News story made available courtesy of Poughkeepsie Journal

More retailers envisioned for Ulster market

Groups propose plazas near Highland

Sunday, November 18th, 2007

By Craig Wolf
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com

Retail marketers have drawn a bull's-eye on southern Ulster County. Two plazas are proposed by two different development groups, both on Route 299. If built, they will bring to three the number of plazas in the Town of Lloyd, across the Hudson River from Poughkeepsie and east of New Paltz.

Bridgeview Plaza was the first, built in 1989 just south of the Mid-Hudson Bridge. Its 140,358 square feet of space have mostly remained filled, anchored by a Hannaford grocery. But it looks like Bridgeview won't be the last.

Rising population and rising income are what's attracting developers to the area. They believe those same features will, in turn, attract tenants and make new shopping available closer to home for southern Ulster residents.

"The phone's been ringing off the hook," said David Livshin, president of Fishkill-based Dagar Group, leasing agent for the Highland Square project proposed for the northwest corner of Route 9W and Route 299. It's being proposed by DES Development, whose partners are Fred Straub and Michael Barnett, the same people who are developing 216 homes for age 55 and older on Vineyard Avenue here.

"We talked to a lot of people who commute from Ulster County to Dutchess County every day and they all go via the Mid-Hudson Bridge," Livshin said. "They come off the bridge and they head north."

Town receives plans
The proposal has been presented in preliminary fashion to the town's planning board, but a fuller application is still needed and expected in January, said Sandy Avampato, clerk for the board.

Nearer to New Paltz, a team consisting of River Development LLC and Net Properties Group announced Oct. 25 they have a deal with Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. to buy its 34 acres on Route 299 and South Street, known as the Elting Corners yard.

The joint venture, based in Red Bank, N.J., has said little about their plans other than they plan an "upscale retail experience in accordance with municipal guidelines."

Christine Burke, a publicist representing the developers, did not return a call and an e-mail requesting further updates about the River/Net project.

No formal application has been received, Avampato said. Representatives called and were directed to the site-plan checklist.

"They'll be in soon, I assume," Avampato said. The applicant would also need to seek rezoning from industrial use to business, she said. A master plan revision has been completed and zoning recommendations are being readied now, Deputy Supervisor Nancy Hammond said.

While Target has been mentioned by Livshin, DiTullo and others as a name thought likely to be headed for the Elting Corners site, that company, based in Minneapolis, isn't confirming.

"We currently have no plans to open any new Targets in this county," spokeswoman Anna Goeppinger said Friday.

The Highland Square land is already zoned for business. Livshin didn't name any parties who have expressed interest, but said most of them are from nearby, in Ulster, looking for additional sites or relocations. In a statement, developer Straub said, "We saw a need in Highland for additional retail development and we feel that the intersection of 299 and 9W is well-suited to what we have planned. We envision several individual buildings containing a mix of retail and office as well as one building with second-story space."

There is an anchor building of 64,000 square feet proposed, which Livshin said could be a movie house or a grocery, or possibly a hotel. There are other spots for free-standing buildings, like a bank or credit union, several of which have expressed some interest.

Livshin said he already has five letters of intent from various parties.

Experts not surprised

The advent of shopping plazas should not be a surprise, given the rapid population growth in southern Ulster, said two experienced observers, neither of whom is involved in the deals.

"Usually what happens is the retail follows the residential," said Michael DiTullo, executive vice president of Hillside Cos., a developer in Newburgh. "There might be a lag, a five- or 10-year lag."

Thomas Collins, of Commercial Associates Realty in Kingston, said Ulster is one of the few areas in the state experiencing solid population growth. And retailers have noticed.

"These will be national tenants," he predicted. "They do their homework. They're always looking for infill areas ... where there's population growth."

Growth is projected at 4 percent annually in southern Ulster, he said, for the next 10 years.

"If you compound that out, it's significant," Collins said.

Hammond, whose family has lived in southern Ulster since 1963, said she has found the one existing plaza, Bridgeview, useful.

"It's convenient. It's a nice little plaza," she said. But as to the two proposed new ones, she said, "I think it all depends on what its proposed use is."

But she added, "We all know that we need some commercial development to help our tax base." And the major roadways are the best spot for it, she added.