MONTICELLO, NY — Experts have been calling it a bloodbath.

Commercial real estate in cities has been savaged by COVID-19 with tenants unable to pay rent and moving out, other tenants unable to open enough to be profitable, and some tenants just giving up. Commercial bankruptcies were up 30 percent in June, compared to the previous year, the Financial Times reported. 

Some of those tenants may be in the process of moving here. 

At last Thursday’s Economic Development committee meeting, Marc Baez, president and CEO of the Sullivan County Partnership for Economic Development, reported on projects they’ve been working on. One involves the 82 acres behind the old Apollo Plaza.  

“The applicant will be making an offer; they’re doing their due diligence,” Baez said. 

Some of that will be costs: resolving any litigation, the approval process, construction. “I think it’s the intent of the applicant we’re working with to clean it all.” 

“From my perspective, to develop a building that’s been off the tax rolls for 15 years, and to get money for it, and to develop land that’s next to a landfill, which is not an ideal place to do a development, that’s pretty good.”

The idea is for multiple businesses to open on the site, including a 40,000 square-foot production facility, “and we have interest from other players,” Baez said. There are wetlands, however, complicating development. 

Legislator Mike Brooks asked what the biggest impediment to bringing business here has been in the past. Was it infrastructure? 

Certainly that, Baez agreed, but also “distance, that we’re a bridge too far... I think what this crisis has done is open their minds [and they realize] it’s not that far.” 

The partnership is also talking to a software development company “part of the greater New York City tech firms,” Baez said, whose owners have second homes in the county. Calling it a “game-changing project,” he said they have a site in mind for creating a micro-campus for meetings and other uses, “like an artist’s community but for techs.” The advantages? “It opens the door to a lot of other like businesses.” Plus, “It’s as green as can be, low impact on water and sewer... We have a lot of work to do on the approval side, but we’ve got a good commitment on it.”