'Tis a Puzzlement

Yesterday W. T. Eckert had an article in the Register-Star about the closing on the sale of 400 State Street: "Sale of Hudson Area Library final." Make no mistake, it was the building that was sold not the Hudson Area Library, but that may have been a Freudian slip.

What's puzzling in the article is the selling price, which Eckert reports as being $300,000. In August, Eckert reported that the library board had unanimously voted to approve the sale of the building to Galvan Partners for $476,500: "Hudson Library building sold." So did Eckert make a mistake, or was the selling price reduced after Galloway offered to prepare a place for the library in the Armory and allow the institution to be his tenant for the next thirty years for a mere dollar a month in rent?

Whether the price was $300,000 or $476,500, Galvan Partners appears to have gotten one of the best real estate bargains Hudson has seen in a long time. The Hudson Area Library bought the building in 2005 for $300,000. Since then it invested significantly more than $300,000 in the building--the money coming from a member item from State Senator Stephen Saland, two or three New York State Library Construction grants, a grant or two from the Hudson River Bank & Trust Foundation, a Restore NY grant, a member item from U.S. Congressman Scott Murphy, not to mention several thousand dollars from individual contributors to the library's capital campaign. None of that investment is reflected in the selling price.