Hudson Valley Business News + Front Page

While vendors at the Dutchess County Fair hoped to sell things like french fries, wool sweaters and fried Twinkies, tourism officials used the fair to sell Rhinebeck.

"We're hoping (fair-goers) see Rhinebeck and say, 'Oh what a cute little town, why don't we come back,'" said Susan Linn, executive director of the Rhinebeck Chamber of Commerce.

.. read more

When the Empire Zone was established in Poughkeepsie in 1994, downtown was on the skids. IBM, the economic mainstay of the mid-Hudson Valley, was downsizing its facility in the city and there were fears it would pull up stakes completely, as it was doing in Kingston.

EZ victory is in the details
By LYNN WOODS

In 1999, Bill Whalen, chairman of Finnegan's Moving and Warehouse Corp., based in Newburgh, was all set to move to a building his company owns in New Haven, Conn., when he heard about the Empire Zone. "Because of the state's higher workers' comp rates and high property taxes, we thought there are better places to do business than New York," he said. But after getting accepted into the program in 2001 certification involved moving the zone boundaries to the premises of his business, a decision that went before the Town Council he discovered that he could get full credit for the $78,000 annual property tax bill on his 52,000-square-foot facility.

Minding your business
Rocklandworldradio.com, HV Business team up for online news
By KATHY KAHN

Take a man with an extensive background in the recording-audiovisual industry, two enterprising business women and the Internet. The result? An Internet radio show attracting listeners as near as Blauvelt and as far away as Belgium, and a business show to add cachet to its extensive format.

Top contractor blasts quick hires
By KATHY KAHN

Some might consider James Bodrato a modern-day Don Quixote. But for this latter-day man of LaMancha, his windmills are "contractors who use independent contractors instead of salaried workers."

Hospital changes hands; housing an option
By BRYAN F. YURCAN

Unicorn Contracting, a private development company in Elmsford, has purchased the Julia L. Butterfield Memorial Hospital for $2 million.

Hudson riverbed prepares for its close-up
By KATHY KAHN

They haven't gotten the shovel in the ground, but the Beacon Institute has found an eager technology partner to monitor the Hudson River's ebb and flow.

Global warming, valley view
By LYNN WOODS

With the Hudson Valley experiencing warmer winters and suffering from a spate of damaging floods, the impact of climate change on the region is no longer purely a matter of theoretical speculation. A report of the Northeast Climate Impacts Assessment, a collaboration between the Union of Concerned Scientists and a team of independent experts, predicts that if greenhouse gas emissions continue to grow at the current rate, New York state will have temperatures akin to current-day South Carolina by 2040.

House as solid as a rock
Is there a future for the poured concrete home?
By KATHY KAHN

Sunshine Tartter brought her Legos to the Dutchess County Fair.

Of such simple formulas a woman and her interconnecting foam blocks revolutions are made. In this case, one home at a time.

Home sales stable
By BILL FALLON

Sales of existing single-family homes held steady in New York state in July compared with July 2006, according to the New York State Association of Realtors, which also reported the sales prices increased slightly for the same time frame.

SBA and U.S. Chamber pool resources
By KATHY KAHN

The U.S. Small Business Administration and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will pool their resources to respond more effectively to major disasters, paving the way for faster recovery in affected communities, the groups said. The SBA's alliance with the chamber's Business Civic Leadership Center (BCLC) is part of a continuing effort to broaden the agency's response capacity in catastrophic disasters.

Blog Section