Few stories have triggered as great an interest with the local homies as the City Winery design to develop the defunct, decrepit, mostly roofless, old New York Condensed Milk Company building. Also known as Borden’s Condensory, or as the General Slicing Machine Building, many local families, or friends, worked, within living memory, in the red brick buildings visible on Route 208 driving along the Wallkill River from Walden to Wallkill. They are slated to become a high rent 40+ room hotel with restaurants, bistro, pool, brewery, and spa called The Milk Factory.

Don Berger, member of Residents Protecting Montgomery, reported his website had over 5,000 hits within days of the story breaking. Interest is keen to see the structure saved and a useful and positive project developed.

I had an opportunity to walk the site with Berger and Noah Bobrowsky, associate developer of the property for City Winery. We made some fine discoveries and were given nice assurances. It all sounds good. Here are some of my thoughts. I’m sure the town planning boards will do thorough reviews, but, hey…

• The Town of Montgomery has avoided doing a real, comprehensive traffic study, and it shows every time you try to drive through Walden at 4 pm, or past the high school in the morning. Traffic to this project should be encouraged to avoid downtown Walden, sent up Route 300, across Rock Cut Road, etcetera, arriving via the hamlet of Wallkill.

• While City Winery has expressed respect for the historical, architectural, and industrial details of the building, I pointed out the significance of the iconic white brick crosses built into the brickwork of the condensory building. For John Borden, President of New York Condensed Milk Company, the white crosses symbolized sterility, cleanliness, and the antiseptic quality of work which went into the production of his canned milk. The Red Cross was the inverse of the Swiss National Flag, also a white cross, and honored the founder of the Red Cross organization because of his Swiss roots. The Red Cross became the symbol for medical facilities, ambulances, and medical corps in war zones. The white cross was the branding emblem for Borden’s honored condensing process which comes to us from the Civil War during which John Borden’s father made millions selling the product to the Union Army. The white cross was later replaced as a branding symbol by Elsie the Cow who, at one point, was the most famous mascot on the planet. I stress that ALL the white crosses found in the brick work of the condensory and its outbuildings, namely the well house, must be preserved.

• The Walden/Wallkill Rail trail forms the back edge of this property, the eastern line. Any access to the rail trail must also be open, and free, to members of the public who are not patrons of the hotel or restaurants. Anyone should be able to get onto or off the trail at this point. Parking should anticipate this eventuality.

• The Wallkill River forming the western boundary of the property, if developed with a boat launch, or other, should also guarantee free local access and parking to non-paying visitors.

• The north side of the Condensory property borders the Wallkill Greenhouse. All assurance must be given that runoff from the site does not impact the business and grounds of the greenhouse business.

• If the project is going to hook up to the Town of Shawangunk’s sewage treatment plant -- and so far assurances have been given that there is plenty of sewage plant capacity -- then the Wallkill Greenhouse should also be hooked into the system with no up-front installation costs to them. In the Town of Montgomery if a sewage district expands past your residence or business you are required by law to hook up to this district and assume your share of the costs. I do not know the conditions required in the Town of Shawangunk. Remember the project and the greenhouse are in the Town of Montgomery (Orange County) while the sewer plant is in the Town of Shawangunk (Ulster County). The condensory property development should not result in additional costs for the Wallkill Greenhouse.

• This will be a high-end tourism play, and most likely will apply for tax breaks from any number of IDA’s, and given it is a “reclamation project”, very likely to receive significant government support. In return, I think the developer should help fund, through whatever means needs to be set up, local historical restoration projects like the restoration work being done on the 18th Century Andre DuBois House in the hamlet by the Historical Society of Shawangunk and Gardiner. Community funding should be made available for this restoration project, and other projects, throughout the hamlet in exchange for these tax abatements. The Society could use a clean $100,000, homies.

If you have concerns, get to the planning board meetings and town board meetings of both towns. Check out Concerned Citizens for Montgomery’s Facebook page for times and comments and videos of meetings.