Observer Reporter
Monday, November 7, 2005

New Lease on Life for Curry Home
Editorial

The old Curry Home in Greene County has a new lease on life.

Separation Design Group, a high-tech product development company, agreed last week to lease the building from the county for $190,000, plus interest, over five years. The company will then have the option to buy the building for a dollar.

This is quite an ambitious decision by the company to move into a building that has been vacant for 15 years. It has been a target for vandalism and magnet for teen parties, and this and previous administrations did look for numerous ways to convert the home into a viable facility.

The Greene County Industrial Development Authority wanted to use the building as a small-business incubator for high-technology firms. The county also tried to convince Greene ARC, the Central Greene School District and several private companies to purchase and fix up the 55,000 square foot building.

In most cases all the deals were derailed because of the high costs of remodeling the building and removing asbestos. The county commissioners determined the cost of a new structure would be cheaper than remodeling the old one.

Five years ago, Landmark Design Associates estimated it would cost $2 million to convert the Curry Home into an incubator and the cost of demolishing it was estimated at $200,000.

The SDGroup expects to spend more than $100,000 on renovations to the south wing and initially plans to use an 8,000 square-foot portion of the building,
but its long-term intentions, according to the chief executive officer, is to fill up the entire building.

We recognize why it might have taken for the county and a company to negotiate this deal- it's just the right time. And we hope the county is able to obtain
a state Department of Community and Economic Development grant to pay for asbestos removal and that the county's Industrial Development Authority comes through with a $200,000 loan so work to remediate the Curry Home can begin quickly.

Without this assistance, we are afraid the Curry Home could become a money pit for Separation Design Group.

A new tenant for the Curry Home is still good news. We have been fearful that inaction at the Curry Home could well translate into inaction elsewhere.

Now, we are not quite ready to begin writing obituaries of the Ever-Greene Technology Park, the Paisley and Meadow Ridge industrial parks or the acres of land on Route 21 that "could have been" except for the failure of county officials to act



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