Distribution center enhanced in Chester

By Peter Katz / pkatz@westfairinc.com

ADUSA Distribution & Transportation has completed enhancements at a 600,000-square-foot distribution center in the Orange County village of Chester. "An overall refresh of the space took place, which included the deployment of new equipment throughout the facility," the company told the Business Journal.

Ahold Delhaize USA (ADUSA) provides warehousing and distribution of products sold by several supermarket chains on the East Coast. It anticipates that the Chester facility will be handling and transporting 65-million cases of products annually for the Stop & Shop and Hannaford supermarket chains. The company estimated in 2022 that its 19 distribution and transportation centers were serving 2,100 grocery retail locations, with over 1.2 billion cases of products shipped and its trucks driving more than 125 million miles annually.

At the Elizabeth Drive location in Chester, ADUSA stores numerous into law by Mayor Steve Noble on July 29, 2022. However, a landlord group, the Hudson Valley Property Owners Association, filed an Article 78 lawsuit designed to overturn Kingston's action. In February of this year, a court ruled that the city's declaration of emergency and institution of ETPA was valid but certain things that Kingston's guideline board had done were invalid. The landlord's group filed an appeal and Kingston's board filed a cross appeal but continued operating.

According to New York state, on June 21, the Kingston Rent Guideline Board convened and voted to establish rent guidelines for apartments subject to the ETPA in Kingston for the year ahead, as required by law. The board voted for the following guideline rates to take effect for leases beginning between Oct. 1, and Sept. 30, 2024: 0% for a one-year lease, 0% for a two-year lease. products to be delivered to and sold in the supermarkets it serves. The facility provides temperature-controlled conditions, including large areas for frozen food. The Chester distribution center has 350 spots for tractor-trailers and 100 loading docks, which ADUSA says keeps items moving in and out as seamlessly as possible. Nearly 500 people are employed at the site by ADUSA Distribution, ADUSA Transportation and third-party labor providers.

The state's Division of Housing and Community Renewal said that in addition to regulating rent increases, ETPA entitles rent stabilized tenants to receive required services, to have their leases renewed, and to be protected from eviction except on grounds allowed by law.

On June 14, 2019, the state enacted the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act (HSTPA) that allows any locality in New York state to enact rent stabilization if “a declaration of emergency” regarding available apartments is made pursuant to the Emergency Tenant Protection Act of 1974. It removed a geographic restriction limiting rent control to New York City, Westchester, Rockland and Nassau.

Certain types of housing are excluded from coverage by EPTA, including units in buildings containing less than six dwelling units, rent controlled apartments, motor courts, tourist homes; certain nonprofit units, certain governmentally supervised housing and housing accommodations in buildings completed on or after Jan. 1, 1974. The law allows a municipality to pass along to landlords the cost of administering rent control up to a fee of $20 per unit each year.

In 2019, Ahold Delhaize USA announced it had purchased the Chester warehouse along with two others from C&S Wholesale Grocers as part of a $480 million investment, including leases to transform and expand U.S. supply chain operations over the next three years. It is leasing a second warehouse at the site in Chester.

“We’re excited to welcome Chester into the supply chain network,” said Sanja Krajnovic, executive vice president of ADUSA Distribution & Transportation. “The conversion of the site is an important step in the completion of our work to move to a self-distributed network."