New Fosterdale rehabilitation center?

Developer plans 105-bed facility

By FRITZ MAYER

FOSTERDALE, NY — The 10 mostly dilapidated buildings that sit on County Route 114, just west of the traffic light at Fosterdale, were once part of a rehabilitation facility. In 1914, it was called the Recreation Farm and, among other things, catered to union workers who were suffering from tuberculosis.

That information came to The River Reporter through a phone call from Nicolas Soriano, a mortgage banker and developer who wants to return the property to its former purpose by building a 105-bed rehabilitation center with an urgent care center. Soriano has a closing scheduled on the 80-acre parcel in about two weeks, which involves buying the property out of foreclosure from the current owner.

Soriano said his plans include “a 100,000 square-foot drug, alcohol, gambling and smoking rehabilitation center, leaving all the pretty trees, and a small development in the back of higher-end homes for the doctors and nurses to purchase and finance from where they work.”

Soriano further said that the market for beds in rehabs is tight and going to get tighter as the recession worsens. He said, “Rehabs do more business during tough economic times than any other time, because where’s the first place people go when they run out of money? They go to the bar and drown their sorrows.”

He said that in determining the need for this type of service he talked with Daytop Village, Catskill Regional Medical Center and Wayne Memorial Hospital. Hospital rehab beds, he said, are backed up with waiting lists of up to three weeks.

He said the rehab facility would be a for-profit operation that would contribute up to $3 million per year in local taxes, and that he has a letter of interest from the mortgage company he’s employed with to provide $6 million for the project.

To go forward, Soriano will need a zoning variance. He is scheduled to appear before the town board on February 11.

Larry Richardson, acting Cochecton supervisor, said he had just recently heard about the project and it was too early to judge local reaction. He recalled, however, that there were similar plans for the site some time ago, and that there was a bit of a negative reaction from the community. But, he said, the board will hear Soriano out and see where it goes.

Soriano said he has had talks with the architect and engineer who are constructing the mall on Route 17B and Royce Road in Bethel and they’ve agreed to work with him on the project.