The Hotel Proposed for Union Street

Yesterday, the Hudson IDA (Industrial Development Agency) held a special meeting to hear more from 620 Hudson House LLC about the proposal to convert 620 Union Street, the former Home for the Aged, into a 50-room hotel that will be "art focused, as well as history focused."

David Kessler, who is the developer for the project, assured the IDA that he was committed to hiring locally. He explained that rather than bringing his team from New York City to Hudson, he was creating a team locally. The landscape architect is located in Hudson; the engineer is from Chatham; the architect is from Troy. He also talked about his commitment to staffing the new hotel with local people, explaining that although he was looking to hire everyone from Hudson he could not commit to that. What he would commit to was 30 new jobs, 14 of them for people in Hudson, 16 for people in Columbia and Greene counties. When asked why all the jobs could not go to Hudson people, Kessler cited the 4 percent unemployment rate in Hudson, which he said was lower than the national average. (Gossips research found that the unemployment rate for New York State was 4 percent, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics sets the unemployment rate for the entire country at 3.6 percent.)

Kessler also outlined what he called a "robust training platform," which would involve hands-on training and "deep background in the property's history." There would be a two-week training program for non-managerial positions and a six-week training program for managers. Mike Tucker, who serves as the administrative director of the Hudson IDA, noted there have been discussions with the Hudson Business Coalition about developing training programs in hospitality and retail and suggested that this project could be the impetus for an expanded program.

Christine Chale, counsel to the IDA, asked about construction jobs. Kessler said it was not possible at this point to determine the number of construction jobs, but his goal was to have 25 percent of the work done by Hudson firms, 25 percent by firms in Columbia and Greene counties, and 50 percent by firms in the Albany area. Chale also outlined the benefits available to the project:

• Sales tax exemption on materials for the hotel
• Exemption from mortgage recording tax
• PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) agreement   

Chale went on to explain that, according to the uniform PILOT policy agreement, the recipient of a PILOT for a commercial project pays 50 percent of the property tax on the assessed value in the first year, and the amount increases by 5 percent each year until it reaches 100 percent. She noted that The Wick had asked for a deviation from the uniform PILOT policy to pay only 20 percent in the first year and to have the amount of annual increase be greater to achieve 100 percent within the same ten year time period. Chale told the members of the IDA that this project would probably also be looking for a deviation. She went on to advise, "You need an exact proposal laid out before you can make a decision."

The next meeting of the IDA will take place on Tuesday, March 10, at 1 p.m.
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