Farm Bridge gets approval of its plan to relocate
TOWN OF ULSTER, N.Y. » The Town Board has approved The Farm Bridge’s plan to set up shop in part of the former Bank of America building on Enterprise Drive.
The board last week approved The Farm Bridge’s site plan to renovate a twostory section at the south end of the building — which Ulster County seized from TechCity in 2019 due to nonpayment of taxes — and create a 9,300-square-foot storage and shipping area.
The business is moving from Building 201 on TechCity’s east campus.
Town of Ulster Supervisor James Quigley said The Farm Bridge’s project “will be a reconfiguration ... 40,000 square feet” for use as a refrigeration area and loading docks.
The Ulster County Legislature last year agreed to spend $137,000 to upgrade gas and electric lines to the former Bank of America building and another $399,282 for it to be winterized.
The Farm Bridge, which began operating at TechCity in 2010 under the name Farm to Table Co-packers, is a distribution and preparation facility for local agriculture. The company at one point planned to move into the vacant Sears space at Hudson Valley Mall in Ulster but ultimately settled on the building where Bank of America used to process income tax returns for New York state.
Quigley said the next step for The Farm Bridge “is to proceed with the county, who is now the landlord, and negotiate a lease, and then ... present a set of plans for the issuance of a building permit.”
County Economic Development Director Tim Weidemann said last year that The Farm Bridge plans to keep its current 50-person workforce and add 30 employees over four years.
Last week, the county Legislature approved the transfer of the former Bank of America building and the property immediately surrounding it, collectively known as Enterprise West, to the county Economic Development Alliance as part of the effort to put the site back on the tax rolls and attract businesses.
Enterprise West, so named because it’s on the west side of Enterprise Drive, was used by IBM before the computer maker shut down its local operation in 1995. It then became part of TechCity, the name that downstate developer Alan Ginsberg gave the entire campus when he bought it from the computer giant in 1998.
The county recently received more than 20 proposals for the redevelopment of all or part of Enterprise West, including five to purchase some or all of the site, 11 to rent or lease some or all of the site, and 12 to provide services to assist the county in redeveloping the site.