Two municipalities in Ulster County and one in Dutchess were among the 64 recipients of $100 million in Restore-NY grants, which are designed to revitalize urban areas.
The money will help jumpstart an ambitious commercial downtown development in Saugerties, spur private investment in an older industrial area in Poughkeepsie, and enable a mixed-used green development downtown project to be completed in Kingston. Â
The awards were announced by Gov. Eliot Spitzer in mid January.
The mid-Hudson Valley region as a whole received approximately $7.4 million in Restore-NY grants, including $2.5 million for a development near Stewart Airport. The grant program stems from appropriations in the 2006-07 budget for $300 million worth of urban revitalization funds to be administered by Empire State Development Corp. Last year, $50 million of Restore-NY grants were distributed. Round 2 is the current distribution of $100 million, with the remainder of the money ”“ $150 million ”“ to be distributed in fiscal year 2008-09.
The money can be used for demolition as well as rehabilitation of abandoned residential and commercial buildings. It also can be spent on site development needs, such as installation of water and sewer infrastructure.
Saugerties is receiving $780,000 for a commercial development proposed by Partition Street Project L.L.C., a private investment group whose partners include Tom Struzzieri, the president and CEO of Horse Shows in the Sun (HITS). HITS is headquartered in the village and during the summer season has been a major force in bringing visitors and dollars to Saugerties”™ lodgings, restaurants and shops.
The Partition Street project, which was announced in conjunction with the awarding of the grant, will be located on a vacant lot. It will consist of a 500-seat catering hall, 150-seat restaurant, 30-unit hotel, retail spaces, 16 residential units and a kayak marina on the Esopus creek, which the site abuts.
The owner of Tavern on the Green, who owns a house in the area and has participated in HITS, has expressed interest in possibly operating the restaurant. Although still in the conceptual phase ”“ HITS marketing director John Eickman said detailed plans would be available in the spring ”“ the project is projected to produce $4.7 million in revenues and generate $376,000 in sales tax revenue, according to state Sen. John Bonacic, R-Mount Hope, who is a big supporter of the plan.
“Everybody is excited about the project,” Bonacic said. “Tom Struzzieri has done positive things for the economic vitality of Saugerties. He seems to do things first class when he makes an investment in a building,” a reference to the two historic buildings in the village that HITS restored for its headquarters. “He has a proven track record.”
Bonacic said the money would be used for infrastructure improvements related to the project, such as water and sewer hookups, new sidewalks and street lighting. He said the money “is a sign to the developer that the state believes in the project.”
Victor Cornelius, who is the village”™s grant writer, said he had requested $2.5 million in the grant application. He said the concentration of residents living in Section 8 subsidized housing was an advantage in applying for the grant. Although administered by the state, the grants are federal money, said Cornelius, and the federal government “requires 100 individuals in the municipality to be on some kind of public assistance” in order to qualify.
He said the grant money “should facilitate the Planning Board review.” He estimated that 10 percent of the money would be used to clean up lead contamination at the site, which was formerly a paper mill. He said Struzzieri had indicated interest in having the new buildings replicate the brick Victorian look of the old mill.
The city of Poughkeepsie received $600,951 in Restore-NY grants for the rehabilitation of three buildings it owns in the Cottage Street industrial corridor. The money will be supplemented by the city to meet the total projected cost of $661,476, said Poughkeepsie Mayor John C. Tkazyik.
“This is an industrial area the city is trying to market,” targeting “a blend of entrepreneurship,” Tkazyik said. “Bringing back the industrial corridor is a key component of revitalizing Poughkeepsie.” The city also has a waterfront development plan and Main Street rejuvenation project, which are well underway.
Two of the Poughkeepsie buildings are abandoned former brick manufacturing buildings. The city will repair the roofs and stabilize the structures in preparation for putting them on the market, to enhance their appeal to a commercial developer. The third building is a house, which the city will restore in efforts to attract an owner-occupier.
Karen O. Lewis, director of property development for Poughkeepsie, said the area is attracting some new business. Although bringing in business is a challenge, she said the grant money, along with Empire Zone tax incentives and assistance from the city, which ranges from zero-interest loans to façade-improvement grants, are a big help in marketing the area.
Kingston received $500,000 to help complete a $4.6 million renovation of the historic Kirkland Hotel in the Uptown district. The Rural Ulster Preservation Co. (RUPCO) is overseeing the project. RUPCO Executive Director Kevin O”™Connor said he expected to hold the ribbon cutting at the end of February.
The mixed-use project will consist of a restaurant and pub on the first two floors, a floor of offices, and two floors of residential units, of which five will be targeted to people earning up to 80 percent of county median salary. O”™Connor said he is in final negotiations with a restaurateur and has lined up tenants for the offices. (One will be RUPCO itself.)
Changing one floor from office space to housing and installing a geothermal heating and cooling system was responsible for cost overruns, said O”™Connor, who noted the project was originally budgeted at $3.5 million. O”™Connor said the project has attracted $1.85 million in grants and historic preservation tax credits amounting to $800,000. It also has deferred $450,000 in developer fees. Total debit is $1.5 million.
In conjunction with the project”™s green features, RUPCO obtained a package from the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority that included reduced interest rates on a long-term loan and additional tax credits, O”™Connor said.
According to a statement from Senator Bill Larkin, R-C, Cornwall-on-Hudson, the Kirkland Hotel project achieves multiple goals: commercial renewal in a downtown location, provision of affordable housing units, preservation of an 1896 Tudor-style historic building, and a boost to economic development in Kingston.
The amount of Restore-NY grants awarded to downstate New York, consisting of the Capital Region, mid-Hudson Valley, Long Island and New York City, was $26,380,472. That compares with $74 million for upstate New York. The region that got the highest amount of grant money was for western New York, which includes the city of Buffalo, for a total of $19.2 million. In contrast, New York City got $3.1 million.
