corp. is seeking parcels of undeveloped land at least 50 acres in size located within a commercial zone and within five miles of an exit off an interstate. It seeks to fund preliminary studies leading to creating an industrial park on one of those sites, and will provide $50,000 to the owner of the selected parcel to help fund such studies.
The push is an appeal to companies that prefer to begin “from the ground up” and, according to the development corporation (HVEDC), does not preclude adaptive re-use of standing facilities.
Still, one landowner in the area is critical of the HVEDC plan, saying the region already has millions of square feet of vacant office and industrial space adjacent to major highways and that is already equipped with all the necessary electrical and water infrastructure.
Alan Ginsberg, owner of Tech City in the town of Ulster, said that a faster way to bring new companies and jobs to the region is to rehabilitate existing facilities, instead of enduring the perhaps decade-long process of building a new industrial center.
“We are looking for landowners to partner with us to explore the potential of developing at least one more shovel-ready greenfield site in our region,” said Mike Oates, president and CEO of HVEDC. “If we want the Hudson Valley economy to grow, our region must be proactive about developing locations for today’s high-technology companies to establish operations here.
“The global competition for jobs is fierce and we can’t even get in the game if we don’t have a field to play on,” said Oates.
But there is already abundant available space and HVEDC would be more effective if it were aiding in upgrading and marketing those existing parcels instead of seeking to develop new land, said Daniel Wieneke, president of Tech City, who is working with Ginsberg.
“Do these people fully understand how much commercial industrial real estate is available in Ulster, Dutchess and Greene counties?” asked Wieneke. “The HVEDC should use sites we already have today before they would make that commitment to start cutting down trees in another location.”
Tech City is a 250-acre former IBM site that is in the latter stages of completing the GEIS environmental statement approving its makeover into a mixed-use commercial, industrial and retail site.
Site owner Alan Ginsberg said the upgrades could take place in a matter of two years as opposed to the five or 10 years needed to develop a greenfield in New York into a shovel-ready site.
Wieneke said that although Tech City is now showing great success and has rented over half of its available 2 million square feet, the HVEDC has provided no assistance as it markets the old Big Blue site, even though Tech City was cited as the top development site in the Hudson Valley in a study commissioned by HVEDC.
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