Business incubator, auto mechanics
On a Monday morning, workers were busy renovating a 4000-square-foot section that has been divided into small offices, now immaculate and sporting fresh sheetrock and white paint.
“If you’re a small business person, and you want to move to Kingston, you have to pay for insurance, Internet, phone, fax,” observed Vinci. His new business center would provide such amenities and offer rental spaces for around $400 a month. He showed off a pair of connected rooms where a massage therapist could have an office and a treatment room.
Beside providing facilities, Vinci would offer business consultation, free of charge. “I’m a natural at making money, even though I never finished the eighth grade,” he stated. “I can help people’s businesses take off, and eventually they’ll move out of here. It’ll be a business incubator.”
For companies that have to maintain a product inventory, there will be storage space available for rent as well. In fact, he is willing to customize space for a variety of storage uses, including maintaining a climate-controlled environment where necessary.
At one end of the building is a huge area where a dozen cars, hidden by coverings, line two of the walls. Vinci pulled back the cloth over the first car to show the plump, baby blue doors of a 1955 Chevy Bel Air.
“I’m a good father figure,” he remarked. “I have two daughters and three sons. I’m not so good at communicating with the girls, but I’m good with the boys.” Five of his employees at IPA are young men aged 20 to 26 who were taken under Vinci’s wing and raised in his family when their parents threw them out. He’s trained them in engineering, and “they’re all motorheads. They come over here to restore vintage cars — it keeps them out of trouble. I pay them well, and they pay for tools and parts out of their salaries. I want to install lifts and machines — but the aquifer regulations won’t allow an automotive garage.”
Vinci himself was an auto mechanic for 22 years in Pennsylvania, where he settled in 1975 as the disciple of a local Sufi teacher, after he had sat at the feet of a number of New Age sages he decided were frauds. In 1991, he invented his first tool and built a successful company, which he sold in 1998. He bought a boat and spent 18 months with his wife, two kids, and two dogs, sailing the intercoastal waterway just off the Atlantic. Then he returned to the Woodstock area, where he had spent his teenage years, and bought 500 acres on Rose Mountain in Shandaken, his present residence.
“I’m trying to give out,” Vinci said. “I’m a vegetarian. I’d rather give away money than screw somebody. And now people are freaking out that I’m going to pollute the land. We already have the strictest ecological rules there are, because of the DEC. I store paint cans in explosion-proof containers at IPA, because I have to.”
Rental pods, parking
The tour proceeded to the second of the two Simulaids buildings, a long warehouse. Renovation inside has only begun, so the building still has a funky smell. Vinci is working on a new invention that he believes will be really big. “I want to set up a room here for research and development of this product. But a ‘research laboratory’ is one thing that’s forbidden by the new regulations.”
IPA’s products include devices for remote-control testing of tractor trailer brakes and electrical systems; a vacuum and cleaning system for biodiesel fuel tanks; a narrow brush to clean radiators on farm machinery; tire pressure equalizers that improve fuel mileage; and many other implements. They are made from parts manufactured elsewhere and assembled at the facility on Route 212, which also houses administrative and marketing offices. With space getting tight, some of the inventory will be stored at the new location.
Outside the warehouse building, Vinci plans to store rental pods in a fenced-in area. He will clear two acres of wooded land between the building and the neighboring house and erect a wooden fence along the property.
“He says he’ll make sure the neighbors are not discomfited by his plans to expand into the wooded areas, which are ratty-looking now,” reported Wenk. “There’s work going on to keep rainwater out of the buildings, which were not well-designed and were built in a hole.”
Vinci also wants to rent out parking spaces, which may violate aquifer overlay regulations against a parking lot. The indoor and outdoor storage spaces will be managed using software from U-Haul, but Vinci said he does not intend to rent U-Haul trucks.
“I want to bring the board out to talk about details before the next board meeting,” said Wenk. “I’m sure it will all be cleared up.”
I think the government with it’s regulations is destroying our rights and opportunities for growth. Keep mr. Vinci in business!
Seems like you have a responsible citizen revitilizing what has been an abandon building. Provided the safety issues are dealt with, he should be assisted in his pursuit. The tax base of additional worker and structure has to be a plus. Pete is my cousin and has not paid for positive comments but viewing objectively,I think middle ground benefits all.
Unlike many business owners, Mr. Vinci is not an “all about me” kinda guy. He cares deeply for his employees, as well as his community. His plans will stimulate employment in Woodstock, as well as resurrect what was previously a sad site to many for the 15 years prior. His intentions should be supported by our community, as he is one of few with the ability to stimulate the town in a positive manner.
I’m very late to this story (which had no follow-up, apparently), but I will say that Peter Vinci was able to keep my 79 Fiat Strada running, and if he can do that, he can do anything—including run his business responsibly.