Orange County Partnership Launches Program to Secure Key Information on Available Properties Countywide

GOSHEN—Terming it as one of the most important efforts it has launched in more than 20 years, The Orange County Partnership officially unveiled its “Site Inventory Program” (SIP) that will, over the coming months, seek municipal government input from across Orange County to determine all available properties that could be developed in their respective jurisdictions.

The goal of the initiative announced late last month is to identify properties that have suitable infrastructure and regulatory approvals so the Partnership can market to industries best suited for those parcels.

The Site Inventory Program was first announced at the Orange County Partnership’s MVP Annual Breakfast program held last month at The Barn at Villa Venezia in the Town of Wallkill. Orange County Partnership President and CEO, Maureen Halahan said the initiative will be headed by Conor Eckert, Senior Development Officer & Vice President of Business Attraction and Kaitlynn Lancellotti, Director of Business Retention and Expansion for the Orange County Partnership.

The Site Inventory Program will seek to take advantage of some of Orange County’s key growth industries—food & beverage processing, advanced manufacturing, clean energy and life sciences—that the Partnership believes will be investing and creating jobs in the county over the next two decades.

The Orange County Partnership held its first SIP session with the Town of Wallkill on June 22. Participants included Town Supervisor George Serrano along with town department heads that were able to provide information on suitable properties that are on and off-market, as well as their zoning, infrastructure, tax and regulatory approval requirements. The SIP’s focus is to secure information on properties that could accommodate new development of 20,000 square feet or more in communities across Orange County.

“I believe the Site Inventory Program is one of the most important endeavors the Partnership has launched in my more than 20 years with the organization,” Halahan said. “Information such as available infrastructure is key to attracting diverse industry. Knowledge is power and the Site Inventory Program will provide the intelligence we need to market sites to specific industry clusters. This program will clearly set Orange County apart from its competition.”

Eckert said that the Orange County Partnership believes that a diverse economy is key to the county’s future growth and sustainability. With that in mind, the Site Inventory Program “will reverse engineer the site selection process through visiting communities across the county and meeting with key leaders to gain expert understanding of sites, infrastructure, the timeline for approvals and we will be able to use this information to understand which sites and which communities can accommodate strategic sectors.”

Eckert stressed, “This is a way that we can have the answers to a prospect’s questions before they even ask. This program is pro-active not reactive and this will arm us with information so we can go out to site selectors and prospects and pitch sites because we know which communities have a site, the infrastructure and the political support for our growth sectors.”

Kaitlynn Lancellotti said the SIP will take a global look at the county and then undertake a “deep dive” into each municipality to see what each community wants in terms of new business development and where in their town, village or city they would welcome new business investment. “We are going to these meetings asking municipal leaders what their vision is for their commercially zoned priority growth corridors so that we can market accordingly to the desired industry sectors” Lancellotti said.

In the coming weeks and throughout the summer, the Orange County Partnership hopes to hold SIP sessions with various municipalities throughout Orange County.