Gossips just received the link to the following press release issued by Bard College.
Galvan Donates Real Estate Portfolio to Bard College in Historic Gift to Advance Community Building Mission and Support Bard's Endowment Campaign
In a transformative act of philanthropic partnership, Galvan Foundation has made a major gift to Bard College, marking the next step for the Foundation's legacy of community development in Hudson and Columbia County. The gift will be directed towards Bard's groundbreaking $500 million endowment campaign. The donation includes a large collection of mixed-income housing units, single-family homes, and reinvigorated commercial and public-use properties, all positioning Bard as the new steward of these significant nonprofit real estate holdings. Galvan will also establish a fund dedicated to support ongoing Bard programming in Columbia County. The gift will deepen Bard College's engagement with the communities of Hudson, where Bard has run an early college program since 2016, and Columbia County, both of which neighbor Bard's Annandale-on-Hudson campus.
Established by Henry van Ameringen and T. Eric Galloway, Galvan has been a vital force in Hudson since 2002, advancing the common good through innovative community investments: developing mixed-income housing; funding and housing nonprofit organizations; as well as funding education initiatives, including the Bard Early College in Hudson. Foundation projects have revitalized key community sites and neighborhoods such as the Hudson Armory; historic Allen Street; Union Street; Warren Street; North Fifth Street, and the Hudson Depot District. Through partnerships with nonprofit organizations and county government, Galvan created and preserved spaces for essential civic institutions, including the Hudson Area Library, Hudson Senior Center, The Starting Place Daycare Center, Greater Promise Neighborhood [sic], Camphill Hudson assisted living residences, Columbia Opportunities Head Start, Hudson Little League, Galvan Civic Motel transitional housing for families, and The Foundry at Hudson, a civic arts nonprofit in a restored foundry building. Bard College looks forward to developing stronger ties with the local communities of Hudson and Columbia County, including the partnerships established by the Foundation, and will honor the terms of the existing leases and contracts.
"Galvan's commitment to the common good through place-based investment has shaped Hudson for more than two decades," said Dan Kent, Vice President of the Foundation. "By entrusting this portfolio to Bard, we are ensuring our work will continue long into the future, confident that Bard will sustain our mission and amplify its impact."
The press release continues. The complete text can be found here.
I’m sure this will make a lot of the haters happy.
ReplyDeleteLet’s see what happens to all the organisations he supported. Leaves a big hole for many.
I don’t think anyone can blame them for doing this.
I also am concerned for Mayors Johnson & Scalera 😢
Delete- Did everyone’s property value in Hudson the College Town just shoot up by 10 percent, or drop by 10%. Refreshing zillow for the Zestimate read.
ReplyDelete- What’s Rick Scalera going to do with his afternoons now?
- Does this technically mean Kamal and Michelle live in a Bard dorm room? Ambition comes in strange shapes.
- Will the Galvan-Kamal rent receipts finally see daylight or now be old news?
- Is Bard going to sell off the whole portfolio in one go lowering housing costs overnight. Or are we getting a shiny new satellite campus?
- Will Peter Spear become adjunct-in-residence at the Hannah Arendt Center for Citizen Assemblies?
- Bard is less litigious than Galvan, which is a relief. As a progressive university, they might listen more. Also, they care about hedges. Landscaping budget incoming. Bill Huston, rejoice.
- Sincerely though.... what happens to Carlos and the Galvan crew? Hopefully not just a polite handshake and goodbye. They are good and honest workers and kind people. Carlos, if they say goodbey to you guys please create Carlos Contracting and compete in the market, as immigrants you guys will clean up.
- Does Bard now sponsor Winter Walk? Imagine it, but with cello solos and performance art.
- Can they turn Helsinki into an edgy performance space again?
- This is bad news for Murrell... Columbia County didn't have a radical left College campus... tough week over on State Street for HCHC and BOS.
- Will Ronan Farrow pop by more often? Bard graduate, Rhodes Scholar, enemy of billionaires. Not a socialist, though. Might enjoy a cortado at Moto. Mark Allen collab?
- Was this the result of a long, quiet courtship, or a shotgun wedding after Roger’s exposé?
Maybe the PILOT spigot running dry?
Or was it years of silent loathing finally bursting into action?
- Man... Tom DePietro and Kamal's electoral loss... how incredibly consequential. Monumental. Now Bard and others will have competent centrist residents like Margaret and Joe/Peter to deal with, and eventually a City Manager. If Margaret and the mayor-contenders did not run for office and win... Bard and others would have had their way with the old guard just like Galvan/Spark did.
- Think about it... if Tom and Kamal ran unopposed again then the ill conceived flood zone Mill Street housing project would have succeeded (it is now dead in the water, thanks Theresa and PB), and Kamal and Michelle may have tried to somehow turn Bard into the new housing focussed Galvan/Spark hybrid... And some Bard students or faculty would have joined the Hudson voting base permanently changing the dynamic.
Either way, long-time residents were worried about one or two Tesla "transplants".. Elon Musk 2.0s changing things...
Hudson just became a test case in institutional gentrification. Buckle up.
📌 If anyone from Bard's leadership is reading this... please don't make the mistake that Galvan and Spark did of teaming up with one small faction of the Town. Please hire someone from Harvard that managed the Allston expansion or the team behind the Cornell-Tech expansion or anyone not from Hudson. This can go very wrong or very right.
Go slow, start with the incoming Common Council President and incoming Mayor, and be very transparent. Do not pick favorites or hire locals.
But please consider selling the land (it achieves your matching requirement for the Soros gift?) and then you don't sit with Hudson as an engine of drama and politics. You already have undergrads. And then Hudson gets more properties on the tax roll.
Does this include the "rental" the "Mayor" is currently living in?
ReplyDeleteIt's really a shame that the #11 Warren St. deal with the County went down before this new announcement. We would likely have gotten a much better outcome if it was in the hands of Bard.
ReplyDeleteI don't expect that Bard will be hanging on to that real estate for very long. Once they get a taste of the local political culture, they will learn to be more cautious when accepting gifts.
ReplyDeleteWOW
ReplyDeleteWhy would Bard be interested in becoming a landlord in Hudson? How is this part of their mission, unless all they see are dollar signs? It seems dumb, and it likely won't end well.
ReplyDelete