City holding public hearing on Restore NY grant applications
May 15—PLATTSBURGH — The City of Plattsburgh is holding a public hearing tonight on its intentions to seek a $2.5 million state grant for the redevelopment of a vacant downtown property.
Through the public hearing, which is being held at 5:30 p.m. tonight in the Common Council Chambers, the city is hoping to receive community feedback on its plan to pursue an Empire State Development grant — under its Restore NY Communities Initiative — for a project at 2 Brinkerhoff St. that will look to convert the building there into a boutique hotel and restaurant.
The hearing will also allow residents to weigh in on another project the city plans to submit an application for in next year's Restore NY grant cycle: the remediation and restoration of the historic property located at 206 US Oval.
After the hearing concludes, the Common Council meeting will begin and councilors will eventually vote and decide whether or not to move forward with the grant application for the Brinkerhoff project.
However, despite previous speculation, the city's intent to submit a grant application for the 206 US Oval project next year is not on the agenda and won't be voted on tonight.
CITY COSTS
The city is required to pay a $500 application fee to submit the Brinkerhoff project grant application to the Restore NY program, which is due by May 22.
The grant request being made to the state totals $2.5 million, and the program requires a 10% match.
According to a city news release, the match portion of the Restore NY grant would be funded through the private contribution of the project developer and not by the city. These funds would be "firmly committed" via a signed written agreement between the city and the developer to provide the match amount upon successful award of the grant.
If grant funding is awarded, the Community Development Office will then oversee the administration of it.
Mayor Chris Rosenquest said Monday that the Restore NY program is a "very specific" grant, which means it's limited in who can apply for it.
"This program is designed to be a public/private partnership and requires the municipality to be the program applicant in coordination with private partners," Rosenquest said.
"These partners are obligated, via programmatic agreements, to fund the project at the time of award. For anyone claiming 'free money' for bad actors is either grossly misinformed or hasn't taken the time to research the facts."
BRINKERHOFF PROJECT
In February, the owner of White Rainbow LLC met with city staff to inquire about the Restore NY program and subsequently, expressed interest in submitting a grant application to convert 2 Brinkerhoff St., which is 20,000 square feet of vacant commercial property, into a 10-room boutique hotel.
Upon reviewing the details of this project, which hopes to foster tourism in the downtown area and add jobs to the local economy, city staff worked with the owner to submit a letter of interest to Empire State Development.
When reviewing both projects for RestoreNY funding, city staff met with grant consultants, Barton and Loguidice, to discuss project eligibility and application competitiveness.
Barton and Loguidice agreed that both the Brinkerhoff and 206 US Oval projects were compatible with Restore NY program guidelines.
Community development staff also reviewed the city's Comprehensive Plan and proposed Zoning and Land Use update and determined that the two projects were in alignment with the goals and objectives of both plans.
This proposed project for Brinkerhoff is now the most recent attempt to add a hotel to the city's landscape.
Last September, a development agreement for a potential hotel at the city's harborside was proposed to councilors but was eventually voted down. Councilor Jeff Moore (D-Ward 6) later told the Press-Republican he felt the addition of a hotel in the city would be like putting "the cart before the horse."
However, the boutique hotel being proposed now would have just 10 rooms. In comparison, the hotel project brought before the council last September was reported to have approximately 125 rooms on a valuable piece of city harborside property.
This time around, Rosenquest is hoping to see more support from the council for this smaller scale project.
"Many people understand that we've been advocating for a hotel," Rosenquest said.
"The Common Council, before, didn't support the $30 million project, so hopefully, as this one comes to fruition, there is some support on council to support a grant for something like this."
Additionally, this hotel project would not quash the idea of any others being developed in the city, Rosenquest said.
"We can have multiple hotels in the downtown Plattsburgh," he said.
"I would appreciate any opportunity for a hotel. I think it's needed. We see hotels going up regionally, not only in the Town of Plattsburgh, but also around the North Country and the Adirondacks, and it's something that we know people will use. We know people will patronize it and people look for places like that when they come to a historic downtown like ours."
"It's two different products and in terms of capacity, this one that we're talking about at that corner is very small ... it will not overshadow anything else that's being done."
206 US OVAL
The historic building located at 206 US Oval, which is currently in a dilapidated state in need of repairs, likely falls under the Restore NY program guidelines, which specifically "encourages community development and neighborhood growth through the elimination and redevelopment of blighted structures."
Because the project at 206 can be categorized under a special program designation within the Restore NY program, the city is opting to work with the developer to reformulate the application and submit this project for future funding.
This will be coordinated over the year with the property owner and interested developer for next year's funding round.
Though, given the history of this property, using possible state funding in the future to fix it could prove to be a controversial move.
As of 2023, the property owner — listed on Plattsburgh City School District tax records as Lake City Holdings LLC — owes over $15,000 in taxes on the parcel dating back to 2018.
Last fall, city councilors had the option of foreclosing on the property and taking over ownership of it, but after a month of discussions, tightly voted to withdraw all foreclosure proceedings and cancel the tax lien on it.
The decision to not foreclose on the property split the council at the time; those who disagreed felt it was setting a "bad precedent" for the city moving forward.
Most councilors, though, were in agreement about wanting to see the historic property saved and repaired, just not at the city's expense.
"When the topic of 206 US Oval was raised by the Council via the foreclosure proceedings, the city had two pathways: leave it as is or take ownership. Under no circumstances does it make sense for the city to take ownership of this property and then saddle our taxpayers with being both the property owner and developer," Rosenquest said.
"My team went to work to reach out to the property owner, community stakeholders, and potential developers to formulate a plan that would not only save this building from demolition, but to also find real options for renovation and a return to taxable status. At this time, we've been discussing alternatives with a reputable developer who's interested in working with the city to find viable options to restore the building with a focus on middle income housing."
OTHER PROJECTS
Moving forward, the city says it will continue to work collaboratively with local and regional developers, land owners, business owners and the general public to leverage state resources to transform vacant, blighted and underutilized properties in the city into viable housing and commercial development opportunities.
Rosenquest said Wednesday other projects had been considered for the Restore NY grant applications and those included the demolition of a derelict property near Cogan Avenue and the other involved site preparation at the old Champlain Valley Transportation Museum on New York Road.
He said it ultimately came down to which projects benefited the city more and the boutique hotel and restaurant, which is expected to add jobs to the local economy, was determined to have the most positive impact on the community.
Email: cnewton@pressrepublican.com
Twitter: CarlySNewton
