Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on January 6, 2021

Chris McKenna|Times Herald-Record

SOUTH BLOOMING GROVE - A developer has proposed building 205,000 square feet of storesand offices off Museum Village Road and Route 208, not far from the busy interchange where Route 208 meets Route 17.

The proposed South Blooming Grove Business Park would consist of a pair of three-story buildings, each 40 feet high, to be built on 10 of the 44 total acres in the development site, according to plans taken up this month by the Village Planning Board. Its main entrance would be on Museum Village Road.

The site takes in three parcels purchased for a combined $2.3 million in December 2019 and February 2020 by developer Cheskel Schwimmer and a Brooklyn-based entity called Route 208 Holdings LLC,Orange County property records show. Five existing houses on the property would be razed for the new development.

The project would be built on a largely wooded stretch of Route 208 in the Village of South Blooming Grove that has had some recent development -including the opening of an 82-room Sleep Inn hotel in 2018 -and will likely see more in coming years.

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For example, leaders of the neighboring Town of Palm Tree are in the early stages of planning an elder-care complex on a 25-acre parcel at the intersection of Route 208 and County Route 44, about a half-mile north of the newly proposed business park. Palm Tree - also known as the Village of Kiryas Joel - bought the wooded property in South Blooming Grove last year for $2.4 million, according to county records.

Palm Tree Administrator Gedalye Szegedin said Wednesday that his town, which originally planned to build a garage for its highway department on the 25-acre site, is now considering using the land to create a nursing home, medical center and senior center that would serve a growing population of elderly Hasidic residentsin the area. No formal plans have been presented yet.

Across Route 208 from Palm Tree's property is an 86-acre property next to the Sleep Inn that was listed for sale this year at $14.9 million and pitched as potential office space, with zoning in place for office, research and industrial uses.

And just south of there and adjacent to the proposed South Blooming Grove Business Park isan 84-acre property with a driving range that was on the market a few years ago for $8.5 million. No records have been filed indicating that it was sold.

Traffic on that stretch of Route 208 is already a concern. The state Department ofTransportation is completing a study to determine if a traffic signal, turning lanes or other steps are needed to improve safety at the Y-shaped intersection of Route 208 and County Route 44, state Sen. James Skoufis, D-Cornwall, said Wednesday.

cmckenna@th-record.com

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Developer proposes 205,000-sq.-ft. business park off Route 208 in South Blooming Grove - Times Herald-Record

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