GOSHEN, N.Y. (JUNE 2022)—Today, the Orange County Partnership officially launched its “Site Inventory Program” (SIP) that will over the coming months, seek municipal government input from across Orange County to determine all the available properties that could be developed in their respective jurisdictions, their infrastructure needs, regulatory approval requirements and what industries would be best suited for those parcels.
The Site Inventory Program was first announced at the Orange County Partnership’s MVP Annual Breakfast program held earlier this 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 Kaitlynn Lancellotti, Director of Business Retention and Expansion and Conor Eckert, Senior Development Officer & Vice President of Business Attraction, 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 has scheduled its first SIP session with the Town of Wallkill on June 22. Participants will include Town Supervisor George Serrano along with town department heads that will be 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 businesses. Knowledge is power and the Site Inventory Program will provide the intelligence we need to market sites to specific industry clusters that have the support of the municipality. 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 meet 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 them. This program is pro-active not reactive. This program 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.”
Lancellotti said the SIP will take a global look at the county and then undertake a “deep dive” into each community 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 really going to be walking into a municipality and asking them what their vision is” Lancellotti said. “We want them to guide us so we can help them.”
In the coming weeks, the Orange County Partnership hopes to hold SIP sessions with various municipalities throughout Orange County.
To learn more about the Site Inventory Program and how municipal officials can schedule a meeting with program leaders, contact the Orange County Partnership at (845) 294-2323.
