When Are We Getting A Train Station at Woodbury Common?

And Other News From The Woodbury Planning Board Meeting

Short meeting this week. So, let’s cover the news, and then we’ll get to the train station discussion …

The most important thing worth noting from last night’s meeting is the requirement that the Senior Housing project in Highland Mills — if for some bizarre reason they run out of seniors — remains senior housing.

Trust me.

They’re not going to run out of seniors in need of housing any time soon.

It’s not mathematically possible.

4.1 million Americans are going to turn 65 this year alone.

Not to mention:

HRH office manager Robin Evans calls the supply of affordable housing in the Hudson Valley “woefully inadequate,” particularly impacting vulnerable residents like seniors. “The Hudson Valley has had the highest increases in housing costs in the country and is also facing extremely low inventory,” says Jennifer Welles, executive director of the Newburgh Community Land Bank, another regional affordable housing nonprofit. “Seniors have very few options for affordable housing that also have the amenities they need, like walkability, support services, and access to community services.” (Source)

Any sort of change to the project’s age-restriction will require the company, Highland Mills Center Group, to go back before the Woodbury Planning Board and Woodbury Village Board, where they will have to request the age-restriction be removed.

Of course, if you can pay off the right politicians and you get your goons on the planning board — or any municipal board — you can do whatever you want, right?

But with this current Woodbury Planning Board, I don’t have that impression. And I don’t have that impression with the current Woodbury Village Board either.

Well. With one exception on the Woodbury Village Board. That would be Councilman Friedband, but we’ll talk more about him once I can get minutes from the previous Village Board meeting.

This is a good reminder as to why your vote matters in local elections.

Rules like the age restriction are great, and prevent ne'er-do-well developers from sneaking shit through that you don’t want in your neighborhood.

But you have to pay attention.

Because when you don’t, that’s when business interests trump the preservationists.

Something to think about for when the 118 acres of ACE Farms in Woodbury becomes a topic of conversation again.

Speaking of conservation, and reducing traffic on Route 32 …

Where Is My Woodbury Common Train Station?

This is a hill I will die on.

Do you know what a stock buyback is?

No?

Watch this:

Simon, the company that owns Woodbury Common, issued a $2B stock buyback this month.

And as you might have guessed, stock buybacks? Yeah. They suck:

(Reminder: A Billion is a Thousand Million. So if it costs $700 million to build a Train Station at Woodbury Common, you’d still have $300 million left over to do whatever you want with if you had a billion dollars to play with. This also means you’d have $1.3B left over if you were to spend $700 million on a train station from that $2B.)

David Simon, CEO and Chair of Simon Properties — Owner of Woodbury Common — was paid over $35M in 2022. The stock buy back means he’s going to get another raise.

And by all accounts, Simon Properties had a great 2023 as well.

This is a long way of saying, you can buy back your stock … or you can invest in your company. Like, you know, building a train station at your highest priority mall.

What does this have to do with the Woodbury Planning Board?

Any time Woodbury Common comes before the planning board, like they did at last night’s meeting, I think they should be asked the same question: Where’s my train station?

Just like this:

A train station, by the way, that this billion dollar company turned down free money from New York State to build.

No train station? No more approvals of anything at Woodbury Common.

What are they going to do, move?

Not a chance.

That mall prints money. It’s also Simon Property’s flagship mall.

Closing or moving Woodbury Common would blow a massive hole in their quarterly earnings, not to mention devastate David Simon’s CEO compensation.

Building a train station, on the other hand, would not only increase the value of Woodbury Common, but it’d make the mall easier to get to.

Something that ranks high on the list of tourist gripes who hate having to take a bus, or get stuck on Long Mountain Parkway, or sit in traffic on Route 32.

You know what that means?

Yes. I knew you were smart.

That means more money for Simon Properties.

The fact that we’re having this conversation in 2024 is so stupid to me.

But that’s typical of the Mall Business. It’s run by these tightly wound business assholes who want to milk states and local governments for all they’re worth and spend as little money as possible to do anything beyond what they must or what they want.

Even when that building is a win for them and a win for the community they operate in.

If you’re tired of the traffic, there’s an easy solution. We just have to ask for it.