For decades, 49 W. Broad St. in the Village of Haverstraw sat empty. Now there's a hole in the ground and a building on the way.
New York Secretary of State Walter T. Mosley joined village officials on Wednesday, Oct. 7, to break ground on Village Square Apartments, a $13 million, five-story mixed-use building, according to the Department of State. The project will have 61 apartments, a café and community space.
News 12 Hudson Valley reported that 55 of the apartments will be market-rate rentals and six will be affordable units. Village officials told the station the excavation now visible at the site will become the finished apartment building within about a year.
"So hopefully that's symbolic of the phoenix rising sort of," Mayor Michael Kohut told News 12.
A key piece of the village's downtown plan
Village Square received $1.67 million from the state's Downtown Revitalization Initiative. Haverstraw was named the Mid-Hudson region's winner in the program's fifth round in 2022, and the village's website says that award totaled $10 million for 10 projects.
When the award was announced, the village described the 49 W. Broad St. project as a five-story building with about 55 apartments. The plan has since grown to 61.
"This groundbreaking marks an important step in Haverstraw's continued transformation, turning a previously underutilized site into a welcoming place for people to live, work and spend time in the heart of the Village," Mosley said in the state's release.
"Today we celebrate more than just a groundbreaking. We celebrate Haverstraw's history," Mosley told News 12. "For us to know where we're going to go, we have to understand where we were."
In the release, Kohut said the project "will transform a previously blighted site into a vibrant mixed-use development with new homes, community space and opportunities for local businesses."
The developer's first name appears differently in the two sources, as Avrohom Schwartz in News 12's report and Avrom Schwartz in the state's release. News 12 said he's developing the project through an LLC.
"I'm extremely pleased to be involved with this project that adds to the revitalization of Haverstraw," Schwartz said, thanking the village, the mayor, the Rockland County Industrial Development Agency and Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Neither source named a general contractor.
More work on the way downtown
The village's other state-funded downtown projects include:
- A 3,000-foot public walkway and shoreline stabilization with riprap and native plantings around the former Chair Factory site, to support future mixed-use and mixed-income development.
- A downtown façade restoration fund for commercial and mixed-use buildings.
- Two new full-size public basketball courts next to the Haverstraw Center.
- An expansion of the Haverstraw Brick Museum, including restoration of an 1880s basement.
- A Harriet Tubman statue and landscaping at the Haverstraw African American Memorial Park, plus at least four downtown murals, a pocket park plaza and new wayfinding signs.
Mosley toured several of those projects during his visit, News 12 reported.
"Village Square will transform a long-underutilized property into new homes, commercial space and community amenities," said Hope Knight, president and CEO of Empire State Development.
Assemblyman Patrick Carroll called it "continued meaningful investment in Haverstraw's future." The Mid-Hudson Regional Economic Development Council's co-chairs, Marsha Gordon and Kristine Young, said the project will bring "greater foot traffic" to the heart of the village.
The Downtown Revitalization Initiative was created in 2016 and, through nine rounds, has awarded a total of $1 billion to 99 communities statewide, according to the Department of State. Other Mid-Hudson winners include Middletown, Kingston, New Rochelle, Peekskill, Ossining, Port Jervis, White Plains, Poughkeepsie and Yonkers.
Why it matters for Contractors
A $13 million, five-story building is right in the wheelhouse for Rockland County and Hudson Valley contractors, and the village expects it to rise within about a year. That means a tight schedule for foundations, framing or structure, MEP, roofing and finishes, plus storefront work for the café. The village's other state-funded projects add more local opportunities: shoreline stabilization and a long walkway for marine and site contractors, façade restoration for masons and carpenters, basketball courts for site and paving crews, and historic restoration at the brick museum. The Chair Factory shoreline work is meant to set the stage for future mixed-use and mixed-income development, so contractors should keep watching that site.