Monday, November 27, 2023

The Future of the Former Kaz Site

Today, Ben Fain's plans for the former Kaz site were the subject of an article in the Albany Business Review: "'Dream project' would transform site near Hudson train station." The article begins:
What was once an industrial building near the railroad tracks in Hudson where workers made humidifiers and vaporizers could be transformed into an airy, light-filled venue that can host year-round events such as a farmers market.
That vision for the former Kaz Inc. manufacturing site is possible because of nearly $3.5 million in state grants that have been awarded over the past several years and financing from a group of family and friends led by Ben Fain. 

Regarding the farmers market, the article clarifies that the idea that this might be the future home of the Hudson Farmers Market is still just that: an idea.
Fain's dream is to bring the popular Hudson Farmers to the site from its downtown home at North 6th and Columbia streets, but emphasizes it's only an idea at this point.
"I'm crossing my fingers we can build a space around them," Fain said. "They're already an extremely successful organization. We'll see what happens."
The article contains one amusing error that betrays lack of knowledge of Hudson even more than describing Sixth and Columbia streets as "downtown." In talking about recently completed projects in close proximity to the Kaz site, the article says, "The Wick is a 55-room boutique hotel in a renovated candle factory at 711 Warren St." Anyone who knows Hudson the least little bit knows that 711 Warren Street is nowhere near the Kaz site. Anyone who knows Hudson slightly better knows that 711 Warren Street is the location of Poured Candle Bar not a 55-room hotel, but candles figure into both. It seems odd that an article in the Albany Business Review, which reports regularly on projects undertaken by Redburn Development, doesn't mention that it was Redburn Development that transformed the historic industrial building, originally a candle factory, into a boutique hotel called The Wick.

The article includes this rendering of the redeveloped site which we haven't seen before.


It's not at all clear how, in this rendering, the building fits into its context, but my guess is that's the municipal parking lot at the train station in the lower right and Cross Street in the upper left, but I could be wrong.
COPYRIGHT 2023 CAROLE OSTERINK

4 comments:

  1. I'm really impressed with the great new development happening in Hudson. Now if only we could add a big-ass gravel dump and an industrial truck route to the mix on the waterfront, everything would be peachy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This would be a great development and nice for the farmers market, especially a better winter location than the depressing Elk's Lodge (sorry, I'm sure it's a fun place to drink though). The question remains though... does the actual farmer's market and vendors want to move there?

    ReplyDelete
  3. The Hudson Farmers' Market has no plans to move from the Elks Lodge.

    And a reminder: our Holiday Market starts this Saturday AT the Elks Lodge! You can catch us from 10am to 1pm on 12/2, 12/9, 12/16, and 12/23 (at 201 Harry Howard Ave). We'll have 30+ vendors, live music, hot food and drinks, and local crafters for all your holiday shopping-- all in a warm, unpretentious atmosphere.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I thought the gravel company issue was hurting the area near the waterfront. Seems to not have an impact on development down there, that's interesting.

    ReplyDelete