Trust aims to improve Albany Ave. traffic flow
The city will establish a trust to temporarily hold funding that will be used to improve the flow of traffic at 1 Albany Ave., where the Gov. Clinton senior apartment building is located.
During a meeting Tuesday, the Common Council voted 8-0 to adopt a resolution establishing an expendable trust to hold $150,000 from developer K&R Landmark. Alderman Steven Schabot, DWard 8, was absent.
Alderman Douglas Koop, DWard 2, said during a council caucus meeting the evening before that the city would hold the funding from K&R Landmark until a design is created for ingress and egress work at 1 Albany Ave. He said the city wants to understand what work would be done, how it would be done and the impact it would have.
“This is just to hold the money while we do this,” Koop said of the trust.
The funding is part of an agreement the Ulster County Industrial Development Agency approved with Landmark Preservation LLC and is to be used to improve the ingress and egress at 1 Albany Ave., as well as the traffic flow and pedestrian crossings nearby, city Assessor Dan Baker has said. He said there is no design yet for how the improvements would be made and there is some question about what impact would be had from the planned roundabout at the nearby intersection of Albany Avenue, Broadway and Col. Chandler Drive.
K&R Preservation LLC, of which Landmark Preservation is a part, purchased the 92-unit Gov. Clinton and the 104-unit Yosman Tower senior apartment buildings in the city of Kingston last year.
In February 2018, Landmark Preservation secured approval on a 35-year payment-in-lieu-oftaxes, or PILOT, deal for the properties.
The yearly tax payments under the PILOT would begin at $187,500 for the Gov. Clinton building and $181,000 for Yos
man Tower, then increase 2 percent annually. The initial $368,500 total payment for the two buildings would grow to $722,509 by the end of the agreement.
The PILOT would cover the combined taxes for both buildings, which are paid to the city, the Kingston school district and Ulster County.
K&R Preservation officials have said they planned to invest $44,000 per unit to rehabilitate the properties, for a total of $11 million. They said each property would be upgraded with the repair and installation of new roofs, compactors, flooring and facades. Additionally, building common areas would be painted, floors would be refinished and there would be upgrades to fire safety systems.