OCBA Managing Director Michael DiTullo, left, with General Manager Kevin Ferry

NEW WINDSOR – Two local military veterans are in the process of transforming the former Belles Catering hall in New Windsor into a sustainable agriculture company that is marketing its products to wholesale markets.

Continental Organics held a ceremonial groundbreaking Thursday on its additional, which will bring 120 jobs to the region and offer employment preferences to veterans as a Service Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business.

Michael Finnegan, the CEO, has worked as an environmental lawyer, chief counsel for Governor George Pataki, was employed on Wall Street and served in the JAG Corps of the Army Reserves.

His new company is off to a good start.

“We are going to be using aquaponic, hydroponic and traditional field application of organic fertilizers to grow a wide variety of vegetables, fish and we will be creating organic compost,” he said. “It’s completely a closed loop system so there’s no waste discharges, there’s no solid waste, there’s no water discharge; everything is reused onsite.”

Continental Organics is the first “graduate” of the Orange County Business Accelerator program that was started about two years ago as an incubator startup business.