In Clarkstown, “being business-friendly has to be more than a slogan,” according to town Supervisor Alexander J. Gromack.
That”™s one reason why Clarkstown was ranked 71 out of 100 in Money magazine”™s “best places to live” list. The listing takes job growth, income increases, cost of living, housing affordability, school quality, arts and leisure options, safety, medical care, diversity and taxes into account.
Clarkstown, with a population of about 83,000, is located 25 miles from Manhattan and is accessible from the Tappan Zee Bridge.
“We”™re very well located,” said Catherine Nowicki, town chairwoman of economic development. “The accessibility to the city is a huge cultural and economic advantage for Clarkstown.”
To improve its business visibility, the town hired Saratoga Associates, an advisory committee on economic development that is currently surveying existing businesses to cover “every possible aspect that the business community would want,” Nowicki said.
It”™s a full-time job trying to attract businesses to Clarkstown and Nowicki is about the task of creating a climate that”™s “good for existing businesses and new businesses.”
“It gives folks in business such comfort to know there”™s a person there as liaison,” said Al Samuels, president and CEO of the Rockland Business Association. “This is absolutely the way all of the municipalities should address their economic development.”
Gromack said the town is revitalizing its downtown area with landscaping, which has led to high spirits for business owners.
“We”™re really investing in our infrastructure and trying to create that pedestrian-friendly atmosphere,” Gromack said.
When he became supervisor after being a county legislator for 14 years, Gromack heard from the business community that “there”™s such a slow pace for getting approvals.”
So Gromack decided that a lot of the “lag time” could be ironed out administratively. He started holding informal meetings with stakeholders, including the planning board, town attorney, architects, engineers, etc. so by the time the business went to the Planning Board “a lot of the work was done.”
This has made it easier for new businesses to come to Clarkstown and join the existing businesses, including Wyeth pharmaceuticals (whose property runs into Clarkstown); Tilcon Quarries, a crushed stone company; General Bearing, a manufacturing company; and Intercos, an international cosmetics company headquartered in Florence, Italy.
New-Jersey based Kohl Associates is halfway through the process of building a site on Route 303 that will house at least five new businesses, and another group of more than 20 small businesses are currently seeking space in Clarkstown.
Route 304 and Route 59 are also major roads for businesses in Clarkstown, which has two malls: the Nanuet mall and the Palisades Center.
And, “we have a wonderful, educated work force,” to offer new businesses coming into town, said Nowicki, who is co-chairperson of the Tappan Zee Bridge/I-287 Future Task Force on the Rockland County side. (The Business Council of Westchester President and CEO Marsha Gordon is the co-chairperson on the Westchester side of the river.)
Gromack said business owners appreciate the steps the town has taken to make the process of relocating to Clarkstown easier.
“Getting the word out will give us a high caliber of businesses,” Gromack said. “We want to have a good balance between a business community and a bedroom community.”
