HUDSON — The Galvan Foundation has plans to transform 11 Warren St. from a below-street-level, single-story building into a mixed-use, multi-level housing and commercial development.
In an announcement Tuesday, the foundation described the building as “an unattractive and out-of-place building” that would be replaced by a “new mixed-used building designed to reflect the historic character of Hudson.”
While the project is a joint partnership with Galvan, which owns the property, Benchmark Development of Great Barrington, Massachusetts, would be fully responsible for the development, construction and financing of the site, Brian Cohan of Benchmark Development said Tuesday.
The building is occupied by Bard Early College Hudson, said Dan Kent, Galvan Foundation vice president of initiatives. The tenants will be relocated to another Galvan property, to be determined.
The plan includes 24 one-bedroom apartments, 44 two-bedroom apartments, all market-rate, as well as seven hotel-like guest rooms, three retail spaces, a restaurant space with outdoor seating and underground parking with about 90 spots.
The apartments will likely be higher-cost units, Cohan said Wednesday.
“You can imagine with the quality of this building and its location that it might be on the higher end of the spectrum of market-rate, but it’s driven by the consumer and market and what people are willing to pay,” Cohan said.
Cohan and Michael Charles, also of Benchmark Development, presented their early ideas for the site to the city planning board Tuesday. The purpose of the presentation was to get feedback from the board, as no application has been submitted at this time.
“We’re absolutely planning on pursuing it,” Charles said Wednesday.
Planning board member Theresa Joyner asked Tuesday who the building would serve.
“Will it benefit Hudson and the people of Hudson?” she said. “I mean, you said they’re going to be rentals. It doesn’t look like these are going to be low-income rentals. It doesn’t look like they’re going to be mid-income levels for Hudson rentals, so my biggest thing would be the need, and who is the tenant. Are you going to service the people of Hudson? Is this going to benefit our citizens? I love the idea, but I also want to know who is this targeted to.”
The apartment building will not serve low-income residents, Charles said.
“It’s certainly a mid-market product and our view on housing and various levels of housing is that it’s actually about a collection of housing within a community,” he said. “We are not the guys to do low-income housing, for instance, but there are other guys who would do that.”
There seems to be a need for different types of housing in Hudson, the developers said. It’s up to the board and city to decide what the mix should be.
“At the end of the day, frankly, if you say, ‘We don’t want any market-rate product,’ then you say that and we go away,” Charles said.
Joyner also asked why the apartments would not be for sale.
The market is well-suited for rentals and it fits the structure of their business better, Charles said. They do have some for-sale projects in their portfolio in other places.
The developers have a particular product quality level and they don’t pursue projects that won’t be profitable or realistic, or that they don’t have expertise in, Charles said Wednesday.
“If a town doesn’t want us as a developer, then we won’t develop there,” he said. “But it generally doesn’t happen that way ... We’re pretty good at trying to have our developments blend into the community.”
The developers do not yet have a time frame for when they will submit an application to the board, Charles said. But he expects plenty of informal conversations until the time comes to submit.
The developers haven’t worked with Galvan on a project before, but have been talking with the foundation about this project for awhile, Charles said.
Charles and Cohan did not provide information on how much the rents would be, but the price tag will depend on market conditions in Hudson, Cohan said.
More cost-effective buildings with fewer amenities can afford to target lower-end market rates, he said. The developers do not know at this time what amenities the building will have.
Repurposing the site is a great idea and there is significant demand for market-rate housing in Hudson, so it’s good that the units will not be low-income, planning board member Clark Wieman said Tuesday night.
“I think that is fine and a good thing,” he said. “Bringing more people to Hudson is a good thing and providing more housing overall is a good thing.”
Charles and Cohan’s hope is for the building to blend into the character of older buildings in Hudson by using materials that would prevent it from looking new. Replicating an older style is a difficult task to get right, planning board member and architect Larry Bowne said Tuesday.
“My own bias would be to actually not mimic the past and honor the fact that we live in the 21st century and be true to our reality so that in 100 years people will want to honor what you guys did,” Bowne said.