The startup, currently based in New York City, will be housed in the soon-to-open Newburgh Accelerator
NEW WINDSOR, N.Y. (June 15, 2018) – The on-demand, high tech apparel and design company Ziel will soon expand its operations from the Bronx to Newburgh, becoming a tenant of the soon-to-open Newburgh Accelerator.
The Orange County Industrial Development Agency on Thursday committed to spending $300,000 to renovate an old 14,000-square-foot textile factory on Broadway in the City of Newburgh to serve as the base for its third and newest Accelerator campus. The funding is part of a $1 million supplemental appropriation from the IDA’s reserves to support its Accelerator programs and other IDA administrative expenses. The Accelerator is a New York State certified business incubator that has campuses in New Windsor and Middletown.
Ziel founder and CEO Marleen Vogelaar appeared before the IDA board on Thursday, pitching her company and explaining its value proposition. Ziel, part of a $10 billion on-demand industry segment, provides services to businesses that want to deliver quality apparel to their customers without delay. Because the apparel is manufactured on specification and on demand, Ziel cuts down waste that is endemic in the clothing industry. All of Ziel’s apparel is made in the U.S. and almost all of its fabric is sourced in the United States.
According to the IDA, renovation of the Newburgh Accelerator site will be completed in three months. Like the New Windsor and Middletown Accelerators, the Newburgh campus, too, will be operated by the Galileo Technology Group.
At its Thursday meeting, the IDA accepted preliminary PILOT applications from two companies – Illinois-based Medline Industries and Pennsylvania-based Church Hill Properties of Highland Falls.
Medline Industries, which operates a 500,000-square-foot facility in Wawayanda, is seeking a 15-year PILOT and sales and use tax exemption for a $115 million, 1.3 million-square-foot warehouse in the Town of Wallkill. The business currently has 340 employees. If tax incentives are approved, company officials said, employee numbers could grow to 600 when the project is completed, and to 1,000 in 10 years. Medline is also looking at sites in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Church Hill Properties is seeking a PILOT and sales and use tax and recording tax exemptions for a $39.5 million high-end 100,000 square-foot hotel built on a 5.4-acre property in Highland Falls. Ken Fleischer, one of three West Point graduates who own the business, said the hotel will attract West Point alums visiting the nearby military academy as well as visitors to the mid-Hudson Valley who are looking for high-quality lodgings.
If tax incentives are approved, Church Hill Properties expects to create 118 jobs, of which 115 will be full time.
In other business during the OCIDA meeting, board members approved minutes of the April 12 meeting and accepted a report on the IDA’s finances as well as reports from the IDA’s chief operating officer and the audit committee of the board. It also voted to approve several changes to the IDA’s PILOT application, including language that makes clear that participation in the Public Authorities Reporting Information System (PARIS) is non-negotiable and that applicants must follow all guidelines or their applications will be canceled.
IDA board members discussed establishing a system of penalizing noncompliant business. One suggestion was to take one year off a PILOT for every year of noncompliance.
