E Square approval gets 2-year extension
The previous approval of the project’s site plan was good for only a year and was about to expire.
KINGSTON, N.Y. >> The site plan approval for construction of the Energy Square housing and commercial project in Midtown has been extended by two years.
The action by the city Planning Board came as the previous approval, which was good for a year, was about to expire.
Energy Square, or E Square, is being built at 20 Cedar St. in Midtown Kingston by affordable housing agency RUPCO. The building is to comprise apartments, commercial enterprises and civic tenants.
Construction is underway at the site, former home of the Mid-City Lanes bowling alley. That business closed in 2014 and was torn down this past June.
Architect Scott Dutton, who designed E Square, said RUPCO plans to obtain a certificate of occupancy in December 2019 or January 2020 and then will need a couple of months to fill the apartments with tenants.
“We’re under construction,” Dutton said. “Everything’s going as planned.”
Dutton said RUPCO sought a two-year extension of the site plan approval because a one-year extension would have forced the agency to return to the Planning Board before construction was complete.
E Square is to be a 70,000-square-foot building with two three-story sections, one four-story section and one five-story section. Its 57 apartments, on the upper four floors, will range in size from studio to three-bedroom units.
The building’s roof will feature an urban park and a 160-kilowatt solar energy array — the inspiration for the Energy Square name.
The project has an estimated cost of $22.6 million.
The state has awarded RUPCO $6.3 million in tax credits for E Square. The project also will benefit from a 32-year paymentin-lieu-of-taxes, or PILOT, agreement that lays out how much RUPCO will pay to the city of Kingston, the Kingston school district and Ulster County.