Battling to bring business to Orange County
Maureen Halahan has a smile that toothpaste models could envy ”“ and the president and chief executive officer of the Orange County Partnership has a lot to smile about.
She and her team have been instrumental in bringing major industries to Orange County, creating new jobs, while also retaining the industries established in the county.
The Halahan team is fulfilling a dream born 25 years ago from Lou Heimbach, then county executive, for a cohesive organization focused specifically on the marketing of Orange County. Halahan also praises the present county executive, Ed Diana, for embracing the Heimbach vision. “He walks sites with us, and if we tell him we have a live one, he”™ll drop everything and come,” she said.
Halahan reports the county is preparing to welcome Hunter Panels to its new manufacturing facility at the Hudson Valley Crossing site in Hamptonburgh in the first quarter of next year. “The total capital investment, including land acquisition, is approximately $27 million,” she added, noting that Hunter Panels and Hudson Valley Crossing have received incentives from the Orange County Industrial Development Agency. Initially 70 to 90 workers will staff the 360,000-square-foot facility. At its new plant the company will manufacture rigid foam insulation roofing materials for commercial and industrial markets.
Proximity to I-84 and I-87, Stewart International Airport and Norfolk Southern Railroad make Orange County an attractive magnet for business, Halahan pointed out.
After a two-year search President Container brought 192 new jobs to the Town of Walkill, where it invested $48 million in infrastructure renovations at its 522,000-square foot facility.
Continental Organics, which opted for construction of a 900,000-square-foot facility in New Windsor, will create 120 new jobs with the help of a $6.2 million package from the Empire State Development Corp. Medora Snacks will bring 80 employees to its new facility in Walkill. SunWize Technology, expanding to Walkill, is creating 40 to 50 new jobs in the area.
But her smile vanishes as she laments the loss of a proposed Macy”™s one million-square-foot e-commerce distribution center in Hamptonburgh. “They loved the site, available shipping and work force,” she said. But they opted for West Virginia because of New York State”™s high taxes, she sighed.
This spring found the Orange County Partnership CEO with yet another reason not to smile. She is profoundly disturbed at the wetlands map being produced by the Department of Environmental Conservation and is preparing for contentious hearings. In a guest newspaper editorial, Halahan noted that the DEC has already stated that the new maps will increase the agency”™s wetlands jurisdiction in Orange County by 50 percent — or 16,000 acres. “Not included in the acreage total would be the 100-foot buffer around the wetlands that the DEC also requires,” she added, noting that a majority of these areas are also regulated and protected by the Army Corps of Engineers.
“Mapping restrictions will add more cost for businesses looking to invest in New York State,” she said. “They appear to conflict with Gov. Cuomo”™s ”˜Open for Business”™ economic development policies.”
Born in Newburgh and raised in Middletown, Halahan graduated from Navesink High School, earned an associate”™s degree from SUNY-Orange and a bachelor of arts from Marymount College. After time spent teaching, and running an organic foods business, she became the partnership”™s director of business attraction. Her team includes her own successor in the post of business attraction director, a director of business extension and expansions, a marketing coordinator, and a small support staff.
Challenging Careers focuses on the exciting and unusual business lives of Hudson Valley residents. Comments or suggestions may be e-mailed to Catherine Portman-Laux at cplaux@optonline.net.