From the press release by the city:

The City of Newburgh has retained Buckhurst Fish & Jacquemart, Inc. (BFJ Planning) to complete a Future Landuse Plan. This exercise is the second component of the Sustainable Master Plan adopted in December 2008. All are invited to attend a public meeting May 26 at 6:30 p.m. to discuss the role of the future Landuse Plan and the work completed to date. The meeting will be held at 123 Grand Street in the Heritage Center.

By State law all landuse regulations must comply with an adopted master plan. Therefore, this will set the stage for major revisions or a complete rewrite of the City’s land use regulations.

For more information, call Ian MacDougall at 569-9400 ext. 205.

Newburgh Community Development Agency returns to action (after long hiatus):
When: Thursday, April 8, 2010 at 6:00 PM
Where: Council Chambers, City Hall, 3rd Floor, 83 Broadway
On the agenda: Three items.  1. NCDA Mortgage Loans; 2. NCDA Property (foot of former South Street – $3150 Quadricentennial Grant from Hudson River Foundation); 3. NCDA Long-Term Plans
What’s at stake: At a recent city council meeting, a resident complained that she could not get a document proving her loan granted by the NCDA years ago was satisfied (paid off)  from the City.  Without this document, the resident could not take out a needed loan.  This resident’s plight is due to the NCDA board not meeting for years and there being no one else authorized to take action.  (Although, curiously, a satisfaction document was signed by former Economic Development Director Lourdes Zapata as recently as March 2009; shortly thereafter, she and former Corporation Counsel Geoffrey Chanin sought the city council’s approval to authorize Zapata to act for the NCDA.  The council refused.  Additional NCDA loan satisfaction documents were signed by Zapata’s predecessor Robert McKenna, but then filed with the county years later.)  Recently, Corporation Counsel Bernis Nelson had proposed transferring all assets and liabilities of the NCDA to the City.  That action was not taken by the council (who currently are the NCDA board as well.) Losing the NCDA would also mean losing its ability to issue debt.
Question: Will the NCDA/City Council take any actions at the meeting?  The public notice states “the purpose of the meeting is to discuss” the agenda items (emphasis mine.)
More info: End may be nigh for NCDA

And next week…

Who: Pace University Land Use Law Center & Center for Community Progress
What: Strategy Sessions about City of Newburgh Vacant/Abandoned Buildings
When: Two Public Meetings: Wednesday, April 14 at 6:30 p.m. - Education Session & Overview of Best Practices
and Thursday, April 15 at 6:30 p.m. - Community Strategy Session
Where: City of Newburgh Activity Center, 401 Washington Street
For more info: call the City of Newburgh at (845) 569-9400
Funder: made possible by grant from the Ford Foundation
Official description:
As in many communities across the country, vacant and abandoned buildings in the City of Newburgh continue to drain the energy and vitality of neighborhoods. Eyesores as well as  magnets for crime, these buildings degrade  the overall quality of life for people in the  surrounding blocks, while dragging down surrounding property values and negatively impacting rehabilitation efforts.

What are the best ways to address this pervasive problem? To learn more about how other communities deal with blighted buildings, and to participate in a community strategy session, all are invited to attend presentations.

Wednesday’s presentation is “Vacant & Abandoned Properties: Effective Public Policy Approaches.”  It will inform local leaders, partners, stakeholders, and the public of the land bank model, land management strategies, system reforms, and financial models to make it all work.

Invitation-only workshops / focus groups will be held on Thursday during the day. These workshops will facilitate discussions on present practices, challenges, and opportunities related to tax-foreclosed and other vacant and underutilized properties.

Thursday evening’s public community strategy session will include recommendations for next steps, system reforms, identifying possible funding sources, board composition, staffing needs of proposed programs, and more.

City Press Officer Ann Kuzmik clarified that “developers, local merchants/realtors, department heads, institutional stakeholders, non-profits, community/neighborhood group leaders, and advisory board reps will be attending the (invitation only) day sessions.”

On Tuesday, January 26th, the Newburgh Zoning Board of Appeals heard a presentation in which William Kaplan asked for a variance for his proposed housing development on waterfront land adjoining his Regal Bag Building.  Assisting Mr. Kaplan was Lou Marquet from the Leyland Alliance, in addition to an attorney from Jacobwitz and Gubits.  Kaplan explained he had hired Leyland to assist in the planning process and gaining approvals from the city.

Kaplan began with the history of the Regal Bag Building, before launching into a description of the proposed buildings.  Throughout, he emphasized that the variance was needed to make the project financially viable.  He compared it to other Newburgh projects, stating that “the Foundry is floudering… Ferry Crossing went bankrupt twice… Voisons, that went bankrupt…” until IBM and Kaplan brought Voisons back.

Claims project would bring $2M in taxes

Kaplan reiterated the financial advantages of approving his project, chief among them the $2M addition he claims the project would bring in taxes.

Mr. Kaplan did not sugarcoat his view of the reality facing developers in Newburgh.  “We are starting a project at the worst time in the country in one of the worst cities in the country… we have a bankrupt city right now.  You all know it, I don’t have to tell you.  With no chance of getting anything in here except Ray’s putting up some buildings there [referring to Ray Yannone's Colden Street project].  But there ain’t nothing else going on and there ain’t going to be anything else going on for a very, very long time.”

Public comments were only in favor of project

Several people spoke during the public comments period, including above-mentioned Ray Yannone and Chris Colombo, whose children are partners with Yannone on the Newburgh Train Station renovation.

Also speaking in favor of the project was Dick Polich of the Yellow Bird Gallery building.

Variance decision postponed until next month’s meeting

Because several board members were absent, and also due to the too-brief period board members had to review the proposal, a final decision about the variance was postponed until next month’s meeting.  One part of the variance request involves waiving a need to build over 100 parking spaces.

Full video coverage of the meeting is posted below (or access the video directly at this link.)

Newburgh, N.Y., October 16, 2008 — With the downturn in the economy, LeylandAlliance, Newburgh’s waterfront developer, has had a hard time getting the loan they wanted from banks for their East Parmenter Street Project.  LeylandAlliance is looking to build 24 homes downtown, including eight homes to be built together with Habitat for Humanity.  So the developer came before the Newburgh City Council to request a project construction loan from the city’s Kingston-Newburgh Enterprise Corporation (KNEC) funds.

“With what’s going on with the credit market now, the banks do not want to lend against speculative building,” said Lou Marquet, executive vice president of LeylandAlliance, to the City Council of Newburgh, NY at their meeting September 8.  “All we’re asking you to do is to help underwrite the financing of the infrastructure of this project.”

The council voted 3-2 to grant the $300,000 loan.

Some on the council were asking whether the city should be in the role of lending money to a developer when banks are reluctant.

Councilwoman Mary Ann Dickinson, who cast a dissenting vote, said she believed “we should be as fiscally responsible as we can, which means holding onto our money right now and not lending it out. The people that are asking us for money are people that are supposed to be having money, and so why are they coming to the city?”

Councilwoman Dickinson had made a motion to table the loan resolution, which would have allowed more time to review financial statements from the developer.  Her motion was voted down, 3-2.

Mayor Nick Valentine, who voted in the majority to fund the loan, said “on this one it’s not really a risk.  I sat on the KNEC board from its inception. We were the last resort for some businesses at the time, when banks maybe said no, we were the ones that were supposed to say yes.  And part of [Congressman] Maurice Hinchey’s philosophy was, help out some smaller businesses, they’re going to hire locally.”  Mayor Valentine noted that many businesses in Newburgh and Kingston have benefited from KNEC funding.

“I think it’s a good use of it, it’s used wisely, and certainly between Leyland and Habitat, I think the risk is very low,” the mayor said.  I think it’s something that will not only come to fruition, but will be a useful mechanism for our city to use in jumpstarting some projects.”

The LeylandAlliance is Newburgh’s chosen waterfront developer.  They are redeveloping approximately 30 acres of land along the Hudson River that was leveled by urban renewal efforts in the 1970s.

In addition to the waterfront project, Leyland is collaborating with Newburgh’s Habitat for Humanity on the East Parmenter Street development.  Of a total of 24 buildings, 8 will be Habitat homes and 16 will be workforce homes – homes available to anyone but designed with the goal of providing reasonably priced in-town housing for workers like policemen, firemen, teachers, and nurses. The $300,000 loan will go toward demolition and infrastructure costs for this project, at a 5% interest rate.

History of high-risk loans

These days, $300,000 is real money.  So where’s it coming from?  The Kingston-Newburgh Enterprise Community, the brainchild of Congressman Hinchey, who arranged for the designation in 1994.  Money came from Washington – the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) – and from New York State, which targeted for $3 million for economic and community development projects in specific census tracts with high poverty rates.  Kingston gave tax breaks to the Head Trauma Center and built the Edward Hodge Community Center.  Newburgh built the Washington Heights Community Center.

Dan Marsh of the National Development Council helped write the initial application to HUD in 1994.  “Kingston and Newburgh got together because both of them independently probably wouldn’t have qualified.  It was successful.  It was designed to provide benefit [for] public service, social service, economic and community development.”

“The loan funds were designed as very high-risk loan funds,” Dan Marsh notes.  He called KNEC an attempt at “bold action to try to jumpstart some needed projects in the areas.  Quite honestly, I don’t know what ever happened to most of the loans.”

Department of Labor audit put funds on hold

But KNEC funds have a troubled history, and the corporation has been audited by the federal government.

KNEC received $1.9M in funding from the Department of Labor from 2001-2004 for job training programs.  In an audit from 2006, the Labor Department’s Office of the Inspector General found problems with ineligible program participants, or programs without participants at all, concluding with a request that $1.2 million be repaid to the Department of Labor.

“The problem was mostly factors of recordkeeping – programs of training for homeless people without addresses, or welfare recipients without sufficient credentials,” said Robert McKenna, Newburgh’s Economic Development Director.  McKenna stated that they have been negotiating with the Labor Department and that “all the questionable costs have been resolved.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Labor declined to comment, stating that the matter is under appeal by the auditee.

December of 2004 marked the end of the Enterprise Community designation, although KNEC had been disbanded two years earlier, when most of its funding had run out.  The remaining funds and loan portfolios, totaling about $500,000, were disbursed to the cities of Newburgh and Kingston to administer.

Newburgh hadn’t spent this money because of the ongoing Department of Labor audit, in the event that they would have to give some money back.

Leyland fits the criteria

Newburgh development director McKenna said that KNEC projects must meet the original criteria for the funds use: economic or community development within census tracts 4 and 5.  As a housing project, Leyland’s East Parmenter Street project appears to make the cut.

Asked to comment, LeylandAlliance’s executive vice president Lou Marquet said “The City of Newburgh is committed to the revitalization of neighborhoods and encouraging housing to meet the needs of people who live and work in the city. By providing funding to demolish existing residences that are beyond repair and install infrastructure and utilities for the new residences to be built, the City is demonstrating a vote of confidence for the East Parmenter Street project. The loan will be repaid as each homeowner takes ownership of their new home.”

According to McKenna, the loan will be paid back proportionally when Leyland sells each house.  Construction will be done in small groups of three to four homes, so they won’t go on the market all at once.  Construction is expected to start in spring of 2009.

NCAC’s Board President Imam Salahuddin M. Mohammad requested a letter of support from the City Council, upon the advice of the NY State Dormitory Authority:

Imam Mohammad described in further detail the purpose of the center and the population it would serve:

NCAC also requested that Councilwoman Marge Bell serve on their board. She responded by saying they should have a dialogue.

In addition to the main business of the child development center, NCAC representative Rudy Lamarr requested a $65,000 contingency loan for one of their housing projects.

In other NCAC business last night, Rudy Lamarr requested to repurchase 83-85 Lander Street. The property had been reclaimed by the city due to failure to pay back taxes.

Mr. Lamarr’s explanation drew a spirited response from Mayor Nick Valentine.

In other real estate negotiations, there was praise for Bluestone Developers and the work they had done on 121 Renwick Street. Bluestone is proposing to buy an additional property, 95 Renwick Street, from the city for the total cost of $8,700.

Newburgh Ministry, a community center/hospitality house, has received a $1.8M grant from the Homeless Housing Assistance Corporation, a NY State Agency.  The grant will be used for capital improvement, rehabilitating their building at 9 Johnston Street and making it ADA compliant.

In 2005, Newburgh Ministry began operating an all night drop-in shelter, but without cots or beds guests would sleep on chairs or the floor.  The HHAC grant will provide 19 beds for men and women.

The Newburgh Ministry was founded in 1983 by five women from different religious orders.  They purchased the 9 Johnston Street location in 1990.

Thanks to the HHAC grant, the shelter will operate 365 days a year, according to Jim McElhinney, the Ministry’s coordinator.  “The state wants to make sure that we do that, since so much of the funding is for capital improvement – they will require that from us.  They’re making sure their investment is worth it.

One of the things you learn doing this, is that there are a lot of hoops to jump through, and the hoops can be sort of annoying when you’re jumping through them, but you realize that as a taxpayer, they’re there because, if not, somebody would be walking off with $1.8M.  And I’m sure the reason that they do it is because it has happened in the past.  So that’s heartening in a way, that the state is being a good guardian.

They hope to begin construction in the spring of 2009.