DIVVYING THE DOLLARS
Most of state’s $10M grant will benefit Kingstonian, Dietz Stadium, city pool
The bulk of the $10 million in state funding to revitalize Uptown Kingston will go toward the planned mixeduse development known as The Kingstonian and to modernizing and enhancing Dietz Stadium and the Andretta Pool.
The selected projects, being funded with money from the state’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative, were announced during a Monday morning event featuring Gov. Andrew Cuomo at the Best Western Plus hotel on Washington Avenue.
Of the funding, $3.8 million will go toward The Kingstonian, a $48 million project that’s to include 132 residential units, 8,500 square feet of commercial space, a 34-room hotel and 420 parking spaces, of which 250 would be for public use. The project is to be built at Fair and North Front streets in Uptown, including on the site of the former city parking garage. The project is being undertaken by JM Development Group LLC of New Windsor, in partnership with the Kingstonbased Herzog Supply Co.
Another $2.5 million from the state will go toward modernizing and enhancing the 2,000-seat Dietz Stadium and the adjacent Andretta Pool, while $1.3 million will got toward a “wayfinding” program that will include improved pedestrian access and circulation within the city’s Uptown Stockade district.
Another $987,100 will be used to redesign Schwenk Drive, $600,000 will be used to establish a small grants and loans program for the Stockade business district, and $472,500 will be used to create an open, public space along Frog Alley.
Cuomo, who’s running for a third four-year term as governor, initially announced
the $10 million grant during a visit to Kingston last September.
The selected projects were announced during Monday’s event by Howard Zemsky, president and chief executive officer of Empire State Development. He said many businesses are looking for great, walkable, transit-friendly areas with green spaces to help them recruit and retain employees. The funding from the state will help revitalize Kingston, Zemsky said.
Cuomo said it takes a mix of science and art to revitalize an area, and that the state has provided the science part through investments, such as in infrastructure, and by lowering tax rates. The art part will be up to Kingston, the governor said.
Development patterns are changing, and the “growth generation” is
looking for vibrant downtown areas where they can live, work and recreate, Cuomo said. He said that generation wants an area that is walkable and has a lot of history.
“Yes, you have a potential magnet if you arrange the pieces in the right places and if you get them to complement one another,” the governor said. “... If you come up with a mosaic, a fabric, that brings those pieces together and attracts younger people, the businesses will come because they are in search of the younger people.”
“It’s our time,” Kingston Mayor Steve Noble said during the event.
Noble said that with the public’s help, the city will be able to leverage all of the state funding and create a community that everyone can live in, everyone can afford, and that future generations will want
to live in.
The next steps in the process will be meeting with various state agencies and finalizing contracts for the funded projects, Noble said after the event. He said he did not know which of the projects would get underway first.
“We won’t know until we work with each state agency to lay out the timeline,” the mayor said. “But many of them have twoyear time frames.”
Noble said he didn’t find out until Monday morning which projects were getting state funding.
The city in March submitted its Strategic Investment Plan for utilizing the state funding. That plan included 11 priority projects, but only the six announced Monday were funded.
The state Department of State had final say over which projects received funding.