Otto Leuschel's Regeneration of Germantown, NY

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Written By H. Pike Oliver

On Friday, July 20, 2012, I took several photos on Main Street in Germantown, NY, about 115 miles north of New York City (Manhattan). Two "gems" on this little street are Otto's Market (established as Central Market in 1927 and reestablished as Otto's Market in 2006) and the Germantown Variety Store (established 2012.) Both businesses are owned and operated by Otto Leuschel who left an important job at Whole Foods to become the spark plug for the revitalization of this small Hudson Valley town. Otto is doing great work in this little burg.  I did not get a chance to ask Otto who his customers are, but I suspect affluent part-time exurbanites and weekend vacationers from the greater New York area are the source of much of his business.

H. Pike Oliver

Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, H. Pike Oliver has worked on real estate development strategies and master-planned communities since the early 1970s, including nearly eight years at the Irvine Company. He resided in the City of Irvine for five years in the 1980s and nine years in the 1990s.

As the founder and sole proprietor of URBANEXUS, Oliver works on advancing equitable and sustainable real estate development and natural lands management. He is also an affiliate instructor at the Runstad Department of Real Estate at the University of Washington.

Early in his career, Oliver worked for public agencies, including the California Governor’s Office of Planning and Research where he was a principal contributor to An Urban Strategy for California. Prior to relocating to Seattle in 2013, Oliver taught real estate development at Cornell University and directed the undergraduate program in urban and regional studies. He is a member of the Urban Land Institute, the American Planning Association and a founder and emeritus member of the California Planning Roundtable.

Oliver is a graduate of the urban studies and planning program at San Francisco State University and earned a master’s degree in urban planning at UCLA.

https://urbanexus.com
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