On Wednesday morning, Jeff Kaplan sat down with the Ellenville Journal to speak to some of the concerns and rumors regarding the impending arrival of a Wal-Mart to the Napanoch Valley Mall on Route 209. For months now, rumors and speculation has been swirling in the Ellenville/Wawarsing area about whether or not the big-box giant will actually be making a move to the Valley Mall property. In order to help set the record straight, clarify some details, and put some fears to rest, Kaplan spoke in his capacity as the attorney of Joe Tso and Napanoch Valley Mall, LLC, the corporation which owns the mall property.

Firstly, when asked whether it was yet appropriate to say that it was actually Wal-Mart who was looking to purchase the mall property, Kaplan conceded that enough people have said so and talked about it by this point that keeping the name out of discussions is probably no longer necessary. The Wal-Mart corporation itself still has yet to confirm that there are plans to purchase the property, but Kaplan also confirmed that reports in the Times Herald Record, published last month, were true regarding a signed contract.

"The contract has been signed, but the fact that there's a contract does not mean there's a purchase," Kaplan clarified. He went on to say that the contract came with a number of contingencies and conditions which had to be met before a sale could move forward. Those conditions include the planned relocation of the current leased tenants — Napanoch Wines and Liquors, Katherine's Korner, No. 1 Chinese Food, and the Napanoch Post Office — as well as the mall property being assessed and confirmed as suitable for Wal-Mart's needs. Part of that assessment was likely determined last month, when surveyors were spotted on the property.

As for the relocation of the four businesses that have leases with Napanoch Valley Mall, LLC, Kaplan said that despite some months without contact with tenants, the relocation plans are still a part of the contract and purchase-plans. He said that the cost of constructing the new building that will house the businesses will come out of the purchase price, and the new property will still be owned and maintained by the Tso family, the members of Napanoch Valley Mall, LLC. Kaplan also said that there was a meeting scheduled for Thursday (the day of this edition's publication) between himself, Tso, and the leased mall tenants, including Bella Volchik and Tony Zlatkin, to discuss the relocation plans.

Kaplan also responded to Volchik's fears regarding what would await her in a retail location she knows nothing about. He said that she would be getting a "vanilla box," which would basically be a four-walled space with all the necessary utilities and amenities to run the business, and that she would be able to make her move to the new space with the use of a "significant relocation allowance."

The attorney also briefly discussed the recently reported-on July 21 meeting between Wawarsing Town Supervisor Ed Jennings and representatives from Wal-Mart, saying that the meeting will be similar to Thursday's meeting in that it will go over many of the plans that have been worked out for the purchase, and will hopefully get everyone involved on the same page.

"The meeting is to discuss the rollout of plans, and get everyone comfortable with the plans," said Kaplan.

As for when the purchase will go before the Wawarsing Planning Board, Kaplan said that despite the various meetings going on and the use of the term "fast track" in several articles thus far, they will not be able to go before the board until at least next month.

"There's a three week lag time in Wawarsing, so we're hoping to go before the planning board in August," he said, and if that doesn't happen, the plans should surely go before the board by September.

Kaplan said that once the purchaser goes before the planning board, the speed of the process will be up to them. One of the advantages to Wal-Mart's arrival at the Napanoch Valley Mall property is the fact that the mall-space is already there, and would likely not require a SEQR, or State Environmental Quality Review. That said, Kaplan hopes that the new store will be able to break ground early next year, should the planning board's approval process go smoothly.

The Many Hats of Jeffrey Kaplan
In addition to representing Joe Tso and Napanoch Valley Mall, LLC, Kaplan is also the mayor of Ellenville, the village municipality which exists a few miles down the road from the hamlet of Napanoch, both of which are within the borders of the town of Wawarsing. In that capacity, he also responded to some concerns with regard to possible effects the big-box retailer might have on the village's downtown area, saying that while he didn't know a definite answer to the question of what will happen when Wal-Mart arrives, he did say that he thought it might keep local shoppers closer to home, rather than driving to Wal-Marts in other locations, such as in Kingston or Monticello.

"Local people in the Ellenville area, realistically, go out of town to do a lot of their shopping, other than their grocery shopping, because of the limited number of stores," said Kaplan. "Taking into account the issue of the gas crisis, and how much it costs to travel, the idea that they may have, within a short distance, a facility that can give people more incentive not to travel out of the area, could add to the [local businesses] who gear their operations toward service and to product lines that are not otherwise available with Wal-Mart."

Kaplan elaborated on his own opinions regarding concerns over potential negative effects Wal-Mart might have on Ellenville, saying that he personally felt that the village's downtown area was hurt in the first place by the Napanoch Mall decades ago.

"Whatever damage was done to Ellenville as a result of that mall happened when it was built in the 60s, not now," he said, "because the stores that truly would compete with that mall have long passed."

Since many of the businesses currently operating downtown are either service oriented or specialized, the competition from Wal-Mart won't be as evident as it might be in other areas that report experiencing economic downturns as a result of the retailer's expansions. Kaplan said that businesses such as Matthew's Pharmacy and clothing store Image on Canal Street have an edge over Wal-Mart because they "give hometown services," which are absent from Wal-Mart's offerings.

Finally, Kaplan responded to the question of whether Wal-Mart's arrival would preclude any future potential businesses which might offer the same products as the discount retailer.

"If you see the nature and the level of the businesses that are coming into Ellenville, they're really very unique and 'boutiquey' types of businesses," he said, reiterating his point that these types of businesses wouldn't compete with Wal-Mart. "The hypothetical that maybe someone would come to town — how do you build a community based upon hypotheticals that simply aren't happening? That should've happened already."

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