Uptown boutique hotel work set to begin soon

Work to turn an Uptown building into a boutique hotel will soon get underway, according to the architect designing plans.

Scott Dutton says that a clean-out permit has been obtained by contractors working to create the 14-room hotel at 41 Pearl St.

“Contractor is working there to remove interior finishes to give us the opportunity to observe concealed conditions as we develop the renovation plans,” Dutton said in an email.

The Pearl Street hotel will serve as an extension of a nine-room boutique hotel Blaichman is developing a few blocks away, at 301 Wall St.

Construction is already underway at that location and is expected to be done within about

seven months.

In July, Dutton has said that the proposal for 41 Pearl St. has secured the needed approvals from the city Planning Board and Historic Landmarks Preservation Commission and that contractors working for New York City developer Charles Blaichman soon will seek a building permit to create the 14room hotel.

The Pearl Street building was constructed in the 1680s as a single-family residence and once was home to Mary Isabella Forsyth, a member of a prominent Kingston family.

The Wall Street building, at the corner of John Street, most recently housed the Tonner Doll Co., which has moved to the town of Ulster.

Blaichman is part of an investment group that recently bought three additional buildings in Uptown Kingston: 273 Wall St., a 12,000-square-foot building where a Citizens Bank branch is located; 275 Fair St., known as the Kingston Opera House; and 10 Crown St., formerly home to a restaurant called The Tappen.

The Citizens Bank branch will remain a firstfloor tenant at 273 Wall St., which is between Main and John streets. Nan Potter, of Potter Realty Properties, the investors’ real estate representative, said previously that the 1,941-square-foot building at 10 Crown St., directly behind the bank, is being renovated but does not yet have a tenant.

There are no plans for major changes at the Kingston Opera House building, Potter has said.

Blaichman also owns the building at 38 Main St. in Uptown Kingston, the former Bank of America building at Broadway and Henry Street in Midtown, and a property on Abeel Street in the city’s Rondout district where he once planned to build a hotel called The Noah, which never materialized.