News story made available courtesy of The Poughkeepsie Journal.

Gamble on Fishkill office building paying off Speculative venture lures insurer

February 11, 2004
By Craig Wolf

FISHKILL -- An office building built purely on speculation on Route 52 is proving popular. Last week, just one day after the certificate of occupancy was granted, Progressive, the insurance company, began moving into the second floor of 1401 Route 52, one of four buildings in the Summit Court office park.

Progressive moved its 26-member regional claims office from the Hyde Park Mall to Fishkill and hopes to expand later, said Matt Collister, spokesman for the Cleveland-based company.

''The old office in Hyde Park was about 6,000 square feet. This one is about 10,000 square feet. We think it's going to be a great location to operate out of,'' he said.

The building, about 30,000 square feet on three floors, will be an investment of about $3.5 million to $4 million when fully fitted up to tenant requirements, said Chuck Genck, representative of Thylan Associates, a New York City-based development company with an office here.

It's rare for a developer to put up a ''spec'' building, one built as a speculative investment. But Thylan believes the southern Dutchess market is healthy.

''We feel it's still rather strong,'' Genck said. ''And a lot of the companies don't have the time to wait for a building to go up. Having a spec building puts us in a better position to serve our clients.''

Another small space in the building has been taken by Kyocera, a tech company, but the rest is still available, Genck said. Of two other similar buildings Thylan owns at Summit, the largest space left is a floor at 1399 Route 52. The fourth Summit building is owned by developer Clark DeTraglia.

The deal was put together by Dagar Group, Fishkill. Principal David Livshin said it went quickly.

''It's the proximity to routes 9 and 84. It's a key seller,'' he said. ''They want employees to be able to get to and from work.''