Business & Tech

Stop & Shop Opens New Orangeburg Store

The long journey to convert the site of a former pipe factory into the Orangeburg Commons development led to the opening of Stop & Shop's new supermarket off Route 303 in Orangeburg with a ceremony Friday morning. 

"A lot of cleanup had to take place to make it the beautiful site that it is today," Orangetown Supervisor Andy Stewart said. "A lot of planning and work to go into transforming what was really kind of a wasteland into a very productive and beautiful resource for our community. What we’re really standing on here today is not just a new store, but a whole history of work that went into making it happen. You’ve got to give a little credit to our building department. To our town council, we have Paul Valentine, Tom Diviny and Denis Troy here. 

"We’re here to celebrate this with you because it’s very important to our town. Economic development is  very important to our town. Finding vacant sites that aren't producing revenues and transforming them into places that are usable for the community is very important to our town." 

The Stop & Shop is the first part of Orangeburg Commons. Rick Birdoff of FB Orangetown, LLC, which is developing the site, said the Marriott Residence Inn hotel would likely be ready to in late October or early November. Later phases of the plan include a bank, a restaurant and another hotel, a Courtyard by Marriott.

In addition to the members of the current Orangetown Council, former Supervisor Thom Kleiner attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony. He was Orangetown's Supervisor when the project got started over a decade ago. 

"It took a long time to get to this," Kleiner said. "There was some skepticism whether this use could work. People didn't completely believe it would ever be built."

The Orangetown Council granted a special permit for Orangeburg Commons in 2006, but economic issues put the project on hold until FB Orangetown LLC submitted a request to amend the special permit June 28, 2011. The largest change was the addition of the grocery store in place of retail shops. The process from there was often contentious, but the Orangetown board voted to approve the altered permit in March 2012.  

Councilman Tom Diviny said the opening of the store in the Orangeburg Commons is important to Orangetown beyond bringing in a business that will generate tax revenue.

"Bringing in ratables is very important, especially with what's going on with Pfizer," Diviny said. "More important is showing businesses that we're willing to work with companies that want to invest in Orangetown. We've got a lot going on. We've got this. We've got Bloomberg (a data center in Orangeburg) coming. It's great."

Stop & Shop closed its West Nyack store Thursday, transferring 60 of those employees to the new location. 

Arlene Putterman of Stop & Shop spoke about the "bells and whistles" such as a Wifi Cafe and energy-efficient features that the new store offers. Stop & Shop also presented $1,000 donations to the Orangetown Police Department, Orangeburg Fire Dept. and the Blauvelt Lions Club. The store will be holding a series of events celebrating the opening in the coming weeks.


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