A PILOT for The Wick

The Hudson Industrial Development Agency met this morning to continue its consideration of a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) request from Redburn Development for its redevelopment of 41 Cross Street as a 55-room hotel.

The members of the IDA present at this morning's meeting—Tiffany Garriga (Common Council majority leader), Tiffany Martin Hamilton (mayor), Heather Campbell (city treasurer), Cheryl Kazsluga (city assessor), and Tom DePietro (Planning Board chair)—had three issues to decide. (1) Did they want to pursue a PILOT for the project? (2) Did they want to do the PILOT entirely by themselves, did they want to contract with CEDC (Columbia Economic Development Corporation) to administer the PILOT for them, or did they want to ask the county IDA to take over and do the PILOT following guidelines from the Hudson IDA? (3) How would the PILOT be structured?

In a meeting that lasted slightly more than two hours and included an executive session to discuss Redburn Development's "financials," the IDA came to agreement on all those questions and passed two resolutions. The first resolution was to ask the Columbia County IDA to consider a PILOT for the project, in accordance with guidelines from the city IDA, to be administered by CEDC. It was early on agreed that the Hudson IDA, which hasn't done a project in more than seven years, could not do the PILOT alone. They would need CEDC to administer the PILOT, and that would require a contract between the Hudson IDA and CEDC which might take all summer to put in place. Out of consideration for time (Redburn Development wants to get their financing and construction contracts in place and start the work before summer is over), the IDA agreed to turn the PILOT over to the county IDA. 

The second resolution passed by the IDA outlined the structure of the PILOT—a structure that would be proposed to the county IDA. In the first year, the payment in lieu of taxes would be $20,000; in the second year, it would be $25,000; beginning in the third year, it would increase by $9,375 every year until it reached $100,000 in the tenth year.

It is anticipated that the Columbia County IDA will begin its consideration of the PILOT request on June 14.

Before the resolutions were proposed and voted on, Mayor Tiffany Martin Hamilton noted that she had had many meetings with Tom Rossi and John Blackburn of Redburn Development and had "asked tough questions. " She was impressed by their responses and their demeanor. She concluded, "These are the kind of developers we want in Hudson." Alluding to the property's current tax exempt status, she stated, "On a net basis, it's a win for us, and it is starting to dramatically grow and improve that area of the city that we are so focused on."  
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Addendum: Gossips has been informed that the next Columbia County IDA meeting will take place on Friday, June 10, at 8:30 a.m. The IDA typically meets at 4304 Route 9 in Greenport, the building that was once the offices of St. Lawrence Cement.