The asking office rental rate was relatively flat in Westchester County with its first quarter 2014 asking rent at $26.46 per square foot (down 7 cents from the first quarter 2013). Orange-Rockland's office asking rent was up 20 cents from a year ago to $23.16 per square foot. The Dutchess-Putnam market saw a 75-cent decline in asking rent from last year to $18.22 per square foot and the Sullivan-Ulster County office market has seen its asking rent dip from $10.13 a square foot in the first quarter of 2013 to $9.58 a square foot after the first three months of this year.

John Rath, senior vice president and group manager of commercial lending for the Hudson Valley for TD Bank, was more bullish on the Hudson Valley economy. He identified restaurants, dining and entertainment, biotechnology and health care as growing sectors of the regional economy.

“We have a significant amount of public works projects going on here, which we had not had for five years. There are billions of dollars being spent,” Rath said. In addition to the sharp increase in construction jobs that has taken place, the public works construction will also “trickle down” to the struggling small business sector in the region.

O'Callaghan said that biotech, education and health care are all growth industries for the region due in part to what he termed as the tremendous delta between doing business in the Hudson Valley and New York City.

The program also featured a presentation by Dr. Paul Harrington, professor and director of the Center of Labor Market and Policy at Drexel University, who noted that the Hudson Valley has recovered nicely from what was predominantly a “blue collar recession.” He predicts that the Hudson Valley's key growth markets will continue to be in professional, technical services, sales, health care, social services and education fields. He also expects an increase in the manufacturing sector, although that growth, coming from companies engaged in 3-D printing and other technologically-driven operations, will be capital intensive and will produce more high-paying white collar jobs and less blue collar positions.

While upbeat for the regional market, he did conclude his remarks by noting that the national economy is in its 60th month of recovery after the last recession Dr. Harrington related that the average length of a recovery before another downturn takes hold is about 58 months. “So there is a recession out there somewhere. Just when and how it will occur I don't know, but the chances of having a recession in the next two to three years are probably good and very good,” he warned.