New York state puts kitchen facility up for sale, seeks commercial buyer

Nation's Restaurant News, Dec 9, 1996

ORANGEBURG, N.Y. - New York State has put up for sale its central kitchen at the Rockland County Psychiatric Center here.

The state hopes to cove the cost of the bonds sold to finance the 88,000-square foot facility, which was built three years ago at a cost of $22 million.

Bids will be solicited until the end of January, and a winning bidder should be selected by next spring, according to a spokesman for Gov. George Pataki's administration.

The kitchen was designed to prepare meals in bulk for state psychiatric hospitals across the state. However, as the kitchen was being constructed, the state was downsizing the psychiatric system, moving thousands of people out of hospitals and into group homes or outpatient treatment centers.

The state system today houses only about 7,000 people, compared with nearly 13,000 five years ago.

As a result, the kitchen, in which 90,000 pounds of food per day can be prepared, has operated at only about one-quarter of its capacity.

According to a report in he New York Daily News, several food companies have shown interest in the facility.

One company interested in purchasing the food-processing plant is Sylvia Woods Enterprises, owner of Sylvia's, a popular soul-food restaurant in Harlem.

Company president Van Woods said that a plant like the one in Orangeburg would be "a big step toward developing a national food brand based out of New York City."

The Pataki administration said that selling the facility is part of its push to turn over more of the state's institutions to private operators, which the state believes would manage the facilities more efficiently.

Pataki administration officials have been critical of the central kitchen - which was constructed during the administration of Mario Cuomo - as an example of the kinds of businesses New York state should not be involved in.

Ironically, however, past efforts to make better use of the facility have been stymied by the state Legislature.

Two years ago New York City wanted to use the kitchen to prepare meals for the city's 22,000 inmates detained at the Riker's Island correctional facility. However, the attempt failed because the city and state could not agree on who would cover the cost of modifications to the plant. The city has yet to satisfy a federal court order requiring it to improve foodservice the vice to the 21 jails on Riker's Island.

Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's

office could not be reached for comment on whether the city could be interested in biding on the facility.

Plans for a central kitchen to be built on Riker's Island were abandoned two years ago, when the city's Office of Management and Budget determined that the project would be too costly.