What would Eleanor and Franklin say about new business coming to their Hudson Valley homestead? Hyde Park, visited by thousands of tourists each year, is an instant attraction, but outside FDR”™s home, the town has been yearning for an extreme makeover.
A healthy infusion of finance ”“ in the form of a $15 million facelift to its main shopping center, Hyde Park Town Center ”“ will offer a new façade and expanded space for current tenants. Along with the renovation, a new 65,000-square-foot supermarket with 900 new parking spaces will be located on the parcel.
While Cosimo”™s Restaurant Group has focused primarily on building new restaurants and incorporating small shopping plazas within its own restaurant properties, this venture is a new one for the DiBrizzi family, owners of the center.
What made Town Center so appealing? While the purchase price was not disclosed, it had some amenities money can”™t buy. “There is a 94 percent occupancy rate here at Town Center,” said Nicholas DiBrizzi. “Some of the property had already been improved by the original owner when we bought it in December 2008. We plan to incorporate the same design and add pocket parks along Route 9 so it won”™t be just another shopping center.”
The company will expand both CVS”™ current space and make additional room for Williams Lumber to add seasonal landscaping supplies. “We”™ve got a great tenant mix, and the supermarket will pull it all together as a destination,” DiBrizzi said. The current McDonald”™s will be demolished and rebuilt to conform to the look of the new Town Center.
DeBrizzi”™s late father, Cosimo, made his name a fixture in the Hudson Valley when he opened his first Cosimo”™s Brick Oven Pizza on Route 300 in Newburgh. The elder DiBrizzi, who started his restaurant business in the old Orange Mall in Middletown, envisioned the freedom to design his own property and to be the master of its fate rather than marching to the mall drumbeat. His original restaurant and its ambience ”“ complete with brick ovens ”“ soon blossomed, enabling the DiBrizzis to grow the concept on both sides of the Hudson.
Now, Nicholas DiBrizzi is following in his father”™s footsteps and incorporating his philosophy. “Dad didn”™t like having his store in the mall and wanted to have a place of his own. That was his vision, and that”™s what we have continued.”
Main Street”™s Town Center”™s major facelift will make it a plus for the community, said town Supervisor Tom Martino, who took office this year. Commercial rateables are not only desirable but a necessity for the municipality, which has relied heavily on mortgage taxes in the past, said Martino.
“We all know where the economy is and despite reports that it is improving, income from mortgage taxes has dropped significantly, something we relied heavily on to keep property taxes down,” Martino said.
“This rejuvenation to the Town Center is going to attract more business to Hyde Park, something we need,” he continued. “Since nearly one-third of the properties within our borders are tax-exempt, this is truly a blessing for the community. It will be eye-catching and help make us more attractive to residents and our visitors as well as encourage development around it.”
Work is expected to begin at Town Center as soon as final approvals are in place, said DiBrizzi. “Its façade, parking lot and interior expansions for current tenants should all be done within three months, weather permitting. The supermarket will take longer to accomplish, since there will be site work to be done before we can start construction. We expect that to take between 12 and 18 months once shovels hit the ground.”
DiBrizzi expects the project to create more than 100 construction jobs: “And they will be local jobs; we are not ”˜hit and miss”™ developers. We pride ourselves on being part of the community, and the construction industry here needs the work. We expect when the Hyde Park Town Center is completed and the new supermarket goes in, it will create 250 permanent jobs in the heart of town.”
In addition to the Hyde Park Town Center project, “We have just given final approval for Stop ”™N Shop to relocate to the former Ames location, which has been vacant for eight years. They plan to build a Super Stop ”™N Shop complete with a gas station,” said Martino.
With thousands of tourists coming to Hyde Park each year to visit the Culinary Institute of America, Val-kill (the Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site), FDR”™s home and library and the Vanderbilt Mansion, “the town really needs to make this area a destination, not just for tourists to drive to the attractions and leave. Nicholas DiBrizzi”™s project, along with the rejuvenation of the Ames Plaza and the Hyatt Hotel planned on the grounds of the Culinary Institute are just the shot in the arm we need to make us a destination, not a drive-through.”
DiBrizzi agrees. New York, for all its woes, is still “home.” Now, the trick is to make it a place people can afford to stay in. With two more projects on the drawing board for the town of Fishkill and plans to expand Cosimo”™s on Union on Union Avenue in Newburgh, where DiBrizzi”™s father opened his first restaurant, the family is keeping faith that New York will recover and prosper.
