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Once the site of a massive rock concert, the Winston Farm in Saugerties is now being touted as an ideal spot for a business and industrial park.
The Ulster County Development Corp. is seeking state economic development aid for the plan.
The 850-acre site, whose southeastern corner is at the intersection of Routes 32 and 212 in Saugerties, has a driveway literally across the road from the southbound Thruway Exit 20. The selection by the UCDC as the county”™s top site may soon be officially buttressed by an endorsement from the Hudson Valley Economic Development Corp., whose representatives attended a May 19 meeting at Saugerties town hall on the matter along with about two dozen other state and local officials. The UCDC listed Winston Farm as its top site early in June.
The HVEDC is compiling a list of the top sites that each of nine Hudson Valley counties would seek to promote as their most promising for development. After receiving the list of nine candidate sites, HVEDC will winnow the list to three top sites and seek to promote those as the best candidates to receive state aid for planning, and perhaps ultimately to install infrastructure.
Over the years, Winston Farm has been identified as a site to build a county landfill, but after massive opposition from residents, it instead, hosted Woodstock ”™94, a three-day rock concert that brought an estimated 250,000 revelers to the land. As part of that deal organizers were subsequently supposed to help build a performing arts center, but the site”™s owner, Ralph Schaller, who made his fortune with a meat packing and distribution company, did not endorse the idea of a performing arts center.
In 2005, the Winston Farm was proposed as a casino by the Seneca-Cayuga Indian nation. Those plans were also widely opposed in the town.
Now officials see opportunity to contribute to the vision of Hudson Valley as a tech-cluster, stretching from IBM headquarters in Armonk to the nanotechnology initiatives being undertaken near Albany and including a cluster of solar energy businesses officials are seeking to develop in the Kingston-Saugerties corridor near the Thruway in Ulster County.
“We want to create a high-tech business park built as green as possible with some recreation easements to allow for such things as hiking trails,” Saugerties Town Supervisor Greg Helsmoortel said. “It is quite early in the process, but good jobs is what we are looking for.”
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“We think we have the location to do it,” he said. “It”™s a new term for me that I”™ve been hearing a lot lately is green field. The Winston Farm is a green field site. The type of high-tech company we want to attract wants virgin land to build on.”
The site is bordered by water and sewer mains, but those would need to be extended onto the property. Additionally the oft-overlooked complication and expense of stormwater management could prove particularly challenging in the rolling environs of the Winston Farm, which is laced with creeks and small water courses. “It is over an aquifer so we have to be careful,” said Helsmoortel, who added that having a water supply beneath the site, “Could be an advantage; it”™s certainly not a detriment.”
He said that town residents and community groups are meeting to formulate ideas on the best uses of the property, but generally seem receptive to the idea of using at least some of the acreage as a business park. Helsmoortel said that the town expects to meet with state officials and other interested parties in about a month to further discuss the idea.
HVEDC officials who attended the May 19 meeting and tour of the Winston Farm were “Extremely impressed with the site,” Helsmoortel said.
HVEDC officials are refusing to publicly release their list of nine candidate sites or discuss their process. “We”™re not going to discuss that, we”™re not at liberty to discuss that, it”™s not an open public process at this point,” HVEDC vice president Marissa Brett said.
She said that although taxpayer money is used to pay for some HVEDC operations, they do not have to release information publicly, “Because we”™re not completely publicly funded, we get funding from the counties, state, and Central Hudson. And it”™s an internal process that we”™re going through.”
Brett said that the HVEDC is still receiving the list of preferred sites from the nine counties and hopes to finish compiling a short list of preferred sites in coming weeks, after the group”™s leaders return from a business development trip to Germany.
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