At the end of the Common Council meeting on Tuesday, Ronald Kopnicki asked about the status of the RFP (request for proposals) for the restoration and redevelopment of the Dunn warehouse. Proposals were originally due on Monday, October 20. Kopnicki was told by Council president Tom DePietro that the deadline for submitting proposals had been postponed, although DePietro seemed not to know when the new deadline was. Kopnicki asked who would be reviewing the proposals when they were received. That question went unanswered. He also urged that the process of reviewing the proposals be carried out in public.
Today, Gossips discovered that the link to the reissued RFP, which was shared in a post on September 17, no longer works. An inquiry to Housing Justice Director Michelle Tullo, who is managing the RPF process, yielded the information that the RFP could now be found under "Project Requests and Proposals" on the mayor's page of the city website. There it is revealed the new deadline for submitting proposals is Monday, October 27. It was also discovered that there is an addendum to the RFP. Among other things, the addendum confirms that the $1 million in DRI funds designated in 2018 for the Dunn warehouse is no longer available. As Gossips has previously reported, Mayor Kamal Johnson intends to redirect the $1 million meant for the stabilization of the Dunn building to the Hudson Housing Authority's redevelopment project. The addendum also includes a list of the attendees at the walk-through, which took place on September 30.
Meanwhile, the effort to designate the building as a local landmark moves forward. Tomorrow morning, the Historic Preservation Commission holds a public hearing on the designation. The hearing takes place at 10:00 a.m., Friday, October 24, at City Hall, as part of the HPC's regular semimonthly meeting. The meeting is hybrid, so you do not have to be present to voice your support for granting the protection of local landmark status to this unique industrial survivor on our waterfront. Click here for the link to join the meeting remotely.
The application for landmark status, which was presented to the Historic Preservation Commission on September 26, 2025, can be found here. It contains these photographs of the building which were taken by Matt McGhee. They are shared here with his permission.
In presenting the application to the HPC on September 26, Ronald Kopnicki said:
Forty years ago, the Dunn warehouse was found worthy of inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. That status should be pursued, because of its opportunities for funding; but local designation gives the building stronger protection.
A building is worth a thousand allusions, a thousand signs or pictures telling the public what used to be there. The Dunn warehouse stands as an emblem of Hudson's historic waterfront. It has historic, cultural, and aesthetic significance. Adapted to new uses, it will contribute to Hudson's future. I urge you to designate it is an individual landmark of Hudson.
Gossips urges readers to show up at City Hall tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. or to join the meeting remotely (click here for the link) to voice your support for granting historic preservation protection to the iconic building that is the Dunn warehouse.
COPYRIGHT 2025 CAROLE OSTERINK
Can the $1 million DRI funding officially earmarked for the Dunn Warehouse be siphoned off to an entirely different and unrelated project? Where can we see the details of this transaction?
ReplyDeleteThere are no details. The only way we even know about this is from John Madeo of Mountco, the Housing Authority's development partner, who reported to the HHA Board about a meeting he and the HHA executive director had with Mayor Kamal Johnson. According to Madeo, Johnson told them he would try to redirect funds from a DRI project to the HHA redevelopment. Then suddenly the $1 million in DRI funds designated for the Dunn warehouse was no longer available. There's been no announcement of this. Only me connecting the dots.
DeleteI've been doing a few minutes of light research and as is to be expected, anything revolving around DRI is opaque and convoluted.
DeleteWhat I found is that the specific monetary allotment of DRI funds is done in a so called SIP (Strategic Investment Plan).
Hudson submitted an SIP with 19 projects of which NY State selected five, one of which was the Dunn Warehouse.
Given that the final selection of the projects is done by NY State, I'd be very surprised if a mayor could willy-nilly reassign funds to something else that was never part of the initial SIP.
What a shame. We all deserve so much better than to be lead blindly by somone that holds no qualifications for their position.
ReplyDeleteI’m surprised he didn’t just add it to his salary.
Might the Sloop Club end up the only viable bidder in this last minute and clearly engineered for insiders process...
ReplyDeleteMy guess will be Colarusso. It would be a great place to store gravel
DeleteMax (Tassilo) - your post reminded me: the City doesn't actually have the funds and so doesn't actually disperse them. As I understood it at the time (I was an alderman then), the City issued paperwork and the funds were sent out by the State to the contractors selected by the City for the State-approved projects. It could have changed, but not that I heard.
ReplyDeleteWait, so back in 2017 there was already a contractor assigned?
DeleteI was operating under the assumption that the unspent DRI funds haven't yet been released by the state since it's normally a reimbursement model, no?