166 rms; riv vu

Matt Rudikoff is standing on the Beacon waterfront where he and his Foss Beacon Group partners will soon build a 166-room hotel with a conference center as its centerpiece, thanks to a 49-year agreement forged with Scenic Hudson in 2004.

The environmental group owns the 25-acre former dumping grounds, where it is now busy putting in walkways, a promenade, docking facilities and kiosks for vendors. It will be a place to picnic for the public and hotel guests. A former junkman”™s building has been restored and Scenic Hudson hopes eventually to house a boat-building learning center in it. Right now, however, the building stands empty and Scenic Hudson is concentrating on the exterior of its waterfront park.

Rudikoff, in describing the LEED (leadership in environmental and energy)-certified technology that will go into Beacon”™s first hotel on a tour of the property in 2006, said it will be built on pilings above the 500-year-flood plain, allowing every room an unobstructed Hudson River view.

Those plans haven”™t changed, and as green technology blossoms, so will the use of the applications be incorporated into the hotel. The expanded and upgraded Metro-North station is just a golf shot from the site and the Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries”™ research center is readying to build just a quarter-mile downstream. There is a walkway promenade slated to connect Beacon”™s existing waterfront park to the walkway leading to the Rivers and Estuaries research center.

Rudikoff has inked an agreement with Doral Arrowood to put its well-known Westchester imprimatur on the hotel, and while Rudikoff works to get the final financing, Scenic Hudson is busy building the waterfront promenade and other amenities on its on-site park. Rudikoff needs that piece of financing to complete the deal for the area”™s first truly green hotel project, complete with a vegetated roof and the blessings of its landlord, Scenic Hudson.

One stumbling block: finance. While most of the greenbacks are already in place from a variety of banking sources, the project is still $4 million short of needed revenue.

While the new Doral Arrowood will benefit from an enhanced PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) program, Rudikoff is turning to the most logical source for economic development projects: Dutchess County”™s Industrial Development Agency.

Both the city of Beacon”™s current and former mayors, Steve Gold and Clara Lou Gould, have repeatedly praised what”™s known as the Long Dock Project, saying it will not only be the centerpiece of the waterfront revitalization, but will provide jobs, attract visitors to Beacon”™s gentrified Main Street and provide a needed economic boost.

With the new Institute for Rivers and Estuaries coming on line, the new Doral Arrowood will make the facility a much easier visit for scientists and just plain tourists. Throw in a dock for the Institute”™s research vessel and a trolley to take you to Main Street restaurants and art galleries, and you have all the trimmings of economic success. That”™s what Rudikoff is banking on.

The private partnership Scenic Hudson crafted for this waterfront parcel is unique in that its partners, Foss Beacon Group, formed for this sole purpose of creating the Long Dock Beacon project. Its three principals, Ned Foss, the lead partner and manager, Matt Rudikoff, a planner, developer and environmental consultant and Lawrence Linder of the American Institute of Architects, formed the collaboration specifically to work with the powerful environmental nonprofit.

So far, everyone”™s pleased and filled with unabashed anticipation for Beacon”™s future success. Rudikoff told Hudson Valley Business back in December 2007 he hoped the final piece of the financial puzzle would be in place by spring. With any luck and concensus from Dutchess County”™s IDA, Rudikoff may see plans to break ground happen right on schedule. Rudikoff, Scenic Hudson and the city of Beacon feel like they”™ve got a winner that will ride out economic dips and bring financial prosperity to Beacon.