You may have noticed like we did. There seem to be more and more new businesses and shops in Canandaigua. A check of the numbers shows it's true. And News 10NBC discovered the economic up-swing is caused by what's happening outside the city by entrepreneurs like Boud Kuenen.

"I'm a Dutch immigrant right off the boat from Amsterdam, Holland," Keunen said. "But that was 51 years ago."

Keunen has been a fighter pilot in the U.S. Marine Corps, an engineer and an MBA. But when his company closed and moved to Mexico this year, he decided wine was his future.

"It's been worth it already. Since I got away from sitting behind a computer all day I've lost 15 pounds, I sleep better at night. It's just wonderful," he said.

Keunen is starting a new winery in the home he grew up in on East Lake Road in the Town of Gorham, just south of Canandaigua. His is the first winery on Canandaigua Lake's east side. The third around the lake. The winery is what New York State likes to call agri-tourism. But it's also an indication that the economy in the whole Canandaigua area is doing much better.

"Just what we need, another winery, that's great!" Sal Pietropaolo said. He's the city's director of economic development.     
    
"Are you honest about that?" this reporter asked.

"Yes, because of what it's generated into this area," Pietropaolo said.

Pietropaolo showed us the numbers. Price per square foot in commercial property is up. Retail occupancy is up 30 percent in the last four years. He says it's all spin off from the wine industry.

"Folks will come down and leisurely enjoy our city, what we have to offer," he said.

Boud Keunen says he's starting with seven varieties of wine. He's named his winery Wilhelmus Estate Winery, after his father.

"He brought us here from the old world, not knowing anybody, not knowing the language, having no relatives, came here and started to work," he said. "And we've all done very well ever since."

There are close to 100 wineries in the entire Finger Lakes. It's the largest concentration of wineries east of California.

Wilhelmus Estate Winery opens August 25.