Joseph Pettinella's blog

Concept plans for a 339-acre parcel in Hyde Park, named "Bellefield at Historic Hyde Park", have been updated and were presented to a joint meeting of the Hyde Park Town Board and the Hyde Park Planning Board on Monday.

The first-phase plan calls for developing two hotels, one high-end luxury hotel with a conference center and spa with a national brand reservation system, and a second middle-market hotel.  The first phase plan also includes a free-standing signature restaurant and culinary-based retail establishments with 40 residential lofts above the stores. A later phase would involve building 500 residential housing units.

The next step for the developers is to present a site plan to the Hyde Park Planning Board.

An economic impact study by Hotel & Leisure Advisors of Cleveland, Ohio, projects an economic impact from visitor spending of $29.8 million in first-year revenues and an overall impact, including indirect economic effects, of $47.7 million. The study estimated 369 permanent jobs would be created in the hotels, restaurant, spas, conference center and retail shops, and approximately 550 construction jobs would be created in building phase one.

Get more details in the Poughkeepsie Journal article: Developers Plan $100 Million Hyde Park Hotel Tourism Project 

The Village of Wappingers Falls Recreation Committee is hosting this year's community Family Fun Day on September 5, 2015, at 3:00 p.m. at Veterans Park in Wappingers Falls.  Get to know your neighbors better, and spend the afternoon & evening enjoying some good-old family fun.

There will be pony rides, a petting zoo, bounce house, carnival games, and face painting for the kids.  A fireworks display will light up the evening sky, and of course, there will be music and lots of great food.

Hope to see you all there!

In J.D. Power's 2015 Home Buyer/Seller Satisfaction Study, Century 21 took home the gold across four categories of consumers!

The study, now in its eighth year, measures satisfaction with the nation’s largest real estate companies among customers in four segments: first-time buyers, repeat buyers, first-time sellers and repeat sellers.

The study examines four factors of the home-buying experience: the agent, the office, the closing process, and additional services. In the home-selling experience, the same four factors are evaluated, but marketing is added to the mix.

The key factor to satisfaction is all about communication. Satisfied customers reported having received timely responses to questions and concerns, information at all important contact points, follow-up communications after closing, and comparable property data.  

“Knowing how and when to communicate with customers is essential for real estate companies,” says Christina Cooley, director in the diversified services industries practice at J.D. Power. “To satisfy first-time customers, it is really about holding their hand by keeping them informed at key points throughout the purchase or selling process to ease their anxiety. For repeat customers, satisfaction hinges more on the timeliness of the response by their real estate agent when questions or concerns arise with the process.”

Read all about it on J.D. Powers website.