MONTICELLO — On Wednesday, the Sullivan County Partnership for Economic Development announced that the Town of Liberty has secured an Infrastructure Award in the amount of $20 million through the Empire State Development (ESD) FAST NY program.

This program was created to prepare and develop sites statewide to jumpstart New York’s shovel-readiness and increase its attractiveness to large employees. 

Grants that ESD provides are for pre-development activities and infrastructure investments in order to develop sites that can attract a number of eligible industries. Some of the eligible industries are high-tech manufacturing, clean-tech renewable energy, life sciences, agribusiness, optics, transportation equipment, materials processing, industrial machinery manufacturing and other advanced manufacturing. 

The development of shovel ready sites has been made a top priority by the Sullivan County Partnership, facilitating the approval of 2.4 million square feet of preapprovedsites. An additional 1.7 million square feet are also in the approvals process. 

“We have been working with developers and municipalities throughout the Old Route 17 corridor and other locations in Sullivan County for years to help make Sullivan County sites more attractive to outside investment,” said President and CEO of the Partnership, Marc Baez. “A coalition of municipalities along the corridor including Sullivan County invested in an opportunities and constraints analysis which laid the groundwork for this effort and incentivized a developer to invest in securing preapprovals for 1 million sq. ft.” 

Baez added that there has been substantial interest in the Liberty site, but that the lack of infrastructure was a challenge.

“The FAST NY program was needed to make the site fully shovel ready,” said Baez. “The Partnership for Economic Development in Sullivan County applauds Empire State for recognizing the work that has been done and the commitment of the Town of Liberty to create an attractive business environment.  

Town of Liberty Supervisor Frank DeMayo noted that the vision to develop the Old Route 17 Corridor began many years ago. 

“We never quit; we stayed the course knowing we need to attract investment and jobs to our town,” DeMayo said. “We worked closely with Horizons of Liberty, a developer on the corridor, to encourage investment there. This award will be a catalyst for future development along Old Route 17 and be transformative for the Town of Liberty, Sullivan County and New York State.” 

Sullivan County Manager Joshua Potosek added that the $20 million infrastructure award for the Town of Liberty will help to provide increased taxable assessed values, diversify the economy and provide middle class job opportunities.

“I appreciate New York State recognizing the need to invest in this type of infrastructure,” stated Potosek. “I want to primarily thank the Town of Liberty and the Sullivan County Partnership for Economic Development for taking the lead in securing this much needed funding.”