City tables review of store plan
‘The property owner is looking at other options,’ city planner says
KINGSTON, N.Y. » City planners will take no action or review a plan for a Dunkin’ Donuts shop in Midtown at its February meeting.
City Planner Suzanne Cahill said that the matter will not appear on the Planning Board’s agenda at its Feb. 20 session.
“They (developers) have simply requested to table any action on redevelopment of that property,” Cahill said. “The property owner is looking at other options.”
Cahill fell short of saying the project is dead.
Developer Nelson Sousa could not be reached Tuesday.
Last Wednesday, developers had not notified the office that they wanted the matter listed on the Feb. 20 agenda. That Wednes-
day was the deadline for notification to be listed on next month’s agenda.
In January, the Kingston Planning Board tabled a review that was set to begin at that time.
Earlier this month, Noble said he does not fully embrace the idea of a new Dunkin’ Donuts at 490 Broadway, where Kingston’s main post office once stood.
“I do have concerns as to
how the project as it is proposed will integrate with the city’s upcoming Broadway Streetscape project,” Noble said in an email at the time. “I’ve shared these concerns with the Planning [Office] staff and expect that these traffic issues will be considered as part of this process.”
In December, city lawmakers authorized the use of grant money for the planned Broadway Streetscape project, along with $490,000 to be borrowed by the city.
The grant money includes $1.4 million from the Environmental Facilities Corp.’s
Green Innovation Grant Program and $850,000 from the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Climate Smart Communities Grant Program. City Grants Manager Kristen Wilson has said the larger amount would be used to enhance the streetscape project with green infrastructure, while the other money would be used to complete the overall project.
Wilson has said the Broadway Streetscape project will “renew, restore and revive the street by improving pedestrian and bicycle safety,
aesthetics, transit and traffic flow.”
Construction is expected this summer or fall.
The Planning Board first looked at the Dunkin’ Donuts plan last April but hasn’t taken it up since.
The plan calls for the demolition of the former Planet Wings building at 500 Broadway and the construction of a new 1,300-squarefoot building on the 20,000-square-foot lot.
Dunkin’ Donuts was to close its location at 575 Broadway, less than a quarter-mile away, when the new
shop opens.
The proposal comes from Sardinha Brands Inc. of Laconia, N.H., which has been operating Dunkin’ Donuts shops in the Hudson Valley for 13 years, according to the plan filed with the city.
Dunkin’ Donuts — popular not only for its doughnuts, but also its coffee and several breakfast and lunch sandwiches — currently operates two shops in Kingston: the one at 575 Broadway that will relocate, and another at 295 Wall St. in the Uptown business district. There also are two Dunkin’ Donuts shops at 585 Ulster Ave. and 1285 Ulster Ave. in the neighboring town of Ulster.
The post office at the Broadway site was built from 1904 to 1908 and stood there until being demolished in 1969 and 1970, an action that historical preservationists and city residents have since decried.
A Jack-in-the-Box fastfood restaurant was built on the site soon after, and the building later was occupied by an ice cream shop before Planet Wings opened in 1996.