Amsterdam, New York

AMSTERDAM, NEW YORK moving forward, as we have roughly a two-year timeline to complete those projects from start to finish. Some are brand new construction, some are rehab, some are design guidelines, but all with the end goal of creating a catalyst effect in our downtown core. That’s going to create a whole wave of public and private partnership investment in the next five years, so that we triple our investments in the next five years and it spreads outside the downtown core that we identified through this process. “We’ve had a lot of people who have been sitting on property saying ‘I think this is the time to invest; we’re going to get in on the ground floor, and we’re really going to start to work with the city,’ and we’ve had a lot of residents come forward, not just saying ‘we’re going to develop,’ but ‘what does the city want us to develop,’ which is wonderful. So we’re already creating those partnerships with people that already exist here to create a community that’s going to work for everyone.” Amsterdam was also awarded $6.9 million in federal transportation enhancement funding. Between the city of Amsterdam and the DOT, there will be focused areas throughout the downtown core looking at transportation enhancement, circulation enhancement, and areas the state knows are issues within the corridors. Bearcroft remarks, “That’s huge for a state agency to come to a municipality and say, ‘We know there are issues, and we’re going to help you fix them.’ Just having our state agencies back us up is huge. We’re beginning to see the momentum and the upward tick here in the city. I’m really hopeful that, in the next two years, this municipality is going to look completely different than it does right now.” Though Amsterdam’s population has been decreasing for decades, Bearcroft hopes that all the new investments and housing projects that they hope will come online, putting people into the city again, will change that, to be reflected in the 2020 census. Among the largest employers in the city are Saint Mary’s Hospital, Liberty Enterprises (an ARC), and Target Distribution Center (around 900 employees); Hill & Markes and Beech-Nut Nutrition Company are in the same distribution corridor. Dollar General is coming online with a distribution center and 475 jobs. Mayor Villa notes, “On the plus side, our unemployment rate has dropped significantly. In 2011, we might have been at around 10 percent, but, right now, it’s just at 5 percent unemployment. We have many transportation facilities. We have a Target Distribution Center. Very large employers are here. Now, we have to find a place for these people to live, work, and play. That’s the goal around the DRI, to make this 10-minute walk from where people live to where they could eat, shop, and spend dollars within the city. Like Amanda said, I think you’ll see a huge difference in the next two to five years.”