Mixed-use development gets conditional OK

A proposed three-story mixed-use project at 65-85 East Strand has been granted conditional approval by the city’s Planning Board.

The board voted unanimously for the conditional approval Tuesday evening, with the understanding that the applicant must provide information about the landscaping plan, as well as design details for windows at the rear of the building.

The applicant also is required to pay $84,000 in recreational fees, have the city engineer sign off on stormwater and sewer plans, and provide a performance bond for the construction, among other conditions.

With the conditional approval, though, the developers can proceed with plans for construction of the building, which is to include 32 residential units, along with 11,760 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor. A plaza is to be created at the front of the building, facing East Strand and across from the Hudson River Maritime Museum.

The residential units will include eight studio apartments, 20 one-bedroom apartments and four twobedroom units.

Prior to the board’s vote, project architect Joseph Hurwitz and engineer Dennis Larios reviewed the plan in light of changes made since it first was proposed.

Hurwitz noted the biggest challenge in the design of the structure was to make the rear of the building look similar to the front while also tying into the facade of the nearby existing apartment buildings that also are owned by the developer, Kingston Waterfront LLC.

The developer previously agreed to remove a 30-foot section of an existing apartment building to open up the view of the new structure. The section of the existing apartment building to be removed is perpendicular to East Strand, and the end of the building could be painted with a mural similar to the one at the Maritime Museum.

During Tuesday’s meeting, city Planner Suzanne Cahill pushed Hurwitz to provide further detail about the look of the rear of the new building. She said that side of the structure looked “flat.”

“The front has so much character,” Cahill said.

She asked Hurwitz to consider some window treatments or window boxes to “break the space,” which the architect agreed to do.