In Poughkeepsie, big changes are afoot for the area around the railroad station and waterfront. But no one yet knows much about what will emerge.
As city officials work with Metro-North Railroad officials to begin creating a transit-oriented development, two key business locales in the area are facing major changes, one voluntarily and the other at the behest of federal bankruptcy court.
In a move announced May 17, a Stanfordville construction management firm is partnering with owners of the River Station to redevelop the popular restaurant”™s site along North Water Street in Poughkeepsie, with options under consideration that could include tearing down the restaurant to allow for rebuilding the site, according to River Station owner Kevin Kihlmire.
River Station and Stanfordville-based The Palombo Group, are entering into a joint venture that could redevelop the restaurant site, which has undergone numerous upgrades over the years and is now a popular venue, with an outdoor deck overlooking Waryas Park and the Hudson River.
The size and parameters of the potential work remain private, for now. “Until we get our details ironed out with our partners we don”™t want to comment in any detail,” said Kihlmire, who declined to discuss the acreage involved in the proposal. He said that a formal proposal is being prepared for city officials that should be submitted in four to six weeks, at which point, he said, he will be happy to discuss the proposed project in detail.
The parcel is on the corner of Water Street and Main Street. A short walk up Main Street from River Station leads to the Poughkeepsie railroad station, with a parking lot that fronts on Dooley Square, a refurbished 60,000-square-foot brick edifice where 19 tenants ranging from a Segway personal transport showroom to a barber shop to an Italian restaurant and an Irish pub all face an uncertain future.
Judge Cecelia G. Morris of U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Poughkeepsie on May 12 said she would sign a sale order that will eventually convey the property to Preferred Group, which bid $3.75 million for the complex of commercial and office space.
Dooley Square owner R.J. Dooley Realty Inc. filed for bankruptcy last year. Donald Feerick, an attorney for Mahoney”™s Irish Pub, which stands to lose its lease under the ruling, said he plans to appeal the judge”™s ruling. Feerick said a dozen businesses could be forced out of their spots at the complex.
In her ruling Morris said “this sale protects most of the tenants, the ones who are in compliance” with their lease agreements.
