PLANNING ON HOTELS
New York City developer planning to turn two more Uptown buildings into hotel rooms
Proposals by a New York City developer to turn two more buildings into hotel rooms are set to be examined by the city’s Planning Board next month.
The plans of developer Charles Blaichman, who already has approval for 23 rooms at two spots in Uptown, are to be reviewed by the Planning Board at its November meeting.
According to the newest proposals, 12 boutique hotel rooms are to be constructed at 270 Fair St. Additionally, 978 square feet of the property will be used for rental retail space.
The second, new hotel site to be reviewed is at 24 John St. There, the proposal calls for the establishment of eight boutique hotel rooms.
Blaichman’s company, known as Hudson Valley Kingston Development, has already received approvals for two other hotel sites in the historic Stockade District. Work is under way at both those sites.
Contractors are working to create a 14-room hotel at 41 Pearl St.
The Pearl Street hotel, as well as the other hotels, will serve as extensions of a nine-room boutique hotel Blaichman is developing
a few blocks away, at 301 Wall St.
In July, Kingston Architect Scott Dutton said that the proposal for 41 Pearl St. had secured the needed approvals from the city Planning Board and Historic Landmarks Preservation Commission.
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 first-floor 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 to be called The Noah, but which never materialized.