Midtown Kingston might be the county’s most exciting and dynamic neighborhood. Its residents are culturally and economically diverse, and its communities are interwoven. It’s home to the city hall, the high school, YMCA, several healthcare facilities (including a sprawling hospital), churches, a mosque and myriad professional practices.
And then there’s the fun stuff: dozens of restaurants, cafes and bars; live-music venues hosting nationally renowned acts; art galleries, and even a dinnerware museum. Broadway and the Midtown linear park make getting around a breeze (just watch for bad drivers). With all this and more sandwiched between Uptown and Downtown Kingston — each with its own embarrassment of charms — it’s no wonder more people want to hang out and live here.
The problem is that, there’s a housing crisis. The most recent annual study found the vacancy rate in buildings with six or more units built before 1974 was just 1.57 percent. The numbers, challenged all the way up to New York’s highest court by a coalition of landlords, were held by the judiciary to be accurate — thus protecting Kingston renters under New York’s Emergency Tenant Protection Act.
Finding an affordable rental is a challenge. A search on Apartments.com revealed just four rental listings in Midtown Kingston, two freshly renovated two-bedroom units for a monthly rent of $3100 each, and two one-bedroom units, one for $1450 a month and the other at $1600 a month.
If you’re looking to buy a home — again, good luck. Kingston has been a hot real-estate market for several years. Estimates of median home asking prices are stratospheric compared to just a few years prior. Sale prices generally run from $300,000 to $450,000.
Look at Radio Kingston’s courtyard and surrounding areas to see an even darker side of the housing emergency — homelessness, poverty, mental illness, drug addiction and prostitution.
Here’s the good news: City officials are not sitting idly by. Mayor Steve Noble has set a goal to develop 1000 additional units of housing throughout the city by 2029. Through a series of political maneuvers, grants and tax incentives, Midtown is finally getting more housing, though affordable units account for only a small percentage.
Barrel Factory
Construction workers for the Barrel Factory Apartments project are currently doing a twelve-unit renovation to the former barrel factory at 104 Smith Avenue. near the railroad tracks and the post office. A brand-new four-story building next to it at 35 Bruyn Street will have 100 residential units in addition to commercial space. Second-hand shopping wonderland Free to Thrift is a confirmed tenant. Altogether, there will be 32 affordable housing units and 80 priced at market rate.
There were lots of carrots at the end of the stick for Barrel Factory builders MHV Development. The developers secured a $840,000 Restore New York grant and tapped into state and federal Historic Preservation Tax Credits, which can offset 40 percent to 60 percent of qualified rehabilitation expenses. Those carrots translate into an estimated $1.4 million in equity for the project.
The Barrel Factory project alone will increase Midtown’s population by around 250 people, but there’s much more getting started.
Broadway Commons
The long-derelict former King’s Inn building at 615 Broadway was partially demolished in 2011 and used for a full-scale U.S. Army drill simulating a dirty-bomb attack. It subsequently sat empty for years before Baxter Development Co. secured the city’s green light to develop Broadway Commons, including 70 residential units, commercial space, and a built-out Deep Listening Plaza dedicated to the late local avant-garde musical genius Pauline Oliveros.
Just 20 percent of the units at this location will be affordable. The rest will be “workforce housing,” which for the layman means less affordable than affordable housing, more affordable than market rate.
Approved by Kingston’s planning board in June 2025, the project includes a $132,000 contribution to the city’s recreation trust fund to offset the impact on public spaces Currently in pre-construction with final plans being prepared, groundbreaking is expected in late 2025 or early 2026, and completion likely by 2027. Development is paused while the state reviews its brownfield cleanup program application and environmental investigation plan. Construction can’t begin until cleanup requirements are approved. If granted brownfield status, the developers gain access to state tax credits, grants and liability protections that help offset remediation costs and make the site financially viable to build on .
Other housing initiatives
A third light at the end of the housing emergency tunnel is 25 Field Court, a derelict 12,000-square-foot brick building from 1966 with two parking lots. The city owns this property and recently put out a call for businesses to submit concepts. Similar to the old King’s Inn location, developers here can apply for brownfield status to cut costs. Mayor Noble has indicated he’d like to see another mixed-use building with a mix of affordable housing and commercial space.
In June 2025, the Kingston City Land Bank cleared the long-vacant Grand Slam Bar property on Grand Street to make way for a new infill housing project. The concept calls for up to twelve affordable units.
Beyond the high-profile Midtown projects, Kingston is advancing several other housing efforts across the city.
The Elizabeth Manor Cooperative will convert a former boarding house into 15 affordable homeownership units, while the Legacy City Access Program is rehabilitating four vacant single-family homes for first-time income-eligible buyers.
RUPCO is partnering with the city to renovate ten distressed homes for affordable sale, and a countywide affordable apartment rehabilitation initiative is upgrading more than 200 units, many of which are in Kingston.
Other Midtown developments
With hundreds of residents moving into Midtown over the coming years, they’re going to need something more to do. While there’s no shortage of activities in the neighborhood, a number of developments underway will make Midtown even more vibrant and active.
The Metro, at South Prospect Street and Greenkill Avenue, is a 70,000-square-foot former Pilgrim Furniture warehouse being transformed by the NoVo Foundation (run by Peter Buffett, son of billionaire Warren Buffett) into a carbon-neutral hub for manufacturing, education and the arts.
Funded entirely through NoVo’s philanthropic investment (estimated at $30 million to $40 million), the project incorporates geothermal heating and cooling, reclaimed and recycled materials, high-efficiency insulation, and water conservation systems. Groundbreaking took place in 2023, and construction is progressing toward an expected 2026 completion. When finished, the Metro will house maker spaces, fabrication facilities, classrooms, youth training areas, event space, and offices for creative and community-based organizations.
Thanks to a $477,000 Restore New York Community Initiative grant, the Headstone Gallery project will transform the long-vacant building at 289 Foxhall Avenue into an arts hub featuring studio rentals for independent artisans, administrative offices for local arts nonprofits, and apprenticeship and job-shadowing opportunities for high-school students. The project also includes landscaping improvements for the parking area to mesh with an anticipated street redesign.
A small community park is planned on a 0.55-acre former railyard along the Midtown linear-park trail between Cornell and Downs streets in Kingston. Designed by Port Architecture Urbanism and KaN Landscape Designers, the space will feature indigenous plantings, play elements, and flexible areas for both passive and active use, blending landscaped greenery with spots for community gathering. Funded in part by a million-dollar grant from the Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley, the park is in the design phase following extensive public input. Completion is targeted for fall 2026.
Smaller commercial developments are underway. Kingston Bread + Bar is currently renovating the old Pakt restaurant to bring its high-end baked goods — popular with tourists and locals alike — to 608 Broadway.
Opening September 19, 2025 in a former Midtown barbershop, Upstate Films’ Kingston micro-theater will offer 40 to 50 seats for arthouse, documentary and repertory screenings. Developed in partnership with the Kingston Film Foundation, the space has been retrofitted with tiered seating and a rear-projection system. In addition to film programming, the micro-theater will host community discussions and special events.
Kingston Standard Brewing Co. is undertaking a major expansion with the help of a $550,000 Restore New York grant, moving its beer production into a newly built, fossil-fuel-free facility next door while expanding restaurant operations.
Momentum citywide plus
Beyond the high-profile Midtown projects, Kingston has been advancing several other major housing efforts across the city. Some of these are seeing the light of day. Others aren’t and won’t ever.
The Golden Hill Apartments currently under construction the former Ulster County Jail site are now a sure thing, bringing 164 intergenerational affordable units with community amenities, is slated for completion in 2026.
Uptown, The Kingstonian on North Front Street, consisting of 143 apartments plus a 20 room hotel and commercial space, appears in limbo years after governmental approval and considerable state inducement.
The City of Kingston government has been pushing for the construction of 200 units of housing opposite the police station on Garraghan Drive near the foot of Broadway. The city’s also talked about considering housing up in the industrial park off Delaware Avenue in Midtown, where a late 2024 planning study envisaged construction of 300 to 600 housing units.
Let’s close with Ulster County’s most innovative response to the darker side of the housing emergency, the homeless and the poverty-stricken. Just west of the Kingston Thruway entrance, RUPCO is working to complete a facility with 70 units of permanent affordable supportive housing for the homeless. With sewer and water pipes extended from Kingston under the Thruway, the former Quality Inn will boast a community room, a kitchen, a daycare center and a swimming pool. Most importantly. a variety of support services will be available at the facility on a regular basis (as will be public transportation). The place will provide a valuable helping hand to those most in need.
Join the family! 
