Everyone is super excited to have a new storefront open up on Liberty Street. Hopefully this will be the beginning of many more to come. Today will be the soft opening of the Juice Headquarters at 71 Liberty Street from 9am – 6pm. Saturday will be the Grand Opening just in time for the many events going on in Newburgh this weekend! We wish you much success! Make sure to support local Newburgh businesses.
We are super excited about the new 11,000 sq ft Newburgh Vintage Emporium! It is located just a few feet over the city/town border into the Town of Newburgh at 5006 Route 9W but, this will greatly benefit the entire area by bringing people to one of the largest antique centers in Orange County. For all of you looking to decorate your new Newburgh homes that you are renovating, this would be an ideal place to find one-of-a-kind treasures.
Another cool detail about the Newburgh Vintage Emporium will be a 1948 restored Pullman Train Car used as a vintage inspired drive-up coffee shop. They are toying with names thinking of possibly naming it the NVE Steam-Punk Coffee House. We are excited! Are you? You can follow them on Facebook, and Pinterest.
In an old hand clutch factory 55 miles north of the George Washington Bridge in the City of Newburgh, NY lies the office and workshop of Atlas Industries, a high-end furniture maker known for its modular modern furniture crafted from Walnut, Maple, and other woods.
Until a year ago, Atlas was located in a 6,000 square foot workspace in Brooklyn. They made the move upstate when they found a 55,000 square foot building on Newburgh’s Spring Street that allowed them to expand their space to 14,000 square feet and use the rest to expand into new lines of business. Plans are under way to start renting spaces to other businesses and also open an art gallery in the coming year.
Although operating in the smaller Brooklyn space kept costs down, it was also constraining. In Brooklyn they performed multiple tasks in a single space. They often had to break down and move things to be able to work. Now, in their new building they have dedicated space for specific tasks and there is room for additional woodworking machinery, which is expected to help grow their core business.
Thomas Wright, one of Atlas’s principals, says the move to Newburgh was a nice “downshift” too. His crew is able to spend less effort on lower value, day to day operations. For example, in Brooklyn, they had to make sure no one was parked in their driveway, stop traffic and unload boxes by hand onto the sidewalk. Now, they have three loading docks on their property.
Wright says his office is also an amazing place to watch the snow fall, and his cat seems happier too.
Thomas Wright, one of the founders of Atlas Industries, in his furniture design warehouse.
Wright is not ignorant to Newburgh’s woes. However, he thinks that the negative perception of Newburgh does not reflect the reality that he has seen — and he says he has not encountered any problems. He likens moving his business to Newburgh to the challenges presented by moving to neighborhoods like the Lower East Side, Red Hook, or Williamsburg before they developed. And like others that made the move to developing locations early, he got a larger, more affordable place to run his business that enabled him to try new things, like opening an art gallery and becoming a landlord.
To learn more about Newburgh, check out “The River of Opportunities – the City of Newburgh” website.
Business owners, take the Indie Impact Survey at Rethinklocal.org. It is a study that will show how much more money stays in the Hudson Valley economy when people shop and dine at locally owned, independent businesses compared to corporate chains. The results will be used in a public awareness and promotional campaign to educate the public on the economic, personal, and community benefits of supporting local independents, and encourage them to begin shifting more of their purchasing to local.
There are have been rumors about new businesses opening up in the Washington Market/Liberty Street corridor. Here at 71 Liberty we see such rumors confirmed. The yellow lettering says : “Juice Bar Coming Soon! Nov 2013”. The owner, Devon is a Newburgh native and NFA graduate. He grew up on Liberty Street just a few doors down from where the juice bar will be located. According to an insider he’s been wanting to get this started for years and he wants to bring healthy and good things to Newburgh and is very excited about promoting good nutrition and a peaceful vibe to the city.
The name of the new business is ‘Juice Headquarters’. Devon thinks Newburgh is on its way back and sees similarities between Newburgh and Ft. Greene, Brooklyn and Harlem. Liberty Street keeps chugging along…it’s wonderful!
The Newburgh Portfolio, founded by Newburgh resident and picture framer Eric Jarmann, was designed to bring local creative professionals together to inspire connection and collaboration. Newburgh Portfolio’s third networking event is scheduled for the evening of Friday October 18th at The Newburgh Brewing Company located in Newburgh, NY.
Says Jarmann, “It is our goal to give local artists a relaxed forum for their ideas and projects. The Portfolio gets everyone in the same room – which is always the first step in creative professionals working together. After that, great things are bound to happen.”
During his years as a picture framer and gallery owner, Jarmann got to meet many local artists. But he noticed that they often knew nothing of each other. Then there were always new artists moving to Newburgh who were eager to meet the locals. “Working artists can find themselves a bit isolated,” explained Jarmann, ” but the solution seemed plain and simple: just get these talented people in a room and introduce them to each other.” And so Newburgh Portfolio was born. Jarmann explained, “a creative person will collect their talents and experience into a portfolio in order to share them with others, hence, the name Newburgh Portfolio.”
He also points out that the events are not just limited to practitioners of traditional fine arts. “Our gatherings include people from all the creative professions. Painters, photographers, sculptors, designers, musicians, dancers, writers, videographers, editors, poets, singers, architects, graphic designers, illustrators, bookbinders, printers, framers, furniture and food-makers. Plus, a few more I’m sure I left out.”
“Newburgh tends to be more of a working creative community,” says Jarmann, “and very hard working at that. So far we don’t have an arts district or abundant exhibit or retail opportunities. But with over 150 people at our last Portfolio event, and with more and more artists moving into the area to set up studios and ateliers, there is no doubt Newburgh is growing in the right direction. In fact there was just an open studio tour where visitors got to meet over 40 established and emerging artists while viewing their art and exploring their studio space.” Jarmann feels it is only a matter of time before Newburgh makes its mark in the creative world because of the caliber of it’s working artists, and his mission is to help that along by creating events where the necessary connections are made and strong cross links formed.
The next event for Newburgh Portfolio will be on Friday October 18th from 6-10 PM at The Newburgh Brewing Company located at 88 Colden Ave Newburgh NY 12550 845-569-2337. Free admission. Cash bar and menu. Family friendly atmosphere. Find Eric Jarmann and Newburgh Portfolio on Face Book.
