Once a dumping ground, now a destination.
That sums up how many who survived urban renewal during the 1960s view Beacon”™s former decline and current ascendancy.
Citizens who hung in and stayed through some of the city”™s darkest years now see a beacon at the end of Beacon”™s tunnel.
And while Scenic Hudson may be a thorn in the side to some, you”™ll be hard pressed to find anyone with anything negative to say about the environmental group in Beacon. As far as officials and most of its residents are concerned, Scenic Hudson has helped Beacon, phoenixlike, to rise from the proverbial ashes.
Scenic Hudson managed to hook up the Manhattan-based Dia Center for the Arts on the former manufacturing town. The lure? A shuttered, 300,000-square-foot factory sitting on 33 acres of Hudson River waterfront.
The former Nabisco packing plant was a problem for Beacon. What would they do with the “800 pound gorilla sitting on our waterfront?” said former Mayor Clara Lou Gould, who did not seek re-election in November after 18 years as mayor and who relinquished power to Mayor Steve Gold Jan.1. After negotiating the $1 purchase price with the property”™s post-Nabisco owner, International Paper, Manhattan”™s Dia found a home for its large collection of contemporary art, spending millions to renovate the building and opening in 2003. In turn, Dia gave Beacon an artists”™ imprimatur the city has continued to build on.
The allure of Victorian-style homes and a Main Street waiting for tenants and shoppers, along with a view that, on a clear day, highlights the Manhattan skyline from atop Mount Beacon, has helped the city come back with a bang. It is drawing investors, artists and urban dwellers from New York City who see it as a place to live, work and play at prices that can”™t be found in the five boroughs or in the gentrified metropolitan outskirts.
Former Gov. George Pataki”™s selection of the city as the site for the Institute for Rivers and Estuaries was instrumental to city”™s waterfront revitalization plan. Modeled after Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts, the new research center, when built, will focus on freshwater studies.
When the planned waterfront institute opened a storefront on Main Street, shopkeepers rejoiced. Offering updates of what would eventually come to the waterfront, the institute”™s eclectic art gallery and information center have lent an upbeat presence to Main Street”™s growing group of businesses. Along with Hudson Beach Glass, the Piggy Bank Restaurant and a host of other diverse stores (and eccentric store owners), Beacon”™s once-blighted streets have become avenues of opportunity.
Scenic Hudson has played a key part in the city”™s urban revival and “fortunately,” said the former mayor, “when it came time to developing the waterfront property they owned, they listened to the people in the city.”
Rather than a passive recreational use park, Scenic Hudson will partner with Foss Group Beacon, leasing a portion of its 25-acre waterfront parcel to the developers for the city”™s first hotel. When built, it will be a quarter-mile from the Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries (now in the design phase) and just a short walk to Metro-North”™s Beacon station and the new Newburgh-Beacon ferry link that is growing in popularity.
“We”™re finalizing the capital structure,” said Matt Rudikoff for Foss Beacon. “We”™re writing our final environmental impact statement and expecting to break ground this spring.” The planned $85 million dollar hotel will offer 366 rooms and a 29,000-square-foot conference center, managed by Doral Arrowood. Rudikoff and his partners”™ plans for the building are cutting-edge LEED (leadership in environmental and energy design) technology, “right down to the vegetated roof.”
The remainder of Scenic Hudson”™s property will be developed as public parkland, with a walking promenade linking existing walking trails that already exist on each side of the property. Fishing, kayaking, relaxing with a good book, all within the public”™s reach, is Scenic Hudson”™s goal.
With Metro-North”™s expanded Beacon station nearby, Beacon”™s waterfront could become more of a magnet for tourism, with a trolley connecting the train to Main Street, which both Gould and Gold hope will eventually continue running throughout the year rather than on a seasonal basis. A dock for the Beacon Institute”™s research vessel will be built nearby, complementing the city”™s harbor management plan.
Marc Moran, the chief operating officer for the institute, said the research facility is in the design stages. “The current 4,000-
square-foot visitor and teaching center is largely a state Parks Department endeavor,” he said. “They oversaw the renovation of the property, including the landscaping and the site improvements. We plan for it to open this spring.”
The research institute itself will be designed by Croxton Collaborative in New York City. Moran guesstimated its price to be between $25 million and $30 million when completed. “We are probably six months away from the final design,” said Moran, “and then we”™ll go through the SEQRA process. We hope to start construction sometime this year and expect it will take 18 to 24 months to complete.
“Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute has been instrumental throughout this project; they”™ve met with us on many occasions. Their facility is a model. In the process, we are also learning what they would change if they were building now, rather than when they started out 50 years ago. A lot of technology will go into this building, something Woods Hole didn”™t have available back then. We”™re also learning what worked and what didn”™t for them as a result of their input.
“The Institute for Rivers and Estuaries will distinguish itself because it is dedicated solely to the study of freshwater,” said Moran. “Our collaboration with IBM to monitor the entire length of the Hudson is designed to bring an element into the mix that will give us real-time information about how we are positively or negatively affecting the river. We”™re very fortunate to have them a technology partner. Right now we have sensors located in spots; eventually the entire river will be linked.”
Dennings Point Park, where Building One is located, “has been an opportunity to revitalize a state park that hadn”™t seen much improvement until Scenic Hudson appeared on the horizon,” said Moran. “A dock for our research vessel is planned for the city.” Beacon just received a $650,000 grant from the state to pay for the park design and early construction work.
Like any other metropolitan area, this city of 16,000 still has its share of problems, but there are more pluses than drawbacks, say city proponents. “At first, many people were wary of Scenic Hudson,” said Gould. “But we realized they had more to offer and really weren”™t looking to take properties off the tax rolls. They were looking at the big picture and what something like Dia: Beacon could attract ”“ rateables and tourism.”
New Mayor, Steve Gold, agrees. “Beacon is really benefiting from everything that Scenic Hudson has brought to it,” he said at a holiday mixer the Beacon Institute held in late December. “We have a great city that”™s making a great comeback. It”™s a pleasure to walk down Main Street and see people taking an active interest in the community again.”
