Chinese restaurant planned by ex-Ivy Ridge’s new owner

OGDENSBURG — Chinese businessman Jingtian (James) Ma’s plan to open an English as second language school at the former Academy at Ivy Ridge here may be credited to his listening to United States government radio more than 30 years ago.

Mr. Ma, 55, says he hopes that one year from now, Chinese youths will come here to spend their last year of high school learning English at the former school for troubled youths on Route 37 west of the city. He bought the 238-acre campus last month in a sale that is expected to close next month. He also bought a former restaurant that not only will offer native cuisine, but will be expanded to feature specialty shops.

But in 1977, Mr. Ma was an architect, fresh out of university in his native Qindao province. English was a challenge, so he decided to listen to language lessons that were broadcast on the Voice of America. It paid off, especially a few years later, when he was beginning a career in the import-export business. Others were stunned when told how he became so fluent.

“You learned English on the radio?” Mr. Ma last week recalled being asked. “Unbelievable.”

Mr. Ma and his partners figure the Chinese youths who will spend their year here as a launching pad to American universities will have a learning process easier than his, and help the new school succeed in its mission.

“We want to help them improve their English and introduce them to the American culture,” Mr. Ma said Thursday in Ogdensburg.

The school will start out with 200 students and eventually peak with an enrollment of 500. The employee payroll will be somewhere between 50 and 100 workers, Mr. Ma said.

China’s emergence as a dominant economic power is well-documented. But according to Mr. Ma, the youth of his country want to see the world and learn and live in it, too.

“There are a lot of students who want to come out, who want to go abroad, who want to study abroad,” he said.

He agrees, pointing out that as far as he is concerned, English still prevails in the world of language.

“I think the whole world considers English the universal language,” he said.

In 2002, however, Mr. Ma ended his import-export career to launch an enterprise that was somewhat the reverse of what he plans here, but with the same mission. He started a school to teach Chinese to Americans, Europeans, Koreans and Japanese living and working in China. He also taught English himself.

“To live there, to work there, you need a language,” Mr. Ma said, adding that he sold the school in 2009.

Mr. Ma scouted several U.S. locations before settling on Ogdensburg and the former Ivy Ridge campus in June.

“When I came to Ogdensburg, I really liked the environment,” he said, making special mention of the St. Lawrence River and the warmth of the people he and his associates met.

Since he intends to live here, the establishment of the school will bring Mr. Ma and his wife closer to their daughter, a U.S.-educated certified public accountant living in Ohio.

The plan to open a Chinese restaurant here started last month when Mr. Ma purchased the former Sholette’s Steak and Ale restaurant, 1000 Linden St. The family-run business was there from 1996 until 2009, when it closed, capping a 59-year presence in the city. A liquor store run by the Sholettes at the rear of the 7,760-square-foot building will stay open.

The purchase price wasn’t disclosed. But according to Bruyere Chadwick Realty, Ogdensburg, which brokered the sale, the asking price was $349,900. Mr. Ma said he plans to offer the restaurant for the dining convenience of the future school’s students, families and visitors. The restaurant will be open to the public and he hopes to attract Canadian diners as well.

And that’s not all. Mr. Ma said he intends to annex to the building hops that will sell Chinese goods. He may even open an acupuncture service.

“To make it a little Chinatown,” Mr. Ma said.

The restaurant faces Route 37, which is convenient because the school overlooks the highway about seven miles to the west in the town of Oswegatchie.

“It is a good location,” Mr. Ma said.

For the Sholette family, Mr. Ma’s plans will at least continue, albeit in another cuisine, the business that began in 1950 and changed locations three times before the ground-breaking at 1000 Linden St.

“Mixed emotions,” said Pauline G. Sholette, who started the business with her husband, Delbert, who died in 1999. “I’m glad it’s done.

Mrs. Sholette’s son and co-owner, Mark, met Mr. Ma two weeks ago when the businessman visited his pending acquisition.

“He seemed like a nice man,” Mr. Sholette said Wednesday. ”I shook his hand.”