HUDSON — The city Industrial Development Agency voted unanimously Monday to approve the pocketbook factory redevelopment project.
The proposed restoration of the factory at 549 Washington St. is estimated to cost $25.6 million and will include a hotel with 40 guest rooms, a wellness center, a restaurant and bar, a public indoor lounge and outdoor courtyard as well as commercial spaces for the arts, retail and creative office, and nonprofit uses.
The project is being developed by owners Sean Roland and Gabriel Katz.
The IDA met Monday to consider taking a vote on the proposed project.
A group of community members called the Hudson Community Benefits Alliance sent a letter to the IDA earlier which included a number of requests for the project. Columbia Economic Development Council President and CEO F. Michael Tucker said he encouraged them to meet with the IDA and the consultants to begin a review of the provisions, which were applicable to the IDA.
Tucker said he also encouraged the group to meet with its elected representatives and the city planning board because a several of their requests were outside the scope of the IDA.
“I think we want to continue to work together and have an open dialogue to address the issues that have been raised,” Tucker said.
Construction is expected to start in 2022 and wrap up in September of 2024, according to IDA documents.
The financial benefit for Hudson is significant, Tucker said. It is about eight-to-one times greater than the cost of the payment in lieu of taxes for the project.
“In this case the benefits to the city when you include tax revenue from construction, hotel occupancy tax, sales tax on food and beverage and other spending and real property tax revenue, you’re looking at a benefit of $2,138,000,” Tucker said. “And the cost to the city is the reduction in the PILOT and the lost mortgage recording tax, lost sales tax and the lost PILOT payment as opposed to full tax, and that’s $235,000.”
The 10-year PILOT for the project would begin in the first year after the first year of completed construction, according to the approved resolution. Full taxes on the entire property would begin in year 11.
An economic and fiscal impact study of the project found the estimated value of the tax exemptions for the project is about $1,354,099 which is comprised of the following exemptions, about $800,000 for New York state sales and compensating use taxes, about $112,500 for Mortgage Recording taxes and about $441,599 for real property taxes.
The redevelopment site has been vacant for nearly 50 years.
“I’m hoping what will continue to happen is that community benefits will become understood as a negotiating point that needs to be built into our IDA process as we go forward,” IDA board member Rebecca Wolfe said. “And that the Community Benefits Alliance will participate in the development of our criteria on our policies for the IDA as we move forward.”
A letter from the Hudson Community Benefits Alliance was read at Monday’s meeting.
“The approval of a PILOT is essential to the overall project financing which makes the City of Hudson an essential financing partner,” the letter read. “We urge the HIDA to pursue this partnership as advocates for the communities who are both central to Hudson’s status as a desirable community for living and visiting and who are at risk of displacement due to the ripple effects of high-end and tourism-focused development.”
