The village of Saugerties might be getting a new gateway to its southern entrance, transforming an archaic industrial ruin into a hotel and conference center.
The Partition Street Project being proposed at the seven-acre site of the former Cantine paper mill, which burned down in 1975, calls for creating a 500-seat conference center and catering facility in a two-story building and a 30-room boutique hotel in a three-story building. It also calls for a parking area that could accommodate 215 vehicles and a restaurant that would be part of the catering facility.
“I think it”™s a great project,” Saugerties Mayor Robert A. Yerick said. “It”™s going to bring a big boost to the village economy.”
Thomas Struzzieri, president and CEO of Horse Shows in the Sun, also in Saugerties, is the developer of the proposal, which would be built by Saugerties-based contractor John Mullen, of J. Mullen and Sons.
Struzzieri said the project would replace an eyesore with an attraction that would bring visitors to Saugerties and replace a decrepit mill with a modern facility that would improve the property tax base.
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A public hearing on the project was held Oct. 26 and drew about 150 to village hall. The crowd was almost entirely supportive of the concept, although some questioned whether the number of parking spaces was excessive and location of the parking lots could be improved. There was also several calls for developers to create a walkway along the Esopus Creek to provide additional public access.
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After the hearing, Struzzieri said that it was not possible to create a walkway, given the topography of the site. He said the buildings would not actually be on the creek, but atop a bluff overlooking the water. And he said that in any case, the project was not designed to accommodate the public, but to provide privacy for guests at the hotel and conference center.
“It”™s not simple to build it into the plans and it”™s not what we have in mind for the property,” Struzzieri said. He said the business plan “Is based on what you can charge for the privacy you can offer.”
Not everyone agrees the site is prohibitive to a walkway. “I do believe it”™s possible,” Yerick said. “Whether it”™s practical from a financial point of view or from a property usage point of view I”™m not sure.”
Developers hope to receive a negative declaration under SEQRA from the village planning board, since in their view, only positive environmental outcomes will arise from the plan to turn an abandoned eyesore into a modern conference center and hotel. John Eickman, a project consultant for Partition Street Partners, said an archaeological investigation of the site was conducted because it used to house a paper mill, and that there also was a “threatened and endangered species” review and a traffic impact assessment.?Eickman said the Partition Street Project would not infringe on the nearby Esopus Creek. He also said studies showed most of the traffic related to the project would occur in the evenings and on weekends not during current peak traffic times in the village, which occur during weekday work hours.
Struzzieri said that if the negative declaration is received as expected, then the project could break ground in the spring.
