Campagiorni: "The longer we wait, the longer it takes"

NEWBURGH – The Hudson Valley Economic Development Corporation is continuing its five-year-old mission of attracting good businesses with high paying jobs into the nine-county region as the Hudson Valley continues to face a number of obstacles.

For one, the region does not have one major city to serve as an identity focal point – like Albany in the Capital District, Buffalo to the west or Syracuse in the central area of the state. That has its downside in attracting new business and jobs to the Valley, said Anthony Campagiorni, president of the HVEDC, who spoke to members of the Orange County Chamber of Commerce Wednesday.

The region is also faced with the fact that it has not one greenfield shovel ready site for a high-tech business park and the cost of providing infrastructure for new parks is extremely high.

The Hudson Valley also has old business facilities available for reuse and they have outlived their usefulness.

The Economic development organization has hired a consulting firm, CH2M Hill, to conduct an analysis of the high tech business cluster, said Campagiorni.

“If we don’t do it now, then when? The longer we wait, the longer it takes and it’s a process and there is no way to short cut that much more than we have. We’ve engaged in it, we’re starting it and we’ll be done with it, but we have to start and some point and some time. There’s no better than the present.”

The region also faces an outmigration of 228,000 people who go to work in neighboring areas like Connecticut, New York and New Jersey. There are 2.3 million people in the Valley.

And the largest number of jobs in any one category in the region is in the low paying retail field.