Former factory awaits new use
KINGSTON, N.Y. » The city Planning Board next month will begin its review of the proposal to turn a former furniture factory into a multiuse commercial facility that would include a TV and film production center.
The proposal for the building at 2 S. Prospect St., near Greenkill Avenue, has been submitted by affordable housing agency RUPCO. The Planning Board is to take it up when it meets at 6 p.m. July 10 in City Hall, 420 Broadway.
The project, to be called The Metro, is the first RUPCO undertaking that doesn’t include a housing component.
“The applicant proposes to continue the use of the property for a variety of light industrial
maker spaces catering to the creative arts,” states a project narrative submitted to the city by Scott Dutton, a Kingston architect who is designing the plan.
Dutton, who has worked on other RUPCO projects, said the renovation work is likely to be extensive. The project’s estimated cost is $11.5 million.
“In order to facilitate a more sustainable tenant base, the building will need
to undergo extensive renovations to address years of deferred maintenance,” the narrative reads.
The 70,000-square-foot building, which dates to 1947 and is on the National Register of Historic Places, most recently housed the Hall of Records of Metropolitan Life. It originally was the Pilgrim Furniture factory.
Among the expected tenants of The Metro is a TV/film production center headed by actress Mary Stuart Masterson, who lives in Dutchess County and founded a nonprofit called Stockade Works.
RUPCO says The Metro is part of its “Community Wealth Building” program.
“We’re taking another vacant structure and repurposing it to specifically create and capture wealth and job creation locally,” Kevin O’Connor, RUPCO’s chief executive officer, has said. “This initiative will remove neighborhood blight, preserve a historic structure, create jobs and move people from persistent poverty to skilled employment.”
RUPCO expects there to be rent-paying tenants at The Metro other than Masterson’s TV/film operation.
The agency refers to the prospective other occupants as “makers.”
The ‘makers space’ “provides a place for local craftsmen, including chocolatiers, candle makers, handbag designers who make their products here in Kingston, creating and spurring community wealth building,” O’Connor has said.
RUPCO people who live in its Lace Mill building in Midtown Kingston, many of them artists, have inquired about industrial space in The Metro for welding or large-scale woodworking.
RUPCO sees The Metro as
an example of what one project can do for the health of Kingston.
“What we really liked is that Stockade Works is committed to not only bringing new jobs to the area but providing professional training to local residents to fill those positions,” O’Connor said. “We believe that community wealth-building is a multifaceted opportunity, taking place across all productions phases: lighting, sound, props, make-up, food service and screen talent. Kingston can provide the needed manpower to make it work.”