Original Article

 

By Paul Kirby pkirby@freemanonline.com @paulatfreeman on Twitter

Mar 25, 2019

KINGSTON, N.Y. — The ambitious $52 million plan for a mixed-use development called The Kingstonian has the support of the alderman in whose ward it would be built.

Douglas Koop, D-Ward 2, confirmed his support for the plan — which is to include apartments, a hotel, commercial space and public parking — in an email to the Freeman.

“I favor housing, business and parking,” Koop wrote. “Glitches will be addressed and fixed as they occur. …

“The ‘glitches’ I’m referring to always occur in large construction projects — schedule delays, design changes, cost overruns, etc. — and are to be expected,” Koop said.

At a Planning Board meeting earlier this month, community members asked the board to declare The Kingstonian would have a significant impact on the environment, and therefore should be subject to a full State Environmental Quality Review, but an attorney for the developer said that would be “grossly premature” at this time.

The Kingstonian project is to be subject of a Planning Board public hearing at 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 10, in City Hall, 420 Broadway.

First announced in September 2017, The Kingstonian is proposed to be built on two sites at the corner of Fair and North Front streets, including the location of the city’s former Uptown parking garage. An open-air pedestrian plaza would be built over a portion of Fair Street, which would be closed to vehicle traffic.

The Kingstonian is to comprise 129 market-rate apartments for rent, 8,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space, a 32-room boutique hotel, the pedestrian plaza, a foot bridge crossing Schwenk Drive between the new development and Kingston Plaza, and 420 parking spaces, of which at least 250 would be for public use.

Of the project’s $52 million estimated cost, more than $46 million is to come from private funding. The project is to receive $3.8 million from the $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant awarded to Kingston by New York state, as well as other government funding.