By Michael Ryan
CATSKILL - It was not pipe dreaming when the Greene County Legislature, this past spring, authorized James Hannahs to submit a grant application for what is being called the Cementon Rebirth Project.
Hannahs, the executive director of Greene County Economic Development, Tourism and Planning, asked lawmakers to support his vision of returning economic viability to the ghost-town grounds of the Lehigh Cement plant.
There was reason to believe the request might prove fruitless since many schemes for making use of the long-abandoned site, along Route 9W, south of Catskill, have arisen and vanished over the years.
That was then and this is now, however, as Hannahs received notice, last week, that the county was awarded $400,000 through the FAST NY program toward laying the groundwork to push ahead.
Much more will need to play out before what is imagined becomes real, but the timing could be right, according to the resolution lawmakers passed in April, giving Hannahs the grant application green light.
“New York State agencies have expressed the need for an increased supply of large-scale tracts of developable real estate sites to strengthen efforts launched to attract business within targeted and emerging markets,” the resolution states.
“New York Empire State Development has developed grant programs to assist municipalities in implementing the initiatives necessary to market sites,” the resolution states.
Those initiatives include but are not limited to, “capital improvements (infrastructure expansion and other site work activities), and soft costs (master plans, general environmental impact statements and other study/due diligence efforts),” the resolution states.
The plan to revive Cementon currently has multiple moving parts that will hopefully coalesce as the county invests the FAST NY dollars and beats the bushes for additional funding along with innovative entrepreneurs.
“Through the nature of its own business attraction, retention and expansion efforts, [Hannahs’ department] has identified a large tract of land located in the areas known as Cementon, Alsen, and Smith’s Landing,” the initial legislative resolution states.
The tract, up to 11 parcels and 4,000 acres, displays, “many characteristics believed to embody a highly marketable site,” the resolution states.
Hannahs told lawmakers his department has, “conducted numerous meetings with the owners of the identified tracts.”
Those meetings were focused upon, “discussing their desires of expansion and appetite for deploying site development activities consistent with the marketability guidelines set forth” within the grant program.
Hannahs said his agency, “received general support, positive feedback, and a willingness to partner with [Greene County] to understand the viability of a comprehensive redevelopment strategy” in Cementon.
The awarded FAST NY dollars are earmarked for providing the nitty gritty details any future partners will need to commit their own capital.
EDR, a professional community planning and engineering company, has been procured to, “provide a scope of services that would deliver a comprehensive master plan of the scoped site,” Hannahs stated.
That master plan would be delivered, “complete with a conceptual site plan, completed State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR), finalized General Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS), and a findings statement,” Hannahs stated.
EDR’s report will create a scenario, “so that when companies or end users do come and propose their projects, their environmental review, up to the limits of this environmental impact statement, is done,” Hannahs said.
“And that turns a two-year process to get a shovel in the ground into, like, two weeks as long as you get your permit. That is very valuable for end users and industries to be attracted to an area,” Hannahs said.
The grant covers slightly more than half of the upfront cost for EDR’s work, set at $775,910, and is being greeted with optimism.
“New York is positioned to become one of the country’s leading manufacturers of technology components,” Hannahs said.
“High-tech employers increase the population of the communities in which they locate, therefore increasing local business sales…as well as the county and local tax bases,” Hannahs said.
Cementon, although long dormant, offers unique commercial potentialities including proximity to the New York State Thruway, access to the Hudson River via a deep-water port and private railroad siding.
“The products of Cementon have been used to build infrastructure from Albany to New York and beyond,” legislature chairman Patrick Linger said.
“Production in Cementon created good-paying jobs contributing to the prosperity of Greene County. Over the years, those products have diminished, along with the jobs,” Linger said.
“It’s time to work together to create a comprehensive plan to best address Cementon’s underutilization, and attract new businesses,” Linger said.
That plan will create a public-private partnership to determine the best way forward for Greene County, county officials say.
The partnership will gain input from community members, local businesses, property owners and experts in development, county officials say.
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