Nick Fitzpatrick, president of Aden Logistics, was named the most valued partner by Orange County’s frontline economic development organization on June 6.
Orange County Partnership President Maureen Hallahan said at the award ceremony that Fitzpatrick was behind some of the largest land sales in the county in the past few years, resulting in almost half a billion dollars in capital investment and hundreds of new jobs.
About four years ago, Fitzpatrick sold 100 acres of farmland along Interstate 84 in Montgomery to Medline, the nation’s largest private medical supplies distributor.
The sale resulted in a new 1.3 million-square-foot warehouse for Medline that costs $120 million.
He recently sold two large parcels in the town of Wawayanda to an Indiana-based international developer—a deal that is expected to generate another $380 million in capital investment.
One parcel will host a new 900,000-square-foot Amazon warehouse, and the other will be built up to attract a beverage distribution company.
At the ceremony, Fitzpatrick said he was able to close large land deals because of the support of his business colleagues, employees, and family members.
“My family never said no to any ideas that I had, even though they seem a little crazy at times,” he said.
The old-fashioned wisdom of “showing up” also worked in his favor, he added.
“Showing up is not luck, and a good part of the success is just showing up,” he said, adding that individuals in the county’s economic development network welcome new ideas and are eager to lend a hand to make things happen.
His land deals aren’t always with the big names in the business world.
Early this year, he donated $645,000 to the Food Bank of Hudson Valley to build a new 40,000-square-foot distribution center on a parcel he once owned in the Town of Montgomery.
A native of Sullivan County, Fitzpatrick got into the hay business in the 1990s and relocated his company, Aden Brook Farm, to Orange County in 2005.
About 10 years ago, strong business demand enabled Fitzpatrick to buy the former Mazur Farm along Interstate 84 in Montgomery.
Meanwhile, he founded Aden Land Holdings and began strategically purchasing land parcels in Orange County and beyond.
Currently, the company owns about 800 acres in Orange County and Pennsylvania.
Orange County Partnership has been the county’s frontline economic growth organization for almost 40 years since its founding under then-County Executive Louis Heimbach.
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