POUGHKEEPSIE – In 2008, when businesses were leaving the inner city for Route 9, Page Park Associates chose to invest in the Poughkeepsie’s downtown area.
According to Page Park partner Jason Page, his real estate development firm purchased the historic Poughkeepsie Journal building across from city hall. What had once been a building bustling with employees of the building’s namesake, was housing very few workers due to downsizing and outsourcing.
The developers invested millions of dollars in changing the building’s interior, providing a much smaller space for the newspaper and creating a substantial amount of available office space for new tenants. The investment drew several new tenants including a law firm, title search firm, William A. Smith and Son Insurance, and the Dutchess County Behavioral and Community Health office. Central Hudson has recently moved approximately 60 employees into new office space at the complex, bringing the total number of employees in the building to approximately 220. “We are bringing jobs back to the city,” said Page who said there are more coming in the near future.
The developers recently bought the neighboring structure that had been home to Take 5 Deli, a laundromat, tax preparer, and insurance company. After the sale of the building, Take 5 owner Michael Signorelli saw it as a sign to retire after more than three decades at the helm of the popular deli. The laundromat has also closed, and the developer quickly went to work tearing down the structure to make way for their new project.
According to Page, the plan calls for a three-story office building. The new building has already attracted a new tenant according to Page. “Clark Patterson Lee, an architecture, engineering, and planning firm is slated to take two floors of the new building and occupy it with forty employees,” said Jason Page. “We’re doing our part to help the city’s resurgence,” Page noted.
The closing of Take 5 took away a convenient breakfast and lunch spot for many employees in the area, including city hall workers and postal employees. Jason Page said that inconvenience did not go unnoticed said that attached to the three-story office building will be a single-story structure on the south end which will house a cafe. Plans call for the cafe to include outdoor seating on a patio that will border Mill Street, directly across from Changepoint Church.
The timeline has not been solidified according to Page Park but construction is well underway in accordance with plans submitted to the city.
