TOWN OF NEWBURGH – A proposal to build a 250,000 square foot brewery
at the Stewart Airport Industrial Park off Route 17K in the Town of Newburgh
may be a dead issue.
The Board of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey last month was supposed to grant its approval for a 60-year ground lease so the Brooklyn Brewery company could develop a new facility, but the item was tabled without discussion.
The project was back on the tentative agenda for Thursday’s (today’s) Port Authority Board meeting; however, it was not on the final agenda emailed late Wednesday. Sources told Mid-Hudson News it was pulled this time at the request of the company. Officials were upset that their plan was tabled last month over what was an apparent squabble between board members from New York and New Jersey on another issue.
Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus said this is a perfect case of
“if you snooze, you lose.” He is not giving up on persuading
Brooklyn Brewery to stick with Stewart.
“Orange County and all of our economic development resources have the ability to continue to negotiate to have them change their mind,” Neuhaus said. “This is what is called last minute, strong negotiations and everybody that is vying for this project is trying to one-up the other, so I say, ‘game on’ and we will continue to negotiate if it is available.”
When contacted Wednesday by Mid-Hudson News, a company official would only point to an early November blog entry, which said it had plans to build at Stewart.
A Port Authority spokesman had no comment about the situation.
The company had considered another site in Staten Island. The sources indicated that may be Brooklyn Brewery’s choice now.
Stewart stood to make over $30 million in ground rental on the site at the industrial park.
