Tech City is taking a step toward implementing its visionary master plan with help from the town of Ulster and Ulster County, seeking to turn a former IBM production building into a renovated “Center for Excellence” Â
Under the $7.5 million proposal, which is the first part of implementing Tech City”™s new comprehensive plan for the site”™s east campus, Building 25 at Tech City would be renovated to provide 325,000 square feet of space for the training center, while a neighboring building would be partially demolished and turned into a parking structure.
Building 25 faces Enterprise Drive and Boice”™s Lane, just south of what was the main building at the former IBM complex. For persons entering the complex from the shopping hub around the Tech City site, Building 25 would be the first building they see and it will serve as the gateway, so to speak, of the revised site plan, which aims to transform the 260 acre site from an industrial zone to a business hamlet.
A small first step was accomplished at a town of Ulster board workshop meeting April 2. The town board unanimously agreed to Tech City”™s request to start the process of applying for $2.5 million in grant funding under the RestoreNY program. The board set a public hearing for 7:30 p.m. April 16 in the Town Hall on the proposed application.
Site owner Alan Ginsberg would provide the remainder, a sum of about $3.2 million, money which is already set aside according to Tech City officials, Tech City president Dan Wieneke said the new building 25 would have numerous uses, from office space for the Solar Energy Consortium, to use as a business incubator for new companies seeking proximity to other similar businesses to providing education in “green collar” jobs.
The work could be done within about two years, he said, while the overall master plan might take five years to implement. But getting started is not assured. “All of this is contingent on us getting that $2.5 million Restore New York grant funding,” said Wieneke.  Â
