Grocer expands presence in Orange

C&S Wholesale Grocers already has a presence in Chester”™s industrial park, but it will become even more visible once its 348,000-square-foot addition is completed.

C&S, a privately held family company based in Keene, N.H., has two other distribution centers in Orange County: Newburgh and Montgomery. Its three sites employ nearly 900 people and the new addition in Chester will open up nearly 300 additional jobs.

The county”™s Industrial Development Agency has given C&S what has been dubbed a “super-PILOT” (payment in lieu of taxes). Its purpose is to make staying in New York more attractive to one of the top two grocery distributors in the United States. Rather than deferring some of the tax ratable for 10 years, C&S will get a 15-year PILOT program from the county.

Chester Town Supervisor Steve Neuhaus has been on the site “nearly every day, and I”™m glad to see the construction is moving along at a great pace.”

Neuhaus had earlier expressed some unhappiness over the enhanced PILOT program offered to the company, but he”™s not sorry to see jobs coming to the area, particularly since the county”™s negative unemployment numbers could use a positive infusion of jobs.

Scheduled to open by mid to late 2010, IDA Chairman James Petro said he believes the distribution center”™s addition will be mixed use. “We”™re very glad they”™ve decided to choose the Hudson Valley to do business and bringing good paying jobs to Orange County.”

C&S, with 50 locations in 11 states and more than 15,000 employees, is ranked by Forbes as the 12th largest privately held company in the country. Its current president and CEO is Rick Cohen, the third generation of the family to lead the company. No one at the company was available to speak concerning the new addition at press time.