“It’s more important now than ever that we redouble our efforts to ensure every single resident can afford to live with dignity here in our county. Throughout the pandemic we have seen our frontline workers work full-time to serve and protect us. We must make sure that they can afford to live in the community that they serve every day.”
– Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan, August 19, 2020
Whether it’s a mirage constructed on a golden hill instead of a genuine housing oasis, it’ll be years before those in need of cheap housing will find out. To be built over the bones of the old Ulster County jail in Kingston, the new Golden Hill housing development of 164 apartments won’t be ready until October 2024.
Pat Ryan announced the selection of Philadelphia-based housing development behemoth Pennrose to handle the project in November 2020. Pennrose has been kept busy jumping through procedural hoops.
It’s just not as simple as tearing down the old jail and building a new Jerusalem in its place. Special permits are needed. Property subdivision must be requested. Rezoning designations petitioned for. Traffic studies performed, planning board reviews endured, favorable building safety and zoning enforcement opinions sought. And SEQR (State Environmental Quality Review) waits all the time like a sphinx with a riddle, ready to devour development plans which improperly reply to the queries of New York State environmental regulations.
Poisoned land, poisoned water. These ugly consequences of hasty building will no longer be tolerated.
Pennrose has put on five “community engagement” presentations in the last six months of 2021. They are still in that early stage of development. Until the time comes when they can sink that first shovel head into the dirt, they must woo those whose goodwill they would prefer and out of whose pockets they expect largesse.
About the suitor
In May 2020, the Ulster County Legislature unanimously resolved to inventory all county lands to identify those parcels on which new affordable housing could be built.
The site of the old Ulster County Jail off Route 32, containing 41 acres of county-owned property within the Kingston city limits, was identified as an ideal spot. The Kingston Family Health Center is nearby. The Ulster County Area Transit headquarters is just down the hill, with grocery stores and other conveniences an easy bus ride away for residents.
To receive the parcel of land as well as to oversee the selection of a team to develop and manage the property, the county created the UCHDC (Ulster County Housing Development Corporation) in August 2020, an entity related to the public benefit but independent of direct accountability to its voters.
The Golden Hill property was transferred to the newly minted “not-for-profit corporation … to relieve the burdens of the county and the undertaking of its disposition.” So was it written in Legislative Resolution 274 of the year 2020.
The full market value of the land transferred is estimated at $17.7 million. The resolution requires that the county will receive the net proceeds of the disposition of and any eventual sale to a third party.
The bylaws of the UCHDC stipulate that the sole member of the corporation shall be the county, and that the county shall not have any rights or interests in or to the property or assets of the corporation. The county government appoints three of its five members.
Part of the pitch
Just like every other high-volume apartment-unit operation coming down the rental property pipeline in Kingston, the housing project to be built on Golden Hill will be looking for a tax break from the Ulster County Industrial Development Agency (UCIDA).
The IDA granted a $16-million Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) to The Kingstonian to underwrite its parking structure, and the half-million dollars the Stuyvesant Charter Apartments is looking to retain each year for the next 20 years through its PILOT agreement. Similarly, Pennrose will be seeking to minimize the property taxes which would go into the tax kitties of the county, the city and the school district.
Part of Pennrose’s sales pitch emphasized the need for child care in its first presentation to the community. Pennrose has repeatedly shared its plans with the community to run a day-care center out of a 5000-square-foot central community building. Family of Woodstock has signed on as a social-services partner to operate this component.
More children entering the school system with no corresponding increase in taxes to the school district dilutes the value of property taxes collected district-wide.
Affordable housing
For adding new and affordable units to the market, Golden Hill presently shows the most promise of the development projects under way locally. The Kingstonian will add 143 new units to the rental pool in Ulster County, but the typical Ulster County rent-payer will be able to afford only 14 of those units.
The Stuyvesant Charter Apartments plan to offer 140 affordable units does present possibilities, but the units are not newly created. It’s a renovation project, and most of the units are already occupied. The real effect on the citywide apartment pool from this project is not known at this time.
While Pennrose claims a diverse cross-section of needs will be met through its development project, it’s by the metric of affordable housing created that the developer will be measured. The rental units will be priced anywhere from 30 to 130 percent of the Ulster County area median income of $66,060 a year.
For an apartment to be considered affordable in Ulster County, its rent can eat up no more than 30 percent of that number. Pennrose declares right out of the gate that some of the apartments it intends to build will cost as much as four times the amount of what is considered affordable, out of reach of the typical Ulster County renter for whom this project was intended.
The snake eating its tail
A lack of affordable housing in Ulster County alarms politicians who are told they “must do something.” A developer chosen to build new affordable apartment stock in short order asks for a tax break. The housing that is built is not solely dedicated to fixing the problem for which it was built.
Pennrose has been up front about its intentions from the beginning. It has described itself as “a nationally recognized building developer of affordable, mixed-use, mixed-income, market-rate and master-planned communities with over 350 developments and more than 27,000 rental housing units to its credit.”
The company also manages residential properties. A UCHDC press release by the county executive explains that Pennrose manages over 17,000 units across 16 states. (Pennrose’s website claims it manages 11,000 units.)
In the same press release, the UCHDC announced its intent to negotiate a developers’ agreement with Pennrose which would include the option for the developer to purchase the site once the plans are finalized and funding is secured.
Pennrose made it a point in its original submission of qualifications that without a PILOT agreement the deal would be a non-starter.
It’s just business
Pennrose has established its development team for the project, tapping Labella Associates for engineering, WRT Planning for architecture and Family of Woodstock.
In a presentation given to the Kingston planning board on April 4, there was not much new to say that hadn’t already been said. Pennrose presented updated plans for the site, explained the need for special permits, its desire to subdivide the lot, and many green topics. It emphasized its hopes for a favorable SEQR designation.
Roger Keating, senior civil engineer from LaBella Associates, explained that “80 of the units of the 164 are planned to be senior-style facility for age restrictions of 62.” There would also be “town-home-style units as well as a multifamily buildings, three stories in size, that make up the balance of the other 84 units.”
State senator Michelle Hinchey had announced just before the new year that Family of Woodstock had received a commitment of funds totaling $1.154 million annually with which to provide 48 units of permanent supportive housing at the Golden Hill apartments, which would meet affordable workforce housing needs as well as accommodations for seniors. As part of this project, 22 units were specified for the frail elderly, and 26 units would house domestic-violence survivors.
The pairing of private developers with entities which represent the public interest has become commonplace. Profit and not-for-profit companies hitch their wagons together to exploit economic realities most efficiently. Even if they partner with a public-benefit entity, as Pennrose has done with the UCHDC, it is not suddenly a charity by the mere benefit of association. Pennrose’s tag line is “bricks and mortar, heart and soul,” not “we provide housing to the housing insecure.”
In the long run, if exploiting the pull of that economic engine is what’s required to manifest more units of affordable housing for Ulster County, it will prove wise for county executive Ryan to have seized the opportunity. Balancing that gain against the needs of the school district now falls to the UCHDC.
“One of our key goals in this project is to take advantage of the incredible site and all the, uh, really special aspects of the project set up there on the hill,” said William D’Avela, speaking for Pennrose, “including the views of the mountains, access to the natural surroundings and trails around it, and the ability in utilizing that space to create a really beautiful open public space.”
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