Michael Bruno discusses his Tuxedo Hudson Company adventure that he hopes will help transform the Sloatsburg to Tuxedo corridor. / Photo still from video by Hema Easley
The Blue Barn property in Sloatsburg is currently being re-landscaped while the old IGA building in Tuxedo is getting shut-down for restoration and rebirth. By now many locals in the Sloatsburg through Tuxedo corridor are familiar with the tale of Michael Bruno and the Tuxedo Hudson Company, which has set out to revitalize the area through a particular vision of food, antique and craft commerce.
Call it the The Bruno Chronicles, wherein pluck and confidence, with a touch of luck and new-found riches, convince a starry-eyed man that the Ramapo Mountains are just the right place to settle, scheme and dream.
Michael Bruno has been buying up properties with an eye towards restoring the Route 17 corridor between Tuxedo and Sloatsburg.
Posted by recordonline.com on Saturday, April 2, 2016
Hema Easle, writing for The Time-Herald Record has a series of write-ups and video that articulates Michael Bruno’s initiative in both Sloatsburg an Tuxedo. Easley wrote an article just a few Christmases past, after the Genting Americas gaming bid failed, that captured a town dreary and defeated.
Then Suzy at My Harriman State Park wrote about the possibility of Tuxedo becoming a lovely Trail Town and, suddenly, the lethargy and gloom broke.
Enter Bruno, who saw opportunity in the Sloatsburg to Tuxedo corridor, a phrase which itself is new to the area’s lexicon. Add the corridor to other vocabulary such as gateway community and trail town.
VIDEO: Transforming Tuxedo into ‘gateway to the Hudson’VIDEO: Transforming Tuxedo into ‘gateway to the Hudson’Entrepreneur Michael Bruno is investing millions to reverse town, village’s fortunes in Tuxedo. Read the full story in Sunday’s Times Herald-Record
Posted by recordonline.com on Saturday, April 2, 2016
In the Easley article, Bruno flipped the script, seeing a forgotten and neglected area as one of economic opportunity and promise.
“It’s an asset that it’s a little bit forgotten and neglected,” said Bruno in Easley’s piece, “because it lets us create what we want out of it rather than fight something that has become mediocre. That’s what’s become of most places … chain clothing to food. We don’t have that. We have all these historical buildings.”
Michael Bruno purchased the Loomis Labratory in Tuxedo Park, the same building where scientists gathered 80 years ago to develop the science for the atomic bomb and radar.
Posted by recordonline.com on Saturday, April 2, 2016
With a team of some 20 people working out of Loomis Laboratory (the Bruno brain center housed in an historic Tuxedo Park property) on the new Tuxedo Hudson Company venture, many hope good things will spring up from Sloatsburg to Tuxedo.
Bruno is full of optimism on the topic and has deep enough pockets to carry his effort through what may be rocky terrain. According to the article, Bruno will have invested some $10 million dollars properties and renovations before all is open for business.
“Financially it’s a good time, time-wise it’s a good time, and I’ve become connected to the community so that it feels like home now,” said Bruno in the Recordonline. “So now I feel it’s time to give back and do something special,” said Bruno.
“There’s no guarantee we are going to make money doing this, but I can certainly improve these properties and be a proud owner of them, and I think they’ll easily pay for themselves. I don’t see how we can go wrong.”
