A popular New York City brew pub will soon be taking up residence and rehabilitating Port Chester”™s 122-year-old Metro-North train station.
Heartland Brewery and the MTA last week finalized a 20-year lease for the 5,630-square-foot station building, with Heartland pledging to invest $1.2 million in long-term infrastructure improvements to the facility in addition to its plans for an 85-seat food and beer hall.
In opening its first location outside New York City, Heartland Brewery will join what has proven to be a resurgent restaurant establishment in the lower Hudson Valley region.
Since March of 2011, full-service restaurants in Westchester, Rockland and Putman counties have added 800 jobs, expanding at a rate of nearly 5 percent.
Despite those gains, the overall job market for the three-county region has slumped over the last year ”“ largely due to cuts in the leisure and hospitality sector, which includes the restaurant industry.
Unemployment in Westchester County was at 6.9 percent in March, up slightly from 6.8 percent the previous year.
The 6.9 rate represented a significant decrease from February, when unemployment stood at 7.4 percent; however, state Department of Labor analyst John Nelson attributed the stark drop to seasonal fluctuations.
The March employment report showed private sector employers in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties added 5,400 jobs over the previous 12 months.
Total employment in the three-county region, however, declined by 2,100 over the same period.
Among private sector employers, the financial activities sector, professional and business services sector and education and health services sector added 1,700 jobs, 2,700 jobs and 2,700 jobs, respectively, between March 2011 and March 2012.
Those gains were undercut by 2,200 fewer jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector, 400 cuts in the government sector, and a combined 1,000 cuts in the construction and manufacturing sectors.
Nelson said the job market is still growing, albeit at a slower rate than it did a year ago.
In the three-county region including Westchester, private sector employment increased by 1.2 percent for the 12 months ended March 2012, compared to growth of 2.3 percent for the 12 months ended March 2011.
“Overall, even when you”™re looking at the unemployment rate data, a one-tenth of a percentage increase is not really much to be concerned about,” Nelson said.
