The last two years for the county has seen a number of local employers close shops or reduce payrolls. In recent months, a food supplier and a building supplies store have laid off employees, adding to the county’s approximately 8 percent unemployment rate. Two monuments to the toll of the recession and outsourcing— the largely vacant Kaz building in Greenport and the vacant LB Industries plant in Hudson—remain on the market with little interest.

“I think they are overpriced,” said Flood about the difficulty in finding buyers who would bring jobs for the properties. He said Kaz officials are asking $30 a square foot for the 200,000-foot vacant plant, which has largely been idle for a year. “Market value is about $20 or so a square-foot,” Flood said.  

Manufacturing operations ceased there in March 2009, eliminating more than 300 jobs. All that remains are management, research, and support jobs.

The 300,000-square-foot LB Industries building also stands empty and available for sales or lease with few leads coming forward. Flood said the biggest problem with the 300,000-square-foot LB building—vacant since late 2008—is its size. “That’s a very, very big building to try to fill,” he said.  

Both facilities sit at gateways from the south to Hudson—Kaz on Route 9 and LB Industries on Route 9G— and their “For Sale” signs are part of people's first impressions as they enter the county seat. This raises concerns among business leaders in the county.“"It's not good to have too much of the space vacant," David Colby, executive director of the Columbia County Chamber of Commerce, told ccSCOOP last year.

As to the recent "flurry of activity," Flood points to the Greenport Crossing proposal to construct a hotel and entertainment complex on the site of the former V&O Press on Route 66 in Greenport. He also mentioned the Kohl’s department store proposed for Widewaters' Greenport Commons and a potential new tenant for the former Empire Homes building on Route 9 in Kinderhook. “We have several projects that look to bring in jobs,” he said, declining to be more specific.