The quest for industries that would turn a dot on the map into a hive of 21st-century business activity has riveted the Hudson Valley with its visions of spiffy Seattle-like office parks filled with high-paid breadwinners. Where would that dot be?
The Hudson Valley Economic Development Corp. (HVEDC) is pushing the Winston Farm in Saugerties as the premier site to develop shovel-ready capacity in the Hudson Valley. There”™s acreage and easy Thruway access. But the HVEDC”™s own consultant is on record saying Tech City in Kingston ”“ a former IBM campus ”“ has a “favorable” rating while Winston Farm attains only a “neutral” rating.
The results do not necessarily pit the two Ulster County sites as antagonists, according to the HVEDC, which sees room for both to thrive. The two-is-better-than-one philosophy is echoed by the Ulster County development chief. Tech City sees it differently, saying it is clearly the right choice.
As the town of Saugerties prepares to host an Aug. 20 public meeting regarding development of the Winston Farm as a shovel-ready site that was selected by HVEDC after a closed review of potential sites in a nine-county area, a report prepared by consultants for the HVEDC shows that Tech City in Kingston scores higher in all the key metrics used by the consultant for creating a shovel-ready site in the region.
HVEDC officials say the report does not contain all the information they used in deciding which site to highlight as the best prospect. They say they will make more information available soon.
HVEDC refused requests to make the report public, but the 55-page document was obtained by HV Biz from state Assemblyman Kevin Cahill.
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Called the “Hudson Valley High Technology Site Evaluation” dated Nov. 21, 2008, it was prepared for HVEDC by consultants CH2M Hill. It compares prospects for attracting companies in seven manufacturing areas using criteria of current land use and zoning, transportation, utilities and environmental features.
In the report, CH2M Hill ranks Tech City as “favorable” for attracting companies in six of those seven manufacturing sectors and “neutral” in one area. Winston Farm is ranked as “neutral” in six of those seven areas and favorable for one.
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Specifically, Winston Farm and Tech City both ranked neutral for attracting business in the semiconductor industry. Tech City ranked favorable for attracting businesses in the fields of flat panel display, nanotechnology, pharma-biotechnology, medical devices-imaging, photo-voltaic, and data centers. Winston Farm ranked neutral in those areas.
When averaging the ranking matrix, which goes from 1-5 with five being the best score, Tech City scores at 3.77 while the Winston Farm scores at 3.22Â For a site to be ranked as favorable, under the report”™s criteria, it must receive a score of 3.5 or greater, meaning Tech City attains a favorable ranking while Winston Farm is a neutral site.
HVEDC officials say that they favor the Winston Farm as the top potential shovel-ready site based on other information that is not contained in the Nov. 21 report. “You”™re missing some pieces,” said HVEDC Vice President Marissa Brett.
She said that in coming weeks, HVEDC would make additional information available, but said that could not be done immediately because the group had pledged to the nine counties in the Hudson Valley that their potential shovel-ready sites would not be discussed publicly. She said information still must be redacted to protect the location of other sites considered besides Winston Farm and Tech City.
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And she said that the process of developing a ready-to-go site shouldn”™t be viewed as a competition, saying that Tech City is a more viable site for present development and Winston Farm could be viable in the future. Having two appealing sites to attract companies is a net plus for the region. “This is good for the Hudson Valley,” Brett said.
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“It”™s always been our feeling that Tech City is the premier shovel-ready site in the Hudson Valley,” said Dan Wieneke, president of Tech City, located in the town of Ulster. He said HVEDC never presented the report to him.
“We already have plenty of power, water intake and sanitary outflow, fiber optic and transportation, including a rail road siding,” said Wieneke. “With less money and time than it takes to get a corn field ready for manufacturing, we will be up and running with about half-a-million square feet of available state-of-the-art facilities.”
The Winston Farm has never been extensively developed and is still largely rolling fields, woods and streams, while Tech City is industrialized. “Before we go tearing up nature any further, I would think we would use Tech City as the premier shovel-ready site in the region,” said Wieneke.
He noted that the IBM East Fishkill campus and shovel-ready sites in Greene County, close to exit 21B on the Thruway, are all also available, with enough capacity to fill projected needs for five to 10 years. After those facilities are approaching buildout, he said, Winston Farm could be considered.
The 740-acre Winston Farm, running roughly northwest from the corner of State Route 32 and State Route 212 in Saugerties has its main entrance literally across the road from the southbound interchange at Thruway exit 20, an undeniable asset. The site has gas lines running nearby which could be extended to Winston Farm. But bringing in the electricity needed for high-tech business could prove expensive, as options include either running power lines under the Thruway or across a ridge. Additionally, the rolling topography of the Winston Farm could prove challenging in controlling runoff.
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The 260-acre Tech City site has 27 buildings and a total of some 2.5 million square feet of industrial, commercial and office space, redundant electrical supply, abundant water, easy Thruway access and a rail siding. It also has a 40-acre plume of solvents under a central location on the campus. While the plume is no longer considered dangerous to health or the environment, it is a legal red flag, despite insistence by state DEC officials that it is no reason for it to be an impediment to the site.
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Tech City is in the midst of having a new master plan approved by the town of Ulster, which Wieneke said would initially create a new “green field” with demolition and redevelopment of part of the facility resulting in a capacity for half-a-million square feet of space of manufacturing and mixed-use capability. The rebuilt area would avoid the plume, simplifying matter for companies moving operations to the site.
Wieneke said that the environmental quality review of the master plan proposal is likely to be considered by the town of Ulster starting in mid-September.
Lance Matteson the president of the Ulster County Development Corp. said that Ulster County and the Hudson Valley benefit from having two potential development sites.
“There is no question that Tech City is our best available redevelopment site because it”™s got so much infrastructure in place,” said Matteson. “But at the same time, what is unique about Winston Farm is you”™ve got potential to develop hundreds of acres for a green tech vision where you can build from scratch. And that is not available in any other place in the Hudson Valley.”
“If you look at the pure check-off method, you can say Tech City is superior,” said Matteson. “But the point is, if you are looking for a pure green site, which many companies are, Winston Farm is our prime site.”
And he added, “We”™re kind of missing the good news here. Let”™s remember, the most aggressive county in the Hudson Valley for getting a shovel ready site is Ulster County. We have the raw material to work with; we have sites we can work with.”
The Saugerties public meeting on the Winston Farm is Friday Aug. 20 at 6 p.m. at the Saugerties Senior Citizen Center. Besides an overview of the proposals for the site that are being developed by consultants, the meeting will include sessions to receive community input and answer questions.
