Kingston awarded $1.5M for St. Joseph’s Lofts project

The Ulster County city Kingston has been awarded a $1.15 million state grant to help fund the St. Joseph’s Lofts project, which involves repurposing a former parish house at 59 Pearl St. and a former religious school building at 236 Wall St.

CB Developers LLC is the project’s developer and is due to provide additional funding. The project consists of the preservation and adaptive reuse of the former St. Joseph’s School located at 236 Wall St. and the adjacent former convent parish house at 59 Pearl St. The school was constructed in 1915. It is to be fully updated to current accessibility and code requirements and converted into 10 office suites. There would be two office suites at the main level and four each on the second and third floors. The current gym and performance stage space located on the third floor would be converted into an event center. It’s expected that diverse cultural events will be staged in the event space.

The parish house at 59 Pearl St. was built in 1905. Plans call for it to be converted into three residential units.

The state money was awarded to Kingston as a result of a grant application prepared by the city’s grants management office.

“I am so proud of the work my grants management team does each day to help private entities and nonprofits access state resources,” Kingston’s Mayor Steve Noble said. “I”™m thrilled we were able to secure this funding for a great mixed-use project in the heart of the Stockade District. Projects like the St. Joseph”™s Lofts are exactly the kind of smart development we need in our community that preserve historic architecture, create new neighborhood amenities and build much-needed housing.”

The state money comes from funds in the state’s Restore New York Communities Initiative. The Kingston project was one of 70 sharing in $112.9 million in state funding through the program, which is designed to help remove blight, reinvigorate downtowns and generate economic opportunity.