When riding a new road, one knows it leads somewhere, but that doesn”™t guarantee how long it will take to complete the journey. Such is the situation facing Hudson Landing, a 1,658-unit housing complex to be built along the shores of the Hudson River in Kingston.
After eight years of planning and revising, a construction road last month finally opened leading to the site of the project. But there is still no word on when the first housing will be completed on what is planned as a 15-year build out process.
The road, called Hudson Landing Boulevard, opened Oct. 21 to applause of about 50 people and public officials. Off Route 32 near Frank Sottile Boulevard in the town of Ulster, the road will carry construction vehicles to the site along the Hudson River shore where in several stages the housing units are to be built along with some retail stores and restaurants along a waterfront path. The 535-acre property, formerly owned by Tilcon Inc., a mining company, straddles the border of Kingston and the town of Ulster, with most of it in Kingston.
Hudson Landing is to be built by Yonkers-based AVR Acquisition Corp. The project was first proposed in 2002 and drew opposition as too large and unsightly for its riverside setting, though that land was a former quarry. The company revamped its plans over several years and eventually got approval for a project that incorporates measures to preserve scenery and greenery as well as allow public access to the riverfront.
“We”™re delighted,” said Tom Perna of AVR, regarding the opening of the road. “It”™s been eight years of planning and evaluation and design and now we have a lot of site work to do. But we”™ve been through the most tedious part and now we”™re getting to the brick and mortar so it will move faster.”
Before AVR can start building the homes, it still needs to get site plan approval for the first phase of the project, which is to include between 100 and 400 homes. No plans for that phase have been submitted yet to Kingston”™s Planning Office and Perna has no timetable for when that would happen. Each subsequent phase also needs site plan approval.
“Gone are the days when people camped out to buy a unit,” said Perna, with a rueful laugh. He said AVR is increasing their marketing outreach to determine what consumers want, but said the location and amenities of the development and the region make it a relatively easy home to sell. And he said its locale within an existing city means that it has water and sewer and roads and thus each unit can be priced to sell. “We can be very competitive,” he said.
At the ceremony, Mayor James Sottile noted the long road the developer traveled just to get a construction road opened and said the effort was worth it.
“This was, sometimes a very frustrating process,” Sottile said. “The process may have been a little bit long, (but) we have the best project that not only the residents of Ulster County can be proud of, but I think the entire state of New York will look at how this came together.”
