Orange County IDA briefs committee on Amazon proposal, hotels, Indigo well study and brownfields grant

Bill Fiobante, chief executive officer of the Orange County Industrial Development Agency, briefed the county—s Education and Economic Development Committee May 19 on a portfolio of IDA efforts including a large Amazon fulfillment-center application, multiple hotel proposals, a proposed Indigo wells water study and an EPA Brownfields grant the IDA won to assess contaminated properties.

Fiobante described what he called "the mega project that everyone's talking about," an Amazon fulfillment center the IDA said would be roughly 3,200,000 square feet with a reported $607,000,000 capital investment, at least 750 jobs and about 300 construction jobs. The applicant is seeking a sales-tax exemption and a 20-year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) arrangement; Fiobante said the project would be eligible for a 20-year PILOT under the IDA's uniform tax-exemption policy levels because of the projected job creation and benefits. Fiobante said a public hearing on that application was scheduled for Wednesday, June 4 at the project's host municipality's town hall.

Fiobante also summarized three hospitality projects in the pipeline. Beta Hospitality has applied for incentives for a four-story, 93-room Holiday Inn Express on Route 300 in New Windsor, a $24,000,000 project that the IDA said would create about 24 jobs; Fiobante said a public hearing for that project was scheduled for late May. A proposed boutique hotel in downtown Cornwall was described as a five-story, roughly 35,000-square-foot project that the IDA estimates would create about 35 full-time jobs; Fiobante said the applicant removed a planned rooftop bar during value-engineering.

On regional infrastructure, Fiobante said the IDA had approved funding of up to $514,000 toward a water-yield study for the Indigo well sources in the Mount Hope area, with the City of Middletown and Orange County each contributing $100,000 toward the study. He said the parties are finalizing a memorandum of understanding and that earlier well studies will be incorporated into the new work.

Fiobante reported the IDA —won— one of three $500,000 EPA Brownfields grants this past year to assess contaminated properties across the county, including an emphasis on Port Jervis. The IDA has contracted HRP (Clifton Park) as the environmental consultant to conduct phase I and potentially phase II assessments to advance sites toward shovel-ready status.

Fiobante also discussed ongoing oversight: the IDA remains under a court-appointed monitor through May 2026, he said, and the monitor has recommended additional process and insurance refinements; he noted the monitor's billing cap is $250,000 and that billed hours have closely approached that amount in the first year. Fiobante closed by mentioning a recently launched new IDA website and his attendance at state economic development conferences.

Committee members asked questions about project timelines, planning-board procedures and whether housing had been discussed in connection with large warehouse projects. Fiobante said IDA staff have raised the possibility of co-located housing on sites where it is feasible but that the agency does not currently require housing as part of incentive approvals. The item was informational; the committee took no formal action on the IDA—s report.

(Reporting note: Fiobante—s briefing covered multiple projects and funding actions handled by the IDA; where Fiobante described board approvals (for example, funding for the Indigo wells study) those are recorded in the actions section below.)