Goshen's economy gets a reboot

BY ERIKA NORTON
GOSHEN — In Goshen, residents are used to seeing businesses come and go. Many businesses still dealing with the loss of customers resulting from the closure of the Orange County Government Center five years ago.
But as 2016 comes to a close, visible progress can be seen with the construction of the new government center. Residents, business owners, and local officials are starting to see changes in the downtown village and new projects coming to the area.
“Things are really turning a corner in a really exciting way right now,” said Village of Goshen Mayor Kyle Roddey, who says his Goshen 2020 plan is playing a key role in these changes.
The government center effectFor years, Roddey said, the Village of Goshen and the county government had a symbiotic relationship. A large piece of property — the county government center — was off the tax rolls. But its presence brought lots of foot traffic to support local businesses. Goshen’s economy essentially grew around the governement center.
So when the center was shuttered, many businesses that relied on government workers and county residents doing business at the center felt the pinch, Roddey said.
Sarah Grillo, owner of Howell’s Cafe and the Sunflower Cafe, said her business is still feeling that pinch.
“What has happened is it affected it over the long haul because people establish new routines, so they’re not coming in to Goshen anymore,” Grillo said. “So their place to stop to get a muffin or a breakfast sandwich is now in a different location because it’s on their way to work.”
Grillo said they tried to make adjustments, such as adding delivery service to try to make up for the customers they lost. Other developments affecting business inclueed the conversion of Arden Hill Hospital into the new Orange-Ulster BOCES building, MediaCom moving to Blooming Grove, and Healy Brothers moving their showroom to Newburgh.
“We don’t get the people who are waiting to get their care serviced and had to go grab breakfast or the people who were going to the DMV and social services, and people who do the title searching who are travelling through town," said Grillo.
Goshen 2020 VisionWhen the government center first closed down, Roddey said village trustees tried a bunch of different things to revitalize the village, such as a shop local campaign, but it was all kind of piecemeal. They decided to step back and develop a vision, or a more comprehensive plan to work toward, ultimately becoming the Goshen 2020 Vision introduced last year.
One goal of that vision has been to strengthen Goshen, regardless of factors out of the town’s control, through events that would get people to visit downtown. They've included the Goshen Art Walks, which Roddey said has attracted more than 500 people at times, the summer concert series, and the New Year’s Eve Ball Drop, which started last year featuring local music and kid’s activities. He attributes much of the success of these events to greater community engagement from groups like the Goshen Art League, the Goshen Chamber of Commerce, Goshen Restoration, and others.
“Just by doing those events, you get people more in the mindset of "there is stuff to do in Goshen,’” Roddey said. “The whole idea of ‘slow motion Goshen,’ I don’t buy that notion anymore.”
He also said increasing walkability is important, such as the new crosswalks downtown and adding more sidewalks. The village recently received a grant to put a sidewalk up Scotchtown Avenue.
Another goal is to make downtown a place where businesses will want to be.
“We can’t force any businesses to come in,” Roddey said, “but we can create an environment where businesses want to come in.”
An example of this is the planned transformation of Market Street into a pedestrian park with a seating area. Eventually, Roddey said, new businesses coming in will breed other success.
“Certainly when the government center reopens, I think it's really going to be a huge shot in the arm to local business, the local economy and it’s really going to be an excellent thing. And even now with all the work going on there, that’s already delivered some benefits, in terms of those employees that are working onsite going shopping downtown.
“So I really think that we’ve strengthened ourselves as a community, but when that opens it's really going to take us to the next level, even beyond what we were before the Great Recession and the closure of the government center.”
Downtown changesNot only is Market Street changing, but the building on Market Street next to Craft 47 is changing quite a bit. Contractor Robert Knebel bought the old Wonderbar building recently and is renovating the space.
When it is all finished, Knebel said there will be eight apartments on the second and third floors, and a restaurant on the first floor.
Knebel has renovated buildings in other old villages such as Florida, N.Y., most recently with the Sweet Onion Brewhouse, and said he just simply loves investing in them. He said he invested a lot of money into the Wonderbar building, now called Goshen Park LLC, because he feels that the area will come back.
“I love Goshen,” Knebel said. “It’s a historical little town. It’s got a lot of character. In Goshen, these buildings are very unique, but they are old and they need a lot of work and a lot of money put into them.”
Roddey said he hopes other businesses will be inspired to come to Goshen.
“By the Wonderbar being transformed into the beautiful structure it is already, it's going to be even more so once it’s complete,” Roddey said, “that makes other potential investors say ‘Wow there’s a lot of great stuff going on in Goshen — I want to be there.’”
Another change is Howell’s Cafe moving across the street and combining with its sister establishment, the Sunflower Cafe. That change will happen at the end of this month.
Nearby, a Legoland community welcome center is opening next to Happy Buddha Yoga on North Church Street. The center will be a place where families can come play with Legos, ask questions, and find out the latest information about the Legoland New York theme park proposed for the town.
New projectsOther projects coming to the area include Amy’s Kitchen, a manufacturer of organic frozen meals and soups close to site plan approval. They plan to construct a 369,000-square-foot, $95 million manufacturing center on Route 17M and Echo Lake Road in the Town of Goshen, which would create 681 permanent jobs.
The two largest projects, the new government center and Legoland New York — a proposed 153-acre theme park on a 523-acre site on Harriman Drive — are projected to open in fall 2017 and spring 2019, respectively.
While the government center coming back and Legoland coming could all be positives for Goshen, Roddey said he wants to maintain the local economy and the historic character of Goshen, regardless of the government center or a Legoland.
“That’s the most important part about the Vision, is that if we know where we want to be, what we want to look like, we know how to kind of react to any external factors that we can’t control, whether it’s the government center or Legoland. We can make adjustments to make sure that we maintain the identity that we want to maintain.
“By preserving our zoning in the village to allow only certain types of signage and historic character and we have the architectural design district and the church park historic district, by maintaining those areas, we can maintain our identity as a historic downtown, regardless of anything else that happens. So I think if Legoland does come in, by us sticking to our Goshen 2020 vision, we can leverage all the positives and mitigate all the negatives.”