More Development on the Waterfront

Much attention is now being focused on 41 Cross Street and the proposal to redevelop the building as a hotel. Meanwhile, the old Kaz warehouse buildings, located right behind and to the east of 41 Cross Street, have fallen off most people's radar.

The City of Hudson acquired this property back in 2010. At the time, the plan was to demolish the buildings and offer the site to developers. Instead, at some point along the way, the City turned the buildings over to Hudson Development Corporation to have that agency market them.

Early last August, the first draft of the request for proposals (RFP) for the Kaz buildings was ready for review by the HDC Board, but at the end of September, they were still working on a second draft. The RFP was finally completed and issued on December 2015. The deadline for submitting proposals was originally February 12, but it has been extended to March 18, two weeks from tomorrow.

Considering the impact whatever development is pursued on this site will have on the immediate neighborhood and on what is already happening in this waterfront area and the direction of future development, Gossips was curious to know the process for reviewing the proposals and determining which one, if any, will be accepted. So I posed the question to Sheena Salvino, executive director of HDC, and the following is the process she outlined.

• A subcommittee of the HDC Board will be formed. (The current members of the HDC Board are Duncan Calhoun, Brian Stickles, Eileen Halloran, Christine Jones, Carolyn Lawrence, and ex officio members Tiffany Martin Hamilton, mayor of Hudson, and Claudia DeStefano, Common Council president.)
• The Board will review the proposals against the review criteria outlined in the RFP.
• Assuming the Board receives proposals that "score well," the Board will invite the selected candidate(s) in for interview(s) to learn more about their intended project(s). Based on those interviews, the Board may narrow down the selection again or select an appropriate partner.
• Again, assuming that there is an appropriate partner, the Board will enter into negotiation with that partner.

The entire RFP can be reviewed here. The most pertinent section appears on page 7: Development Goals.

The Selection Criteria that the HDC Board will be using to evaluate the proposals is outlined on pages 10 and 11 and include:

• Consistency with Development Goals
• Financial Feasibility
• Employment Impact (the creation of jobs during construction and permanent onsite jobs)
• Economic Impact
• Financial Offer (the terms for the purchase or long-term lease of the site)
• Development Team Qualifications
• Schedule and Timing

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