Boutique hotel gets tax exemption extension
KINGSTON, N.Y. » Ulster County Industrial Development Agency board members have granted Hudson Valley Kingston Development’s request for a 90-day renewal of a sales tax exemption.
Approval was given during an agency video conference meeting last week after developer Charles Blaichman said there are a few remaining items to purchase before all four of his planned hotels are ready to open.
“Obviously some of the furniture might take longer but...if that’s the case, I’ll live with it and I’ll just do what I can,” Blaichman said. “But the major materials like plumbing and some (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) stuff I would definitely be able to order in the next 60 days or even less.”
Approval for the additional time on a sales tax exemption came a month after the request had been turned down, with agency officials expressing frustration that the project had fallen behind its planned schedule even before the COVID-19 pandemic slow construction.
“I’ve seen two projects in Dutchess County worth $2 billion, with hundreds of trades people working all the way through it,,” board Chairman James Malcolm said.
A sales tax exemption for $184,000 was granted in January 2018. It was extended for a year in 2019 and for another six months in earlier this year.
Hudson Valley Kingston Development has been working on the Hotel Kinsley boutique hotel group, opening its 301 Wall St. location last year. Approval for the first hotel had been granted by Kingston city planners in January 2017, with three more locations with a total of 43 hotel rooms that were planned to be opened by summer 2019.
In a Nov. 11 letter, Blaichman wrote the remaining three hotels are in varying stages of construction.
“Our building at 41 Pearl Street in Kingston is complete and being readied to open,” he wrote. “270 Fair Street is at 80 percent completion and 24 John Street is at 20 percent completion.”
In addition to the sales tax exemption, board members in January 2018 waived $47,715.83 in mortgage recording tax and approved a 10-year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement that would save developers $1.4 million.
Agency officials told Blaichman that no more additional time would be added for sales tax exemptions.
“We need a letter from HVKD that this is, they won’t be back ... for another exemption,” board member Richard Jones said. “Three months and they are done asking for exemptions.”