Yesterday, the Hudson Industrial Development Agency (IDA) approved a ten-year PILOT for the redevelopment of the Crescent Garage located at Warren and Eighth streets. The building, which was constructed in 1917 as a car dealership, where Packards and other luxury automobiles were sold and serviced, has been vacant for more than ten years.
Also of interest from the meeting is the status of the 75 North Seventh Street, the second apartment building proposed by Galvan for the area of the city they have dubbed the "Depot District."
As it is now being proposed, this building will have 75 units: 15 reserved for households with incomes of less than 80 percent of the AMI (area median income); 5 units for households with incomes of less than 130 percent of the AMI; the rest of the units (55) will be market rate. Galvan originally sought a twenty-year PILOT for the building. The application had this to say about the project:
75 North 7th Street replaces a vacant lot with urgently needed housing and commercial space as part of the Depot District Neighborhood Development Initiative. It advances local development by creating an infill mixed-use building that catalyzes the rehabilitation of a historic neighborhood. The project addresses an urgent community need for workforce housing, including 20% of the units with rents (15 units) restricted to 30% of 80% of Area Median Income and 5% (4 units) restricted to 30% of 130% of AMI. There are no Income restrictions.
The application neglects to mention that the site was not a vacant lot before Galvan demolished the three houses that once stood there.
The IDA had BJH Advisors do a financial analysis of the project, and BJH came back with the recommendation that the length of the PILOT should be fifteen years rather than twenty. At the IDA meeting on Tuesday, Mike Tucker reported that this change was agreeable to Galvan. At the meeting, it was also decided that the IDA should move ahead with a public hearing. When and where that public hearing will take place has not yet been determined.
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Personally, I don't like PILOTS, in part because it's taxpayer subsidy of projects that are mostly dreams and often shrouded in secrecy about ownership. Who exactly is getting this 10-year pilot? In a previous post I saw that "the ownership group which includes Ian Hague of Ancram, NY, Daniel McCabe of Hudson, NY, and Kris Perry, Hudson, NY, who is project manager and design consultant...." but no mention of an ownership entity that's getting the PILOT or who else is involved. And isn't there a business plan, etc. to go along with this 10-year subsidy? --peter meyer
ReplyDeletePeter--You can find the information used by the IDA to make this determination--the application, the cost-benefit analysis, etc.--here: https://www.hudsonny.gov/board_and_committees/industrial_development_agency/active_projects.php.
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