Final vote on Alms House project expected Aug. 20
KINGSTON, N.Y. » The last major procedural step needed to allow the creation of apartments at the Alms House site is expected in August.
The project, called Landmark Place, is the only item on the Kingston Planning Board’s agenda for its Aug. 20 meeting. The board is to vote on the site plan for the project and granting the needed permit when it meets at 6 p.m. in City Hall, 420 Broadway. Approval would clear the way for work to begin.
The Planning Board was expected to hold the votes at its meeting this past Monday, but developer RUPCO asked for a delay because it learned several members of the board would be absent.
RUPCO, an affordable housing agency, purchased the Alms House property, at 300 Flat-
bush Ave., this past spring from the Ulster County Economic Development Agency for $950,000. The agency expects to create apartments in the existing 19th-century building and in a new building that’s to be constructed on the site.
The purchase followed a lengthy approval process for the project and a court battle over the property’s zoning.
The project is to comprise 34 apartments in the existing vacant structure and 32 more units in a new fourstory building. The housing would be open to people 55 and older, and some of the units would offer support
services for a mix of homeless populations with special needs.
The historic building would contain a mix of studio and one-bedroom apartments, while the new building would contain one-bedroom apartments. Of the apartments, 35 would offer supportive services for special needs populations, including a minimum of seven apartments dedicated to the frail or/and disabled elderly.
RUPCO has said the Landmark Place project will create an estimated 50 construction jobs and 10 permanent jobs.
Constructed in the 1870s as a place to care for the city’s poor, the Alms House later was used as a tuberculosis ward in the 1950s and most recently housed Ulster County offices.