About the Dunn Warehouse
On Tuesday, the Common Council was supposed to vote on a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into a contract with Hudson Community Development & Planning Agency to have its executive director, Sheena Salvino, administer the Restore NY grant for the Dunn warehouse. This contract was a long time coming. It has been more than a year since the City received the grant to stabilize one of the last 19th-century industrial buildings on Hudson's waterfront.
When the resolution came up on the agenda Tuesday night, Council president Tom DePietro announced that the resolution was being tabled, because, as he explained, "the mayor wants to rethink the arrangement." Curious to know what that meant, I asked Mayor Rick Rector, who told me he "wanted additional clarification of the possible issues with the grant as written."
That statement reminds us of the concerns raised soon after the grant was announced in January 2017. At that time, Rector, who then, as First Ward alderman, chaired the Common Council Economic Development Committee, told the committee he had recently learned that "the grant is tied into a developer with a plan in place." Tabling the resolution suggests that Rector may still be concerned about the grant requiring the City to surrender the building, owned by the City and adjacent to a public park, to a private developer.
The adaptive reuse of the building is one of the projects included in Hudson's draft DRI Investment Plan. The DRI request for the project is $1 million. The project abstract states: "The City of Hudson will use DRI funds to stabilize and prepare the Dunn Warehouse for future to-be-determined use."
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If that's the Mayor's reason, though there may be a different reason, then I'm very grateful for his wariness.
ReplyDeleteagreed !
Delete"the grant is tied into a developer with a plan in place."
ReplyDeletei wonder just who that could be ...
hmmm
Applause for Mayor Rector to pause and take another look at this.
ReplyDeleteThe Mayor needs to understand that vision and thoughtful planning are not in the Hudson tradition. He needs to get into Prison Alley and cut a deal with somebody...
ReplyDeleteOr perhaps the deal has already been cut, between HDC and the developer; or perhaps HDC never made the "plan in place" portion of the arrangements public, only informing its favored developer, in which case only said developer would qualify within the given time frame. If either is the case, and those provisions in the grant are irrevocable, then HDC is just running true to form. The (only qualifying) developer gets a gift from HDC through the building's stabilization at no cost to the developer - and the City loses the building. And perhaps this is the reason for the delay in the commencement of implementation of the grant...the preferred developer needed time to get its "plan in place" and ready for presentation, before the stabilization could commence.
DeleteI think the warehouse should become a tollhouse, begin charging for "landlubber access." Columbia County's motor boaters have paid for the last 62 years, why should landgators get in for free.
ReplyDelete