The plan proposed by Galloway never happened, and since 2010, there have been a couple of different plans proposed for the adaptive reuse of the Dunn building.
Last year. the City issued an RFP (request for proposals) for the sale of the building. A committee formed to review and evaluate the proposals received deemed two of them worthy of consideration: one from Ben Fain and Caitlin Baiada; the other from Hudson Brewing Company. In December 2025, the Common Council heard presentations on both proposals. This post reports what happened at the meeting: "Two Plans for the Dunn Warehouse." Again, it is recommended reading. It should be noted that, although the committee recommended the plan proposed by Hudson Brewing Company, the Common Council never actually made a choice.
At the informal Common Council meeting earlier this week, a resolution was introduced authorizing the mayor "to execute a real contract of property sale with Hudson Brewing Co., Inc." Details of the terms of the contract were revealed during the Council discussion. Hudson Brewing Company would pay $500,000 to the City for the property. If they failed to complete the stabilization of the building within one year of purchase, they would pay the City a penalty of $90,000. If they sold the building to another party within two years of acquisition, they would have to pay the City $90,000. Members of Council were not happy with the terms. They wanted to contract to specify that if the stabilization of the building were not completed within one year, the ownership of the building would revert back to the City, and in the case of a sale of the building, they wanted the City to have right of first refusal in perpetuity.
Chris Jones and Nick Haddad, president and vice president respectively of Hudson Development Corporation (HDC), appeared at the meeting to argue that the building, which Jones called "a major asset on the waterfront," should remain in City ownership and to offer HDC's assistance in stabilizing the building and developing it for future use. Jones spoke of the feasibility study done by Saratoga Associates in 2015 and the options for redevelopment proposed in that study, one of which was a combination of retail space and community space. The illustrations below are from Saratoga Associates study.
The discussion of the proposed contract and the presentation by HDC can be heard here, beginning at 1:17:45 and ending at 1:37:17.
This afternoon, Mayor Joe Ferris issued the following statement regarding the proposed sale and the Council's discussion of it at Monday's meeting:
At this week's informal Common Council meeting, the public was witness to the orchestrated takedown of a small business that wants to continue to grow in Hudson. The proposed half-million-dollar sale of the Dunn Warehouse to Hudson Brewing Company will bring much needed revenue to the City's fund balance, turn a liability into a property and sales tax generator, and give a local business the chance to build on their decade worth of success.
Instead of a good-faith discussion by the Council about ways to improve the draft contract between the City and HBC, this local business was described as "snake oil salesman" and Council Members trafficked in knowingly false information in an effort to persuade their colleagues to reject the sale outright.
Even worse was that two members of the Hudson Development Corporation's executive committee--a body charged with "strengthening the City of Hudson's tax base," "support[ing] and further[ing] the interest of city-based businesses," and "assist[ing] the . . . development of sites, buildings, infrastructure, programs. and events to facilitate business development and expansion"--did not come in support of the local business that employs a dozen of our neighbors.
They were there to swoop in at the 11th hour with grandiose promises backed by little more than suggestions that HDC might collaborate with the City on a new vision for Dunn predicated on a study and plan created more than a decade ago.
Elected officials and organizations in Hudson use up a lot of oxygen positioning themselves as advocates for supporting and growing local businesses. Anyone who watched Monday's Council meeting would conclude that it is nothing more than lip service.
To borrow a phrase from Council President Margaret Morris during that meeting, when one Council Member and a HDC executive committee member have a vested private interest in the waterfront, "it leaves me with more questions than answers" when it comes to the motivation for this last-minute interjection. An interjection about a building that during their presentation they acknowledged their decade-long failure to take action on.
It is imperative that the Common Council act in good faith, provide my office with feedback on the contract, and for the City to come to an agreement with Hudson Brewing Company that is a win for the entire community.
For what it's worth, Gossips has always believed that it would be a mistake to sell the Dunn building. The fault is with the previous administration, which, from all appearances, seemed to want to sell the building as a way to close a budget gap. It is exceedingly unfortunate that Hudson Brewing Company is now caught in the middle of this controversy.
COPYRIGHT 2026 CAROLE OSTERINK
