WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (WENY) – On Monday, April 30, New York State commissioner of Agriculture and Markets Richard Ball presided over a groundbreaking ceremony in the Schuyler County Business Park.

The first building will be a 19,000 square feet beverage production facility.

According to the Schuyler County Partnership for Economic Development (SCOPED), this will provide accelerated production for the Hector-based craft brewery, Lucky Hare Brewing who is leasing 5,000 square feet.

The business park is building a pre-treatment wastewater system of the new regional wastewater treatment plant.

SCOPED has been actively marketing this site for over 15 years.

The first tenant is Lucky Hare Brewing Company. Richard Thiel, co-owner of the company said, “The Ultra-premium beverage production facility was exactly what Lucky Hare was looking for when we decided to increase production to keep up with the increasing demand for our products. The new state-of-the art facility allows us to continue to focus our efforts on producing high quality beer while staying in Schuyler County”.

SCOPED Chairman, Don Chutas said, “This has been a goal of our organization for many years and it will be great to finally have production occurring in the business park. We look forward to having additional tenants in the building and also look forward to additional buildings there in the future”.

Representatives from Congressman Tom Reed, Senator Tom O’Mara and Assemblyman Phil Palmesano offices were also in attendance.