Six years ago, Vince Cappelletti bought the former Bank of New York headquarters on Broadway for $1.5 million and started gutting the 60,000-square-foot structure. His rough, work-scarred hands bear witness to the sweat equity poured into the building.
“I had two tenants,” he said. “I had a lot of space to fill but wanted to do it right.”
At the same time, Jo Anne Gurda of Orange County”™s Department of Social Services was searching for a place in Newburgh where social agencies could be gathered under one roof.
“Our county commissioner, David Jolly, knows the need Newburgh has, especially since it is so difficult to get around,” said Gurda, his assistant. “I walked past 280 Broadway a half dozen times looking for the right spot for a community-centered building when I realized I had been walking right past it.”
Today, 280 Broadway is better known as The Newburgh Business & Resource Center; it is 90 percent occupied, with paying tenants and offering a number of services to residents all in one building.
Two community meeting rooms are available for tenants without charge; for a nominal fee, any group is welcome to rent the rooms for the day. The building”™s outdoor patio is used for community parties that have been well-received by residents ”“ and well-respected, too, adds Cappelletti.
One thing was missing: a place for kids nobody has the time or patience to deal with. But thanks to in-kind services from Holt Construction, Home Depot, Orange County Choppers, Perreca Electric and IBEW Local 363, The Center for Hope has helped Cappelletti turn the building”™s basement into a community center for youths 11 through 22, where the two most asked for sports ”“ boxing and dancing ”“ will be part of its programs.
It won”™t be all knockout punches and hot dance moves.
People like HBO”™s Gerry Brown will be volunteering, teaching teens how to use video equipment, create movies and learn editing skills. Others will be joining Brown in this labor of love for the kids that have been left out of the equation for the city”™s revitalization.
The program is free for teens who do not have the money to join any of the other clubs in Newburgh. “Those are the kids who need this the most,” Cappelletti said. “That”™s what the teens who have been helping paint, right alongside Paul Teutel Sr., will be offered; an alternative to get away from violence, crime and the negative activities of the street.”
Cappelletti, who spent more than $1.5 million renovating the building, said he never dreamed it would become a magnet to pull Newburgh”™s social services agencies together. “I needed to fill space … but this is doing more than filling space, it is helping the city by giving residents access to services they can”™t get to.”
Teens are already helping to paint and decorate the center and a memorial to all those lost to violence in the streets will be displayed prominently. “It”™s a list we don”™t want to add to,” Gurda said. “We are counting on this center to give teens who have no place to go but the street a safe haven. Until now, there hasn”™t been a place for them to go. There will be now.”
The Center for Hope is working to get the space completed in time for a mid-September opening.
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Programs offered at center:
ARCS (Aids-related community services)
Best Resource Center (GED, career and vocational counseling)
Catholic Charities Community Services (chemical dependency treatment)
Children”™s Village (Children in foster care and residential placement)
Dispute Resolution Center (Conflict resolution-available for individuals, families and businesses)
Fresh Start Café (Food service jobs training program run by RECAP)
Gateway to Entrepreneurial Tomorrows (Offers free assistance to business startups for minorities and women)
Hoops Express, Inc (works with at-risk youth and provides life coaching for Orange County Re-entry participants.)
Housing Resource Center (public-private partnership designed to meet housing needs for eastern Orange county)
Latino Unidos of Hudson Valley (advocates for immigration, education, housing, senior citizens, veteran services)
MAAWS (prevention and testing of diseases)
Newburgh Mental health Clinic/Rockland Psychiatric Center (adult Office of Mental Health outpatient clinic)
Orange County Re-entry Program/Transition Center (public-private partnership to provide formerly incarcerated individuals with coping skills to successfully reenter the community)
RECAP-IHAP (Provides an array of services in conjunction with the Department of Social Services)
Rehabilitation Support Services (Case management for individuals with mental illness)
Safe Homes of Orange County (Comprehensive services to victims of domestic violence and their children. Family Justice Center is co-located with Safe Homes)
Studio 601 (Art on loan and supported by Crystal Run Village Foundation)
Youth Advocate Program (cost effective alternatives to residential placement)
Community Classroom 1-Seats approximately 30 individuals with small kitchen available. Reservations coordinated through YAP.
Community Classroom II ”“ Seats approximately 55 individuals, offering audio and video equipment Reservations are coordinated through the Dispute Resolution Center.
Community PC Lab. Available to community members in need of access to computer and Internet services. Reservations are coordinated through Hoops Inc.
Center for Hope (educational/recreational opportunities for at-risk youth and families.)
