At the informal meeting of the Common Council on Monday, Council president Margaret Morris provided an update on the status of the sale of the Dunn warehouse building.
It will be recalled that at its informal meeting in May, the Council tabled a resolution authorizing the mayor to execute a contract for the sale of the building to Hudson Brewing Co. This provoked Mayor Joseph Ferris to issue a statement denouncing the Council's actions and calling what transpired "the orchestrated takedown of a small business that wants to continue to grow in Hudson." Gossips' post about that meeting, which contains Ferris's complete statement, can be found here.
At this month's informal meeting, Morris reported on a meeting she had with Kaitlin Armocida, the operations manager for Hudson Brewing Co. The conversation dealt with two issues in particular that were not addressed in the contract. The first was stabilization. The resolution indicates that Hudson Brewing would be required to pay the City $90,000 if they fail to stabilize the building within twelve months of closing, but what constitutes "stabilize" is not defined. Morris and Armocida agreed that exactly what is expected needs to be defined in the contract of sale.
An issue of concern for Morris was the use of the property. The recommendation to sell the building to Hudson Brewing was based on the proposed use of the building as a brewery and taproom, and Morris wanted that use memorialized in the contract of sale. Morris reported that Armocida was agreeable to this.
At the informal meeting in May, several members of Council thought the $90,000 penalty if Hudson Brewing failed to stabilize the building within twelve months or sold it within twenty-four months was inadequate. They wanted ownership of the building to revert back to the City in the first instance and wanted the City to have first right of refusal in perpetuity if the building were to be sold. Morris's update on Monday did not address this issue.
According to Morris, a new contract is expected to be ready for the Council's review last month.
COPYRIGHT 2026 CAROLE OSTERINK
No comments:
Post a Comment