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DEVELOPER MOVES FORWARD WITH HOTEL PROJECT
Mike McCagg
ccSCOOP News
08-26-09 – 11:00 a.m. - Details about a 100-room hotel, with a 52,000-square-foot entertainment center and a separate retail facility, were presented to the Greenport Town Planning Board on Tuesday.
Commissioner for Planning and Economic Development, Kenneth Flood, was on hand to lend his support as Harbalwant Singh outlined for an inquisitive Planning Board his proposal for Greenport Crossing, to be created on the site of the former V&O Press manufacturing plant on Route 66.
As proposed, the project would include the hotel with a restaurant and conference rooms which could be used for weddings, parties, and meetings, as well as an attached two-story entertainment center. The center would include a bowling alley, with 18 to 24 lanes, an indoor play area, a climbing wall, a laser tag facility, an arcade, and sports bar. |
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Harbalwant Singh presenting his plan to the Town of Greenport Planning Board |
Separate from the complex but on the same ten-acre site would be a 6,500-square-foot retail complex that would include a convenience store, a gas station, and two other retail units.
“I see the lack of an entertainment center as a gap in the area,” said Singh, whose development business, Valueplus Commercial Brokers, Inc., is based in Montgomery, NY. The hotel, retail, and entertainment development would create between 70 and 100 jobs, Singh told the board.
Singh will seek funding for the project through the Columbia County Industrial Development Agency. After the meeting, Flood, who declared the project a "great idea," encouraged Singh to submit the application for the funding soon.
The developer has not yet determined the cost of the project, largely because it is dependent upon the amount of mitigation needed at the former industrial site. Singh said he has completed a Phase I Environmental Review but was waiting for Planning Board action before starting Phase II, during which engineers would identify the amount of contaminants, notify the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) of their findings, and develop a strategy for cleanup.
V & O, which manufactured drill presses and metal products, made extensive use of oil and other chemical products. According to Planning Board member Robert MacGiffert, who spoke with ccSCOOP last week, oil was frequently dumped on the floor of the building.
“It’s a prime concern. It’s not on a side burner,” Singh said about the possibility of contaminants on the site, noting he has an environmental engineering team in place to conduct the work. Nonetheless, he requested “formal encouragement” from the Planning Board before beginning Phase II of the Environmental Study. |
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The Planning Board and their attorney, Carl Whitbeck, explained that such encouragement could not be given formally.
“We don’t have a zoning law. You can make whatever use of that property that you think is appropriate,” said Whitbeck. “I think everybody would say to you that the Town of Greenport can’t wait to see this property developed. It’s right in the middle of the town, and everybody wants it to be used.”
Singh has owned the former factory site since 2008 and approached the Planning Board earlier this year with a verbal proposal for a “large” apartment complex, but that plan was never formally presented to the Planning Board.
After the meeting, Singh said he expected to be at next month’s meeting with an application for a site plan review to move his current proposal forward.
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