Developers Continue Push For Supermarket at Mid Broadway Lot

evelvation - rough concept

Last Wednesday the Architectural Review Commission was presented information regarding the Mid-Broadway lot. Not much has changed since the project was last presented to the city council. This time however, the developer, Mill Street Partners mentioned a verbal commitment from the State to help with funding. A few ARC members do not not consider a verbal commitment very secure and would like to see it in writing. Another issue everyone is pondering is exactly what kind of supermarket would be moving into that spot.  The developer mentioned that  they are looking at supermarkets such as Key Food and Associated but as of yet, do not have backing or a commitment from any supermarket.

During the meeting Newburgh was again compared to a “food desert” although the community does have bodegas and smaller grocers. Many wonder what effect a giant supermarket might have on these mom and pop shops? The designs are still in very early stages but a huge common concern is parking. Newburgh already has seen countless buildings razed in the name of parking lots. Many do not want another huge parking lot dotting the Newburgh landscape. Others feel that supermarkets are for the suburbs and what the City of Newburgh really needs is smaller quality markets. A failed attempt for a supermarket in the City in the 90’s might prove that. Some feel that Newburgh is a city, and just like any other urban area, a market should take into consideration public transportation, walkers and bikers – not just cars. The question still remains: how can Newburgh develop in the future with out repeating the past?

As you can see in the plans below, these early renderings show parking spaces catering to the residential units. Also, these plans show that the last remaining original building on the lot will be torn down.

overview

The next step is securing funding. This project would be competing for funds with Safe Harbors of the Hudson’s plan for a family mixed-use building that would feature a children’s museum as well as Coppola Associates plan for a residential building at Broadway and Liberty.

What do you think? Is it fair to dedicate this much land towards another parking lot? What kind of supermarket or smaller market would you like to see come to the City of Newburgh?

 

27 Comment

  • How about a super market with healthy foods this city has an abundance of stores that just sell junk let’s get something good in here

  • Here we go again. Same s$%#, different day. Why is a developer looking to place a supermarket here? Why isn’t a supermarket proposing this? Because it doesn’t make good business sense! Why are they looking for funding/grants? Because it doesn’t make good business sense! Newburgh is not a “food desert”. Don’t believe it? Check out the USDA’s Food Desert Locator: http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-desert-locator.aspx

    Those buildings on that block were razed illegally. That last building standing is in better shape than most buildings in the city. Why would the ARC agree to raze it? They were formed to PROTECT the historic fabric of this city by ruling on APPROPRIATE projects. Razing a perfectly usable building in the Historic District is not APPROPRIATE. It is actually illegal. For those who don’t know or remember the story, here it is: http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050417/OPINION/304179945&cid=sitesearch

  • When I read this article, I immediately thought about….
    About Market Hall

    Anyone who lives in the Rockridge area, or has passed through the Rockridge BART station in North Oakland, is sure to notice Market Hall. The developers of Market Hall, siblings Sara, Tony and Peter Wilson, wanted to give the Bay area an alternative to the weekly treks to the supermarket, so they pooled their talents and developed the only European style market place in the Bay area. Recognizable for its unique architectural design as well as the eight individual food and flower shops open to the sidewalk, Market Hall is a bustling cornerstone to the very unique, active, and alluring Rockridge district.

    Visit our local site, RockridgeMarketHall.com

    About Market Hall
    Customer Service
    Shipping Charges & Times
    Contact Us
    Site Credits

    You can google and get the history, and probably contact the developers. I love the fact that you can walk there, it is close to public transportation, and that it honors small business. It is a compilation of small merchants within one building. a very neighborhood feel. The other thought is the Farmers Market in Olympia Washington. The town actually reminds me a lot of Newburgh.

  • No to a large parking lot with a lot more traffic in the area. No, no, no. I also don’t know about the quality of Keyfoods. Again, I recognize that the space of Liberty and Washington, the old Moo& Oink, is small but I urge this space to be opened again, selling good quality, healthy products. As for the building standing, it should not be torn down. Rather, incorporate it into any plan. Work with the two main food purveyors in the area: B’way Farm and Paulita’s to serve a wider public and convince the bodega owners to improve the outside of their stores so they help improve the look of the neighborhood, rather than detract from it.

  • Carolyn, your comparison would be a really great idea, but you need someone with the resources willing to start that in Newburgh as they did in your example. One can hope that someone with an awesome business plan and willingness to listen to the community needs will come into Newburgh and open up that style of market.

    Yaakov, yes the old Moo & Oink space would be ripe for a grocer/supermarket. I’m hoping to do a post for it soon in the future. Unfortunately I hear the rent is quite high, and that has deterred a few lookers.

  • We live in a free market society so I guess a landlord can charge whatever he wants but this is pathetic. The guy has had the space vacant now for over 3 yrs, I think. What is the economic advantage for him to do this? If there is, then change the law so that the situation is no longer financially advantageous to the landlord.. Goad him into selling the building. A second point, does anyone know if the building across the street from Moo& Oink, the old Temple of Labor now the House of Joy store front church is still functioning as a church? That building is pivotal for the restoration of Liberty St.

  • Carolyn points out something very interesting in what was done in other cities comparable in size and demographics to Newburgh. Also my hometown, Milwaukee, though much larger, has a downtown market like she describes “City Market” And so does Cleveland.

  • Pipe dream. No a viable plan exists to lure a real supermarket to the area, the parking situation is absurd. The ARC has an idea, not a plan, and it’s foolishness to proceed until they have actually figured out the *how* nstead of just the *why*. This is what ALWAYS happens to lower Broadway, and I’m sick of it. Realistic goals, people. We can’t run until we learn how to walk.

  • Newburgh is a City. In a City people walk to stores and other services. The Future Land Use Plan adopted by the City Council recognized that. Supermarkets are the invention of mid 20th Century suburban America. What this City needs are quality shops that people who live here can walk to.

  • yes but without the low income housing

  • About 10 years ago, us taxpayers paid for the City Manager Jean McGrane and a couple other Newburgh officials to travel to a Mercado market in California. We insisted on a report for months and nothing ever came of it. They talked about it at Council meetings like it would be a good idea for Newburgh but they never shared their experience with those of us who paid for their trip. Typical. Courtney Kain was employed by the city then and would know. I have an email request for the report from her.

  • I remember when Newburgh had two Supermarkets, and as for parking what’s wrong with underground parking.the problem with Newburgh is they need to bring in stores like Burger King,and all of the other fast food store so that the kids could get jobs, also they need to bring in stores like Target, Walmark,and Kmark these where the type of stores that was here before now they are all in the Town of Newburgh which means that no one has a reason to come in to The City of Newburgh. Lets be for real! The problem with Newburgh is that all the major business are going to New Windsor and Town of Newburgh if Newburgh is to come back it most get the major business back that made Newburgh what it was in the fifties,

  • @Harry Robinson, Where were those supermarkets? Could one of them be Geraci’s and the other A&P? Where were they? Didn’t they have cars then? What did they do with them? How big were these markets? Why did they close? I’m asking these questions because they’re all relevant to your points.

  • Broadway (Grand Union) Robnson Ave next to 84 (A&P)

  • Grand Union and A&P closed stores nation wide doing the 70s (recession)

  • To make clear A&P and Grand Union was both on Broadway where now is Family Dollar (A&P) and the laundry next door was Grand Union and yies they did have cars back then matter of fact everything was in Newburgh back then.

  • Couldn’t help but bump into this one. (Thanks Peter.)

    A supermarket with a big parking lot! Nothing like bringing the signature buildings of the suburbs into Newburgh where it belongs (TIC). People in the suburbs will love to make a ‘statement’ by driving past the suburban supermarkets to buy their groceries in Newburgh. Oh yes, we also don’t want to forget about the many below subsistance jobs this supermarket will bring to town (but maybe the people working there will just drive into town from elsewhere…). Sorry, but this is not the business model that I think will help Newburgh…even if it is good for the builder.

    I agree with the idea about getting healthful food into Newburgh but most supermarket chains don’t have good food. They will sell almost exactly the same bad tasting and fattening things there that they sell in the suburbs. Smaller, botique grocery stores are actually more interesting and have more variety…but they might be too expensive for most of the existing in-town clientele.

    I go back with what I thought made sense 4 years ago…the city needs to acknowledger that the only large, money making ‘business’ (now and in the foreseeable future) in Newburgh is providing housing and services for people who work in NYC. Newburgh might consider doing something to encourage this ‘business’.

    For example, build a bus depot and bring the Shortline busses into downtown Newburgh and give some people who work in NYC a reason to live in town – since they can just walk to the bus stop and hop on. (You can always start by just having the busses start in Downtown Newburgh and after leaving downtown pull into the existing lots in town. When you get a critical mass of people living in and walking to the busses in Newburgh, you can maybe switch to just going directly to NYC.)

    So a bus stop is not the most attractive thing in the world…but maybe a bus stop with attractive grocery stores and businesses around it (that cater to the commuters) might be better.

    The problem with this idea is that ‘developers’ won’t like it. They want to drop in, get a loan, and get out with their profits by selling out as soon as possble. Their business model requires them to not tie up capital for too long. Bus Depots and small businesses just don’t let them do this.

    I don’t want to say that private business can’t develop this area, but you will need leadership from an unusual private investor to pull this one off. One who is willing to tie up their capital for maybe 10 years as the critical mass for commuters build. I think that government investment in a bus depot (more of a large, enclosed bus stop really) may be necessary with some help given to build some botique grocery stores or other shops in the are. It would help for the city to consider giving some sort preference in real estate taxes for 10 years to people purchasing broken down houses within walking distance of the area (and fixing them up as owner-occupied single family residences).

    Best of luck!

    • By far the best idea I have ever read. Here is my take and how I would transform the City of Newburgh. 1) Start a “Stop and Frisk” program like NYC. Run the drug dealers ,gangs and the low lifes out of the City. 2) Give away the 700 City owned property to young working adults only ( No investors or flipers). And the new owners must live in the property for at least 10 years before they can sell. 3) Redo the side walks and pave the streets on Broadway and around the street near Broadway. Give the City an updated modern look. 4) Get rid of the bodegas and other stores that do nothing but harbor drug dealers. 5) Bring in professionals who know how to build/design stores that attract young adults. 6) Bring in a bus service company (like Shortline) and allow them to develop and plan the bus routes. 7) Offer free bus shuttle service to the water front restaurants.

  • While I genuinely appreciate such a lively discussion, we are all attempting to re-invent the wheel here. There are many other communities in this country and around the world that have dealt with this issue. Here we are wasting yet more grant money funding on yet another study that will end up on a shelf. It is not a sign of giving up hope if we engage and inform the public of what has worked elsewhere- and stop this backwards cycle of paying for more studies no matter where the money comes from. The appropriate forum for such a discussion would be where the public is informed of several successful such projects- their history, how they came to be, what made them successful and sustainable- and discuss options, picking and choosing the best options for our city. We are not that unique no matter what we may believe. We have a non-responsive Planning and Development Department. Even with positive relevant ideas nothing will progress with the do-nothings working in this department. They should be doing this research constantly. Why else are we paying them?

  • This idea of bringing Shortline bus stops and and stop huts around Downtown Newburgh sounds awesome. Just think all the foot traffic it will bring to the area and appeal to those on fixed incomes and cant afford NYC, Westchester, Rockland Counties Real Estate Newburgh is the next best thing.

  • I guess nobody remember that Short Line was in Newburgh right where McDonald’s is it’s not gonna change anything

  • I was not aware of that Mr. Robinson, I remember taking Shortline from Port Authority to Newburgh and it would leave me On Upper Broadway kind of like where Newburgh Nissan is. What Im saying is expand Shortline bus service throughout Broadway all the way to City Hall City Hall being the last stop. Remember these are different times, cost of renting is skyrocketing nationwide and people are looking for affordable places, having lived in Middletown in the 90’s for 6-7 years, and looking at how high houses and apartments are being rented in Middletown Newburgh to me is so much more of a better option than Middletown, at least Newburgh is stil affordable, yes taxes are very high, and we need to aleviate homeowners on these high taxes, overall we have the wrong people governing, there are many ways to raise revenue instead of raising taxes, Im the one that opines that there is still hope in Newburgh, and I can understand the frustration of long term/ life long residents, to me there are many nice kind hearted individuals that live in Newburgh that do care, I cannot say that for other places I wont mention names but when I lived in Newburgh I met some of the homeliest, kind, people Ive ever met, and that my friend is the truth, I cannot say that about the other places Ive lived in. Lets get together and explore ideas.

  • Actually I’ve given everyone the answer to Newburghs problem I grew up in Newburgh and I’ve seen it’s greatness and it’s worst and I know what went wrong that’s why I keep saying what I’ve said Major stores and business made Newburgh popular

  • Thanks for replying Mr. Robinson, I love meeting people like yourself who have seen the highs and lows of Newburgh, great stories of a once abundant yet inspiring place have you attended any city council meetings? Im sure you have many bright ideas! I moved in 1994 and it was a dangerous place but at the same time I felt right at home growing up in the Bronx, you know difference is the beauty of its old buildings and the history that follows Newburgh, I fell for the city right away

  • I was actually at the meeting and saw the presentation. The Developers are proposing a 12,000 sq ft Supermarket which is much smaller than you average Supermarket. They are looking to get supermarket chain that is used to operating in cities. Above it on Broadway and around the corner on Johnston would be 4 stories of very nice workforce housing. As far as the parking They are hoping they won’t need to build as much as their original proposal because they expect to get residents to walk or the ones who take cabs out to the town. The majority of the parking they proposed was existing municipal parking lot dating back to at least the 50’s on Johnston. The only building being razed is the one burned out one on Johnston.

  • This sounds like a giant sized bodega like the ones in operation in Washington Heights and the Bronx who are mostly runned independently example: CTOWN BRAVO ASSOCIATED etc. its a start, chances are prices will be high for produce and meats.