Agency OKs sales tax relief for 2 new hotels
But there's yet to be any action of millions of dollars' worth of other requested waivers.
The Ulster County Industrial Development Agency on Wednesday authorized up to $100,000 in sales tax exemptions for renovation projects that will create two boutique hotels in Uptown Kingston.
The agency did not act on requested sales tax exemptions for two other Uptown hotel projects planned by the same developer, nor did it act on property tax exemptions being sought for all four sites.
The sales tax exemptions were approved for renovation work at 301 Wall St. and 41 Pearl St. The other two hotels are to be at 270 Fair St. and 24 John St.
All four are being created by a company called Hudson Valley Kingston Development, whose principal is Charles Blaichman.
The exemptions approved Wednesday will cover part of a total $184,000 sales tax waiver requested by Blaichman’s company.
Hudson Valley Kingston Development also is seeking, but has not yet been granted, $1.4 million in property tax relief for 10 years through what’s knows as a payment-inlieu-of-taxes, or PILOT, agreement and a $48,000 exemption from the mortgage recording tax.
If the PILOT is granted, the developer still would pay about $1.75 million in property taxes.
Blaichman said earlier in the fall that the tax savings will help make the businesses a “first class operation” that reflects well on the city.
The hotel at 301 Wall St. is to have 10 guest rooms, and 41 Pearl St. is to have 13. Hudson Valley Kingston Development expects the work at those two sites to be done early next year.
“We just finished [getting] the gut outs, and now we’re starting framing and rebuilding,” said local real estate agent Nan Potter.
The hotel at 270 Fair St. is to have 12 rooms, and there are to be eight rooms at 24 John St. Construction has not yet begun at either of those sites.
The Hudson Valley Kingston Development projects are part of a sudden boom in plans to bring boutique hotels to the city’s Uptown area. Hotels also are planned, by different developers, in the Crown Street building that the Kingston school district currently uses for administrative offices and the Herzog’s Supply Co. warehouse at North Front and Fair streets.