Plastic sheeting covers the windows and doors of the old Off-Track Betting building across from the railroad tracks in Suffern along Franklin Turnpike — or Orange Avenue, if you like. Work lights burn inside as the building’s new owner is busy renovating the space into a Rainbow Ace garden and home supplies sort of modern living 25,000 square foot hardware store.
The store will sale a mix of products ranging from paint and hardware supplies to housewares and home furnishings.
Rainbow Ace will hold a Suffern job fair on Thursday, October 24, in the Community Room at Village Hall, with some 20 part-time and full-time positions available.
The Dizzia family, led by father and son team John and John, bought the blighted OTB building at 140 Orange Avenue in December of 2012 for approximately $2.5 million. The renovations and new hardware store are part of an on-going revitalization effort in Suffern that includes a new facade program along the downtown business corridor, improvements to the Esther Gitlow housing campus, 21 townhouses adjacent to Rt. 202, and 48 residential condo units at the burned out husk of the former Conserv Construction building on Washington Avenue.
Suffern Mayor Dagan LaCorte has announced that Rainbow Ace will hold a job fair on Thursday, October 24, in the Community Room at Suffern Village Hall, where Rainbow Ace representatives will be on hand to interview prospective employees. Both part-time and full-time positions are involved.
Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee and Suffern Mayor Dagan Lacorte stand with Rainbow Ace owners John Dizzia and his son, John, as they announce in February that the OTB in Suffern will be turned into an Rainbow Ace.
“We are very excited that Rainbow Ace, is coming to Suffern,” Mayor Lacorte said. “The fact that the Dizzia family is looking to hire twenty local people to work in the store is a home run for our community. This store is going to blow people away.”
Lacorte recently led a special Village Board meeting that discussed an additional development project slated for the Suffern downtown, which would involve residential apartments on a plot of land slotted by the village for revitalization. During the public comments section, John Dizzia and his son stepped up to the microphone, fresh from the Rainbow Ace construction site, and said they supported the proposed apartment complex, which would add some 111 rental apartments to the housing mix near their store.
Applications for the Rainbow Ace job fair are available at the Suffern Village Hall, 61 Washington Avenue. Applicants are asked to fill out an application and register for a time for an interview on October. 24. Part and full-time employment opportunities will be available. Retail and other experience is welcomed but all are encouraged to apply.
Applications are also available on the Village of Suffern website.
