Even in the midst of the state”™s financial doldrums, the Adams family of Hudson Valley food fame is putting its collective faith in the local economy, building its fourth supermarket in the Hudson Valley.
Site work is under way on the 12.5-acre site on Route 9 in the town of Wappinger, where a 70,000-square-foot Adams Fairacre Farms grocery store and garden center will be built. Crews are preparing to install drainage piping that will carry rainwater to two retention ponds.
Construction manager and cousin Mike Augello said the family is acting as its own general contractor.
Patrick Adams, a co-owner with his brother Steve, father Donald and uncle Ralph, said the new store is “my brother Steve”™s baby.”
Augello said the family had been looking for a site in southern Dutchess for some time, “but because it is so built up, finding the right location was difficult.” They had an offer pending on this land south of Old Hopewell Road while the permitting process worked its way through the state Department of Conservation and the Wappinger planning and town boards. The deal to buy the property was finalized in 2009. Clearing the property started in March of this year.
“We paid approximately $2 million for the acreage,” said Augello, but costs to mitigate the wetlands and deal with a species of Indiana bats that called it home, as well as building connections to local water and sewer, added to the initial startup costs. A new traffic light is also part of Adams”™ agreement with the town. “It makes sense,” Augello said. “The town needs to be proactive in getting infrastructure and we want to be in a busy location where customers will have easy access. The process has been smooth, all things considered.”
The new store is creating 100 local construction jobs and will employ nearly 200 full and part-time employees once it opens next year. “One of the things we have prided ourselves on is buying from Hudson Valley vendors and keeping our business local,” Patrick Adams said. It has been the hallmark of their success since grandparents Ralph and Mary Adams first opened their vegetable stand in the town of Poughkeepsie in 1919, where the family”™s flagship store is located. Its two other stores are in Newburgh and Kingston.
Ninety-one years later, their children and grandchildren are carrying on the family tradition, giving local businesses an opportunity to sell their products on Adams”™ shelves. The store is a gourmet”™s delight as well as a supermarket, but its focus is on giving the public fruits, vegetables, meats and fish that are both fresh and reasonably priced.
Augello said he is working with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority to make the store as energy efficient as possible. “We”™ve already installed a solar array at our Newburgh store and we are talking about doing the same thing here,” Augello said. In addition, a new refrigeration system to keep products cool will replace outdated techniques; lighting will be energy efficient, and exterior walls will be well-insulated.
Engineers are also working to create a way to siphon off some of the rainwater that will be captured in the retention ponds for use in watering plants and flowers in the garden center. “Right now, we are looking at all possibilities to make this store as environmentally friendly and as energy efficient as possible,” Augello said.
Scheduled to open by fall 2011, the family hopes its thousands of customers embrace the new store. “One thing we have been very proud of is the people who work for us,” Steve Adams said. “Customers have come back to tell us they don”™t feel like they are shopping in a supermarket but in a family-owned store, where they are treated with courtesy and respect. That”™s nice to hear because it”™s something we strive for and our employees do, too. We”™ve been very fortunate to have such a good team working for us, and that includes every employee in our stores.”
