Westchester County Business Journal 081015

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15 | SPECIAL REPORT AUGUST 10, 2015 | VOL. 51, No. 32

YOUR ONLY SOURCE FOR REGIONAL BUSINESS NEWS

31 | FACES & PLACES westfaironline.com

Fresh look planned for White Plains transit hub BY COLLEEN WILSON cwilson@westfairinc.com

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he city of White Plains is looking to redevelop the “functionally obsolete” transit hub at the downtown train station into a vibrant corridor, according to its request for bidders to study the idea. A $1 million grant awarded to the city by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority through its Cleaner, Greener Communities program is helping to back the yearlong project. The grant and $250,000 from the city will fund the salary for a new position that will oversee the stakeholder task force and a consulting firm to research and develop preliminary planning, design and engineering ideas for the roughly 0.5-mile radius

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Les Barnes gets ready to open the doors for his Saltaire Oyster Bar and Fish House in Port Chester. Photo by Evan Fallor

around the train station. The NYSERDA money was granted to the city in December 2013, but moving forward with the request for proposals has been held up by talks between the agency and the city about final agreements on the project, according to Karen M. Pasquale, senior adviser to White Plains Mayor Thomas Roach. During that time, the city’s planning commissioner, Elizabeth Chetney, was replaced by Christopher Gomez in June. Chetney held the position for about two years before being fired for unspecified reasons in January of this year. White Plains is offering no more than $800,000 to the chosen consultant who will be expected to accomplish the project’s five tasks starting in October and ending September 2016. » TRANSIT, page 6

Medical pot program gets rolling as winners emerge Katonah company among the crop of licensees BY REECE ALVAREZ ralvarez@westfairinc.com

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he state Health Department has chosen the five winning applicants — including a newly formed women-owned company in Westchester County — that will make up the first wave of businesses in the state to produce and distribute medical marijuana in what is expected become a more than $1 billion industry. “Today’s announcement represents a major milestone,” New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker said in a statement announcing the successful applicants on July 31.

That milestone could open the floodgates to a medical marijuana industry projected to pull in $1.4 billion for the state by 2020, Crains New York reported, citing research by GreenWave Advisors. None of the five companies propose to locate their manufacturing sites in Westchester. Each selected company will open oine manufacturing facility and four dispensaries across the state. The closest grow operation is slated for Queens County by Bloomfield Industries Inc., while PharmaCann LLC plans to grow marijuana from a facility at Hamptonburgh in Orange County. Katonah-based Etain LLC will produce

marijuana in Chester in Warren County, and Empire State Health Solutions, based in Johnstown in the Adirondack foothills, will manufacture and grow its products in nearby Perth in Fulton County. The final winner, Columbia Care NY LLC, has plans to manufacture in Rochester in Monroe County. Two of the companies, Etain and Empire State Health Solutions, will open dispensaries in Westchester County. Etain reportedly plans to dispense the medical drug at a Nepperhan Avenue location in Yonkers, in addition to upstate sites in Albany, Ulster and Onondaga counties. Empire State Health Solutions report» MARIJUANA, page 6


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