A 350,000-square-foot, $95 million dollar manufacturing facility proposed in Goshen by the natural and organic food producer Amy”™s Kitchen is inching forward in the approval process.
The Santa Rosa, Calif.-based company bought a 200-acre site between Echo Lake Road and Route 17M for the project in March 2014. Maureen Halahan, the president of the Orange County Partnership, called the selection of Goshen by Amy”™s Kitchen a “major coup for Orange County” at the announcement.
Two years later, the Goshen Planning Board will begin holding public hearings on the project at the end of May. Amy”™s Kitchen submitted its draft environmental impact statement to the board at the end of April.
The project is expected to create close to 700 permanent jobs and hundreds of construction jobs.
Amy”™s Kitchen was founded 25 years ago by Andy and Rachel Berliner, who named the company after their daughter. The company produces a popular international line of frozen organic burritos, pizzas, wraps and other vegetarian and vegan entrees. The manufacturing facility would help the company meet demand on the East Coast.
The project cleared a major hurdle in March, when the city of Middletown agreed to supply the plant with water. Amy”™s Kitchen planning consultant, Graham Trelstad, director of Hudson Valley planning for AKRF, told the Goshen Town Board in March that the company wants to have the plant running by 2018, according to the Middletown Times Herald-Record.
The DEIS submitted to Goshen by Amy”™s Kitchen includes plans for a separate facility, which will house a conference center for Science of the Soul, a non-denominational spiritual society.
The manufacturing plant would be constructed on a 60-acre property on Hartley Road in Goshen. The conference center would go on a 195-acre adjacent property on Route 17M and Echo Lake Road. The conference center would feature a 200,000-square-foot open air pavilion, 80,000 square-foot multi-purpose building, a 38,000-square-foot central building and a few smaller restroom and maintenance buildings.
The two properties agreed to collaborate on the environmental review process and will share water supply infrastructure.
The conference center would be used for a yearly three-day conference that would bring 12,000 people to the town. Amy”™s Kitchen CFO Mark Rudolph told the Goshen Town Board in July 2015 that there could be potential economic value from visitors at the conference searching for local hotels, The Chronicle newspaper in Chester reported.
The Amy”™s Kitchen project is expected to receive a mix of state and local funds, including a $4.5 million property tax abatement over 15 years. The project stands to receive $6.8 million from the Empire State Development Corp. in the form of a capital grant and tax credits tied to the company”™s commitment to create 681 jobs. The county IDA will throw in $500,000 for infrastructure improvements and an additional $800,000 would come from Empire Development to aid in constructing an access road.
U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., stopped in to Goshen at the end of March to stump for the project. He called on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to expedite a federal wetlands that Amy”™s Kitchen will need before starting construction.
Halahan told the Business Journal that while she doesn”™t anticipate any issues with the wetlands review, it”™s “great to know that Senator Schumer is on board to assist throughout the process.”
The project is looking to start construction in November, Halahan said. A tree-cutting ban that runs from April to November, enforced for the first time in 2016 to protect the endangered northern long-eared bat, would prevent the project from starting sooner, according to Halahan.
