Galvan Rebranding

Recently the following appeared on Facebook, providing evidence that the Galvan Initiatives Foundation has been morphed into what is now being called the Galvan Center for the Common Good.

This post is ironic in a few ways. First, the building featured is the house at 215 Union Street, which was built by Galvan from 2014 to 2017, using some of the materials salvaged from 900 Columbia Street, demolished by Galvan in 2013. 

The notion that the rather grand single-family house at 215 Union Street, currently occupied by a single individual, somehow represents affordable housing for Hudson seems a tad absurd. According to Gossips sources, the house, owned by Galvan, is currently being rented to one of Eric Galloway's friends.

Another irony is that Galvan, a group that under several different names acquired countless properties in Hudson, emptied them of residents, and held them vacant for ten or more years, is now touting itself as a housing advocate. Many have contended that Galvan created the housing crisis in Hudson that it is now purporting to remedy.  

Then there is the notion of building more housing. Galvan's efforts to address what is perceived as a crisis are happening at a snail's pace. The restoration of 501 Union Street has been going on in fits and starts for nine years. The two apartment buildings proposed by Galvan for the "Depot District" had their needed approvals back in July. The state funding sought for 75 North Seventh Street didn't come through as expected, but work on the building across the street, 76 North Seventh, the one being privately financed, could have commenced, but it hasn't. 

The post on Facebook encourages readers to visit galvan.org to learn about the Galvan Center's housing advocacy. If you visit the website, you will find not only the new logo that Gossips posted about in September but also a new mission statement. The registration documents filed with the New York Charities Bureau for the Galvan Initiatives Foundation in 2011 defines its mission in this way:

To preserve the unique heritage of the City of Hudson, New York, by acquiring, interpreting, conserving, and maintaining buildings of architectural and historical significance.

The certificate of incorporation for the not-for-profit foundation expands on this mission statement by saying:  

It is their [Donors' and Trustees'] further intent that said Foundation direct its efforts specifically toward the promotion of affordable housing and related services to low-income and otherwise disadvantaged persons living in the vicinity of the City of Hudson, New York State, by: (a) sponsoring, planning, acquiring, developing, restoring and operating fee and leasehold properties in the area of the aforesaid City of Hudson; and (b) conducting any and all lawful activities which may be useful and desirable in furtherance of the foregoing.

The website defines the mission of the Galvan Center for the Common Good in this way: 

To advance the common good by supporting strong advocates, vibrant communities, and cultural expressions that foster civic action.

There is another change at Galvan that merits mention. Gossips has learned that Galvan Housing Resources and Galvan Asset Management have moved from their office at 252 Columbia Street to 11 Warren Street, Suite 3. That building, of course, is the ill-fated strip mall constructed during urban renewal, which never was a shopping center but was for many years the location of COARC. The move suggests that the plan to partner with Benchmark Development of Great Barrington to replace "an unattractive and out-of-place building with a new mixed-use building designed to reflect the historic character of Hudson" and provide 68 market rate apartments, proposed in February 2021, has been abandoned.

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