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Mid Hudson Times, Wednesday, April 12, 2017
RUPCO breaks ground on $15.2 million housing project
By SHANTAL RILEY
[email protected]
RUPCO and the Newburgh Community
Land Bank were joined by friends and
partners at the Lobby at the Ritz Theater
earlier this month to celebrate a ground
breaking for one of the largest affordable-
housing projects in the City of Newburgh.
“When you plant a seed, it takes a long
time to grow a root system,” said city
Mayor Judy Kennedy. “This one took two
and a half years.”
The Newburgh Neighborhood Core
Revitalization project will see the
rehabilitation of 15 buildings in a blighted
area north of Broadway. The rehab
project will produce 45 affordably-priced
rental units, expected to house artists,
formerly homeless residents and middle-
income families.
“It’s about removal of blight,” said
Darren Scott of New York State Homes
and Community Renewal. “In this case,
we’re turning the blight into a positive.”
The buildings are located on Dubois,
Lander, Johnston, South Miller and First
streets – an area of intense development
focus for the land bank in recent years.
A new, city police sub-station will be
located at 39 Johnston Street as part of
the project. Construction is expected to be
completed by the end of 2018.
The project is a collaboration between
the land bank, RUPCO, Safe Harbors of
the Hudson, serving as property manager,
and almost a dozen other partners,
including the City of Newburgh. The land
These buildings are among 15 slated for rehabilitation as part of the Newburgh Neighborhood Core Revitalization affordable-housing project.
bank sold the properties to RUPCO after
completing abatements last year.
“We’re working to make sure that those
people who are already here can afford
to stay here,” said RUPCO CEO Kevin
O’Connor. The apartments will remain
affordable for the next 50 years, he said.
The ground breaking took place two
RUPCO CEO Kevin O’Connor speaks at a ground breaking for the Newburgh Neighborhood Core
Revitalization project.
weeks after the New York State Attorney
General’s Office announced a two-year
award of $2 million to the Newburgh
land bank, which O’Connor described as
“probably the most successful land bank
in New York.”
“It cost more to renovate these buildings
than it was worth in the end,” said
land bank Executive Director Madeline
Fletcher. “We set out to make as many
propert ies as investible as we could.”
Funded by the state, the land bank
partners with the city and others to
acquire abandoned properties and
eliminate barriers to redevelopment,
covering costs for lead and asbestos
removal, and then transferring properties
to new ownership.
The landbank has rehabbed and sold
50 properties since it was established in
2012. “We couldn’t be happier about this
project…and what it means for the City of
Newburgh,” said Fletcher.
The $15.2 million project will receive
funding through Sterling National Bank,
Community Preservation Corporation,
the New York State Office of Parks,
Recreation and Historic Preservation and
New York State Homes and Community
Renewal.
“It takes a village,” said K. James
Dittbrenner, managing director at
Sterling National Bank.
And, proper zoning, said City Manager
Michael Ciaravino. “We now have an
exciting zoning plan,” he said, which
respects the existing housing as new
buildings go up.
Newburgh is developing a reputation as
a city with a “rich, diverse mix of people”
on a path to revitalization, said Ciaravino.
“It only gets richer as projects like this
come along,” he said.
Newburgh City Councilwoman Karen
Mejia speaks at a ground breaking for
the Newburgh Neighborhood Core
Revitalization project.