Half of Kingstonian hearing speakers hired by opponents

Real estate firm-affiliated properties have sued project over a dozen times

KINGSTON, N.Y. » Half of the speakers who offered comments on the site plan for the proposed mixed-use development known as The Kingstonian were hired by a company that has filed numerous lawsuits in opposition to the project.

During a special meeting on Tuesday, the city Planning Board held a public hearing to take comments on issues related to the site plan for The Kingstonian project. The hearing drew eight speakers, most of whom offered objections to the project related to its scale and impact on the Stockade Historic District, the loss of a pocket park at the corner of North Front Street and Fair Street Extension, and a traffic study that was performed in support of the development.

“As you know, my client opposes the project in its current iteration and we urge the Planning Board to require significant changes in order to lessen its impact on the Stockade District,” attorney Victoria Polidoro said.

Polidoro represents the William Gottlieb Real Estate Group, which is led by New York City-based real estate investor Neil Bender. The William Gottlieb Real Estate Group controls several limited liability corporations that own properties in Uptown near the proposed site of The Kingstonian.

At least a dozen different lawsuits have been filed against the city and other agencies and organizations involved in the review and approval process for The Kingstonian project. The majority of those lawsuits have been filed on behalf of the limited liability corporations controlled by the William Gottlieb Real Estate Group.

Polidoro said the Stockade District has tremendous historical significance but The Kingstonian “has not been designed to fit within the historic district and continues to be physically overwhelming and monolithic in relation to surrounding scale and quality of the fabric of the district.” She said the developers should be required to reuse the brick Herzog warehouse that sits at the corner of North Front Street and Fair Street Extension instead of demolishing it to make way for the project.

Additionally, Polidoro said the proposed entrance to the parking garage at the head of Wall Street has the potential to create conflict with pedestrians in an area that is supposed to be walkable. She also said, amongst other criticisms, that the overall project is inconsistent with the principles of form-based zoning, which the city is in the process of adopting.

The Kingstonian is proposed to straddle Fair

Street Extension between North Front Street and Schwenk Drive, utilizing the current municipal parking lot property at 21 North Front St. and the existing Herzog-owned property on the other side of Fair Street Extension. Herzog is one of the developers and the owner of the nearby Kingston Plaza, which is proposed to connect to the project via a new pedestrian bridge to be built over Schwenk Drive.

The Kingstonian is to comprise 143 residential units, including 14 that are considered “affordable”; 8,900 square feet of commercial space; a 32-room boutique hotel; and a parking garage. It also is to include a public plaza, proposed to be built over a portion of the current Fair Street Extension, necessitating the road’s closure.

The garage is proposed to include 427 parking spaces, of which 143 would be set aside for tenants. The remainder of the parking would be available for public use.

Nanette Bourne, an urban planning consultant hired by the William Gottlieb Real Estate Group, said she knew there were many people who hoped The Kingstonian would be a catalytic project that would reinvigorate the area. And, she said, she could see parts of the project that could work towards achieving the city’s goals.

“But there are two parts of the proposed plan that I fear will seriously miss the city’s planning goals and are contrary to the working principles of your form-based code,” Bourne said. “And I sincerely wish the Planning Board would look more closely at these parts and how they might be improved.” That includes the impact of traffic on Schwenk Drive and the way the entrance to the parking garage at the head of Wall Street would affect the character of the neighborhood and the existing views there.

A portion of Bourne’s comments were delivered by attorney Andrew Lessig, who also represents the William Gottlieb Real Estate Group, due to time limits imposed on the individual speakers.

Other speakers questioned how the Planning Board could approve the project without waiting for the issue of the parkland to be fully adjudicated in court, while another raised concerns about the validity of a traffic study conducted on behalf of the developers.

The two speakers in favor of the project praised its design and urged the board to allow it to move forward.