New vision for Greene County gateway
Bids out for Tourism center; hotel also planned
CATSKILL — Greene County is developing two business parks on land off state Thruway Exit 21 that will include a tourism center, a hotel and a Stewart’s Shop. The development is intended to make this “Gateway to Greene County” more attractive to visitors while stimulating the local economy by using underdeveloped land, according to the county.
A major step began Wednesday when the county legislature put the development of the new tourism center out to bid. The center will be in a building now housing a Stewart’s shop, which will relocate to a new building across the street in one of the business parks, which will also include a Hampton Inn. The old tourism center was demolished as part of the development plan.
Greene County Director of Tourism Patty Austin said the new location would be a major upgrade. Motorists leaving the Thruway and heading south could miss the old visitors center, whereas the new location is more visible, Austin said. The viewshed at the new center will also be more attractive.
“It’s going to be eye-catching,” she said.
The center will include visitor information and displays, and Austin hopes to include Greene County products, such as Catskills mementos like postcards and T-shirts. The building will also include Greene County’s tourism offices and a county conference room.
Austin said the old center received about 5,000 visitors a year. She anticipates the new center will receive about 10,000.
“Locating the new Greene County tourism center on the current Stewart’s property enables us to grow, allowing us a much larger, more professionally designed space that will provide better access and parking for visitors,” said Warren Hart,
the county’s deputy administrator of economic development, tourism and planning.
Greene County’s economy has long relied on tourism. Visitors spent $283 million in the county in 2022, up from $185 million in 2018, according to a report from Oxford Economics, an economic forecasting group. The county has increasingly harnessed the yen for Catskills travel by branding the area as “The Great Northern Catskills” and launching robust tourism and economic development initiatives.
The Greene County Industrial Development Agency acquired parcels on both sides of the Thruway in the 2010s to create two new business parks.
The park on the east side of the Thruway — called Gateway Greene — is 6.9 acres and will hold the hotel and the Stewart’s. Windsor Hospitality Management and Southern Realty & Development will construct a Hampton Inn on the east side near the new Stewart’s. The hotel will include a fitness center, saltwater pool, business center and conference room, according to the IDA. The hotel’s site plan is going before the Catskill Planning Board in March, and Greene County IDA Executive Director April Ernst expected it to be approved quickly. The new Stewart’s and a road are expected to be completed by mid-april.
The park on the west side of the Thruway — called Austin Glenn — is 60 acres and so far is set to house a diner and a gourmet food market, the IDA said. Ernst said the diner car had already been delivered to the site and the eatery would break ground on additional construction in the spring.