CAREMOUNT Q&A
SLEEPY HOLLOW AWAKENS
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JULY 16, 2018 | VOL. 54, No. 29
YOUR ONLY SOURCE FOR REGIONAL BUSINESS NEWS, COVERING THE HUDSON VALLEY
westfaironline.com
From daycare to hair, entrepreneur continues to find new business ventures BY ALEESIA FORNI aforni@westfariinc.com
“T
here’s a lot of competition in this business, so you have to step out of your comfort zone. You have to do something different.” So says Tamika Douglas, and she’s certainly backed up those words. The Jamaica-born entrepreneur and mother of two, who emigrated to the Bronx with her parents at just 12 years old, has started three businesses since coming to the region. Douglas said she has learned a lot from her parents — chiefly how to become a savvy businesswoman. “They wanted more opportunities for me and for them,” she said. “They did well (in Jamaica), but they still wanted more.” Her mother Carmeta Albarus was a teacher in Jamaica, but upon coming to the U.S. went back to school and eventually earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees. She now owns her own company, CVA Consulting Services Inc., and works as a forensic social worker. Her father Dennis Douglas, meanwhile, worked as an engineer in his home country, and now runs Dennis Douglas P.E., P.C., a building inspection and engineering office in Mount Vernon. “They both worked very, very hard for what they have and what they want, and that’s what they instilled in me,” she said. » ENTREPRENEUR
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Coffee’s on! page 9
Sunny Cover is marking 15 years of making her Peekskill Coffee House a centerpiece of the town. Photo by Aleesia Forni.
E-commerce could pressure already tight Westchester industrial real estate market
BY RYAN DEFFENBAUGH rdeffenbaugh@westfairinc.com
E
-commerce is pushing demand for warehouse space near major cities nationwide, but can an already tight Westchester County industrial market take advantage? That’s been the question asked at real estate panels throughout the county and Hudson Valley in the past year. E-commerce giants such as Amazon and Walmart, along with the latter’s affiliated
Jet.com, are racing to offer consistent same-day delivery. To get there, the companies need space to store and process products for delivery near city centers. Seth Pinsky, metro emerging markets and public affairs director of RXR Realty, was asked about growth in the warehousing and logistics facilities at a panel in Poughkeepsie in April. He said RXR had purchased warehouse space in Queens in March that it will consider for just that type of purpose.
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But, he added, traditional warehousing and industrial areas within New York City like Queens and the Bronx are being rezoned for mostly residential uses. “As a result of that, companies are having a really hard time finding locations within the city for these distribution facilities,” Pinsky told the crowd at the Hudson Valley Economic Development Corp. spring real estate discussion. “And they desperate-
500 » WESTCHESTER
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Call Mark Pawliczko 914-248-7272 *Residential mortgage w/pmts deducted from TLP Ckg Acct. See branch for details.
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