A former lumber company moved closer to becoming a 600-unit housing and commercial complex on the shores of the Hudson River in Poughkeepsie.
Demolition of buildings at the former A.C. Dutton Lumber Corp. is beginning this month at the 14-acre site that has been vacant for years and in recent months has had a number of fires. Now, with city permits in hand, workers are moving in to remove rubble so that demolition can commence.
The site was home to Dutton Lumber from the early 1900s until it closed in the 1980s. It was bought in 2004 by New Jersey-based O”™Neill Group-Dutton L.L.C. It plans to build 586 one- and two-bedroom units, about 15,000 square feet of commercial space and a riverfront walkway. The developers are finalizing their environmental impact statement.
Louis Kaufman, site manager for the O”™Neill Group, said workers would first find and remove products such as asbestos and then knock the structures down.
Much of the rubble on the site from deconstructed buildings will be recycled as cover material and fill for the new buildings after environmental remediation. State officials believe the site is contaminated with arsenic, chromium and petroleum from its history of industrial use.
Poughkeepsie officials will be glad to get rid of structures that have recently proven to be a magnet for arsonists. There were small fires in March and in April that were contained, but an entire building burned down in spectacular fashion June 3, providing an eerie but fascinating spectacle for pedestrians on the Walkway Over the Hudson with a bird”™s eye view of the fire.
A public hearing on the redevelopment project”™s draft environmental impact statement is set for July 28.
