Wine seller building $27.5M HQ in CoxsackieThe Business Review (Albany)

Empire Merchants North LLC, an Ulster County-based alcohol distributor, will spend $27.5 million to build a 250,000-square-foot corporate headquarters and distribution center in Coxsackie.

The company announced today that it has purchased 21 acres in the town of Coxsackie’s Kalkberg Commerce Park. Construction will start this fall, and the facility it scheduled to open in late summer 2009.

Empire Merchants North will consolidate its three current locations—including sites in Albany and Kingston—into the Coxsackie site. The company will offer jobs to all 362 current employees at the Coxsackie site.

“This is a proud day for Empire Merchants North,” said Jay Andretta. “This new, state-of-the-art facility significantly increases our warehouse and office space, which is critical to our future growth.”

Empire Merchants North is a member of the Charmer Sunbelt Group, one of the nation’s largest distributors of beer, wines and liquor. The group has affiliates operating in 15 states and the District of Columbia.

Empire Merchants North was created in September 2007 through the merger of Service-Universal Distributors Inc. of Albany and Colony Liquor & Wine Distributors LLC of Kingston.

The company is eligible to receive tax breaks through the state’s Empire Zone program. The Greene County Industrial Development Agency expects to provide a sales- and mortgage-tax exemption with a 25-year-long “payment in lieu of taxes” arrangement.

A call to Sandy Mathes, executive director of the Greene IDA, was not immediately returned.