New York State Department of Labor
Division of Research and Statistics
120 Bloomingdale Road, Room 218
White Plains, NY 10605
914-997-8798
This briefing provides information on firm-specific hiring and layoff announcements in the Hudson Valley. The information in this report is derived from press releases, newspapers, business journals, newsletters and other public sources. It does not include all expansions and contractions in the region – only those for which public information has been obtained. An attempt is made to present only current information – events that have recently occurred or will occur in the near future.
Dutchess County
Dutchess County officials and business executives celebrated the ground-breaking for the construction of the Bellefield at Historic Hyde Park. The project is a $500 million venture to bring hotel rooms, homes and foodie-friendly commercial storefronts to an undeveloped 330-acre parcel of land across from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park. The master plan calls for about 1.2 million sq. ft. of development, a mix of residential, commercial and agricultural space. It includes up to 559 residences, two hotels, a 45-acre agricultural complex, farm to table restaurants, special event bar and an educational center. The first phase of the plan is the construction of the Inn at Bellefield, a 133-room hotel developed in partnership with the Shaner Hotel Group. Construction of the hotel is expected to start in January, with a projected 12-month timeline. The second phase of the project will include a village green with some residential components. The entirety of the project could take at least five to seven years, depending on market conditions. It is estimated that the Bellefield project will create more than 550 temporary construction jobs and 339 full-time jobs on site.
Marist College and the Dutchess County hospital chain Health Quest recently announced plans to open and jointly run the Marist Health Quest School of Medicine. Pending municipal building approvals, the $80 million, 100,000 sq. ft. medical school would be located at Health Quest’s Vassar Brothers Medical Center campus in Poughkeepsie. The four-year medical school is expected to open in July 2022, with an annual class of 60 that would grow to 120 by 2028. The school will employ an estimated 100 full-time workers, plus part-time staff.
Orange County
Bruno DiFabio, a Food Network veteran, recently opened a new restaurant in Newburgh. The new eatery dubbed “Pizza Union Gastro-Kitchen & Bar” is a full-service, 100-seat trattoria-style restaurant with an open kitchen, plenty of entrée options, and an expansive cocktail program. The restaurant also has an outdoor patio area that is open during the warmer months and can accommodate about 40 customers. No job numbers were announced.
City of Newburgh’s fire department was approved for a $1.5 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response program. The grant will allow the City of Newburgh’s fire department to rehire all or some of the five firefighters who were laid off at the end of July when the funds from the previous grant had been exhausted.
Medline Industries, America’s largest privately held medical supply distributor closed on a Town of Montgomery site where it plans to build a $111 million distribution center. Medline purchased 118 acres on Route 416 from Aden Brook Farm where it will build a 1.1 million-square-foot distribution center. Construction on the new building is expected to start in early 2019. The new facility will be Orange County’s largest distribution center and it will allow the company to eventually leave its current site, a 500,000 sq. ft. facility in Wawayanda. The new larger facility will allow Medline to keep its current workforce, while adding about 100 jobs within the next three years.
Putnam County
Nothing to report.
Rockland County
Get Air Trampoline Park is scheduled to open a new facility at the Palisades Mall in West Nyack. Get Air Park features foam pits, trampoline dodge ball courts, basketball dunk lanes and obstacle courses. The new facility is scheduled to open in fall 2019. No job numbers were announced.
United States Gypsum Co. was recently acquired by German construction material company Knauf KG, in a $7 billion deal. The deal will be finalized sometime next year and Knauf plans to keep U.S. Gypsum’s corporate headquarters in Chicago as well as its facilities in North America. U.S. Gypsum previously operated a sheetrock manufacturing plant in Stony Point, where it had employed about 200 to 300 people, until its closure in 2010. Residents of the community are hopeful that the new owners will reopen the plant and create new jobs.
Sullivan County
Nothing to report.
Ulster County
Nothing to report.
Westchester County
Evergreen Ridge L.L.C., a Connecticut-based company has recently submitted a proposal to the Somers Town Board that calls for remodeling the former IBM Somers campus into a STEM high school for grades 9 to 12, geared at attracting top students from across the country. Tentatively named Somers STEM Academy, the boarding and day school would focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), as well as the arts. The for-profit school would offer a curriculum that aligns with emerging career fields in biotech, bioscience, biomedical engineering and physics, artificial intelligence, computer science, information technology, robotics, aerospace, nano-science and manufacturing technology. Tuition would run about $49,000 per year for boarding students and approximately $37,000 for day students. The school hopes to open in the fall of 2020, beginning with a class of about 750 high school freshmen and sophomore students, and would ramp up to a maximum of 1,500 to 1,800 students by 2022. The STEM high school will employ an estimated 235 workers, including 102 teachers, 23 administrators, and 110 support staffs, such as administrative assistants, maintenance and security employees, lab aides and shuttle bus drivers.
Homesense, a retailer of furniture, lighting and other home décor products, plans to open a new store at the Cortland Crossing shopping center at 3144 E. Main Street in Cortland. The new 25,000sq. ft. store will be the company’s first location in Westchester County. Homesense is a subsidiary of TJX Cos., which also owns T.J. Maxx and HomeGoods. No job numbers were announced.
Torrco Plumbing Supply is expanding its presence in the village of Port Chester. The plumbing supply company, which has 16 locations in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts, recently signed a lease for a 19,000 sq. ft. of industrial-flex space at a warehouse building on Grace Church Street. No job numbers were announced.
Rose Associates, a Manhattan-based real estate developer was recently granted $5 million in tax benefits by the Westchester IDA for its $203 million residential-retail project in White Plains. The tax incentives come with a stipulation for a project labor agreement between the developer and union representatives. The developer plans to convert the former 12-story AT&T building, on Hamilton and North Broadway, into 225 apartments. The plans also include a garage and another 213 apartments in two new buildings behind the AT&T building on Barker Avenue. The project is expected to create an estimated 1,126 temporary construction jobs over a 24 to 28-month period.
Dutchess County
K-Mart Corporation filed a WARN notice with the NYS Department of Labor on September 25, 2018 in anticipation of a mass layoff. The retailer will close its store at 635 Dutchess Turnpike in Poughkeepsie and lay off about 71 employees. Employment separations will occur on December 23, 2018 or during the 14-day period beginning on that date. K-Mart will offer severance to employees at the site. Those associates that are eligible will receive severance and will have the opportunity to apply for open positions at other Sears and K-Mart stores in the area.
Orange County
Greater Hudson Bank filed a WARN notice with the NYS Department of Labor on September 25, 2018 in anticipation of a mass layoff. Greater Hudson was recently acquired by ConnectOne in a $76.3 million stock deal. Subject to the consummation of their merger with ConnectOne Bank, they will lay off about 13 employees throughout several branches in the region, including six in Orange County, six in Rockland County and one in Westchester County. The layoffs will occur on or between January 1, 2019 and January 15, 2019.
Putnam County
Nothing to report.
Rockland County
Nothing to report.
Sullivan County
Nothing to report.
Ulster County
Nothing to report.
Westchester County
Avon Products Inc. filed a WARN notice on September 17, 2018 with the NYS Department of Labor in anticipation of a mass layoff. The cosmetic giant will lay off 105 employees in its data center in Rye and close the facility next year. The announcement comes less than two years after Avon closed its Manhattan office, and moved 100 senior employees to the Rye office, 80 to a research and development facility in Suffern and moved its headquarters to London. The layoffs will take place between December 28, 2018 and May 31, 2019. The Rye location also housed the company’s financial services and accounting operation, a distribution center and general corporate offices over the years. Some employees will be relocated to Suffern or to other offices. The Rye office will be closed for good on September 30, 2019 and the building is expected to be sold by the end of 2019. The direct sales beauty product company has struggled financially for several years and has embarked on a cost-cutting program, including shifting corporate activities to locations outside of the U.S.
Nothing to report.
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