The City of Kingston will hold a public meeting this Wednesday for the Kingston Business Park housing study, a project aligned with the city’s focus on the local housing crisis. After an extensive request for proposals (RFP) process, the city and the Kingston Local Development Corporation (KLDC) engaged international design and engineering firm Buro Happold to provide architectural and design concepts for potential housing and/or mixed-use development at the 107-acre property located off Delaware Avenue.
Buro Happold is working with Netherlands-based international architecture and urban design outfit MVRDV, and with Assemblage, a New York and New Jersey landscape architecture firm.
“We asked them to look at the site and everything we know about the site, and consider whether housing and/or mixed-use development would be possible on the site,” said Bartek Starodaj, the city’s director of housing initiatives.
Opened in 1998, the business park was conceived of as a hub for four or five light manufacturing facilities using 40 or 50 acres. There are currently two tenants, Howmet Aerospace and Community Manufacturing Solutions. These tenants would remain in future development plans.
“We haven’t attracted large industrial-type tenants to the business park,” Starodaj said. “There’s two, but there was hope of more. And so we asked Buro Happold to think about whether housing or mixed-use development is possible up there, given that the site has some constraints and challenges, but also some opportunities, of course, given the size of it.”
Among the challenges of the site are its topography, the property being largely forested, and at present, there being just one way in and out. But there is optimism that the redevelopment of Kingston Business Park could work.
“Just because of the size of it,” Starodaj said. “I think there’s a feeling like, well, we have to consider this site as well as we’re considering other sites in Kingston for possible housing.”
Unlike the acquisition and redevelopment of a 3.5-acre property at Broadway and Garraghan Drive, Kingston Business Park would not involve eminent domain. It’s owned by the Kingston Local Development Corporation, “a city-adjacent organization,” said Starodaj.
“I think we had a lot of respondents to this RFP just to look for a firm for this project,” said Starodaj. “And so we felt that Borough-Happold had the best capabilities to consider the site, given its challenges. And it’s been great working with them so far. They’re a very large global firm with a lot of resources and a lot of history working on sites like this.”
The study has yet cited the number of housing units on the site, though it would be in the hundreds. Starodaj foresaw a harmonious blend of residential and industrial spaces.
Starodaj said basic infrastructure was already in place on the site. Plans for significant housing development would require additional review. Other additions and improvements would also be needed, such as a sidewalk for the sole road, Corporate Drive.
The idea, Starodaj said, is to create a neighborhood connected to rather than isolated from the rest of the city. Neighborhood retail or commercial would be considered.
The city’s public meeting for the Kingston Business Park housing study will be held Wednesday, November 13 from 6 to 7 p.m. at the city hall. Buro Happold will share information from its ongoing study and answer questions.
“What you’ll see is basically some of the site analysis that has happened, and then some possible development frameworks if we were to develop the site,” Starodaj said. “And it’s kind of a matter of choosing which direction we want to pursue after that.”
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