KINGSTON – The multi-faceted Kingstonian project has made the next hurdle in its planned development, gaining approval for a 25-year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) agreement from the Kingston City Common Council Special Finance Committee. The vote during Tuesday evening’s video conferenced session was three to one.
This PILOT represents approximately $29 million in total taxes and a $2 million tax savings for the developer.
The PILOT is unique, falling outside of the Ulster County IDA’s regular guidelines for a PILOT and must be approved at the city’s discretion. It includes 11 stipulations in the request for qualifications including keeping building compliant with historic building regulations, sharing five percent of profits beyond the developer’s net profit projections, a pedestrian plaza, public unisex bathrooms and a $500,000 internship program. Most notably, is the construction of a parking garage, which must have 277, out of 420, spots available for public parking. This and the bathrooms must be maintained by the developers at no cost to the city, or its residents.
Uptown Kingston suffers from parking availability crisis and the parking garage alone will provide a significant benefit to the city. However, the parking will cost a bit more than that in neighboring cities: $1.50 per hour, $60 per month for a pass, $50 for affordable housing unit residents of the Kingstonian and $100 for all other residents of the building.
Sixth Ward Alderman Anthony Davis championed the project and its developers for being so cooperative with the asks of the city. He said the process has been going on long enough and the benefits outweigh the potential risks to the city.
“They’ve come back several times and made changes to their potential development,” said Davis. “They will provide affordable housing, internships, scholarships, a parking garage, jobs, economic opportunity, a public park, public restrooms: all this at no cost to the taxpayer,” he said.
Initially, the project started with the historic status and mandated affordable housing availability, but had other compromises added as the process went on.
Kingstonian Development Partner Joseph Bonura Jr. said they would even be open to adding a bit of additional annual tax revenue to the city in the agreement, but if too many additional project costs are included, the bank will not approve their loan.
“We have to sign for a $43 million loan and put in $9 million in cash of our own money,” said Bonura. “There’s a lot of risk there and we have to be able to make sure we’re going to do this. We’re pretty much at the point where if it gets much more risky, then we can’t. We don’t want to do that. We want to do this project,” he said.
The required projections for the loan acquisition are reaching the breaking point according to Bonura.
The PILOT will appear before the common council next, where they will decide the fate of the project.