KINGSTON – The Kingston Common Council voted unanimously in favor of the Landmark Preservation LP’s takeover of the “Albany Land” and “Broadway Land” properties, also known as the Yasmine Towers and Governor Clinton Apartments, Tuesday evening.
Both properties contain Section 8 senior housing.
Pending a $10 million investment on behalf of Landmark Preservation,
the resolution awarded the company a 35-year PILOT plan.
Augusta Graf, a tenant of the Governor Clinton facility, said had the resolution not passed, with only two other HUD supported senior facilities in the city, she and other tenants may have been left to fend for themselves.
“We’re thrilled to death; we are thrilled,” said Graf. “If this didn’t pass, we would have no place to go because if it didn’t pass, we wouldn’t have HUD. My rent is $400. If I had to leave there, I’d have to go up town to one of those other PILOT places and pay $900 to $1200 a month.”
In addition to the company taking a $1,700 per door tax rate for existing domiciles, Alderman Reynolds Scott-Childress said the council knew it would be a good deal because the PILOT wouldn’t result in increasing the tax rates of city residents.
“Unlike a lot of other PILOTs, this has guarantees in it; so, one of the crucial things is there’s a PILOT mortgage in it, which means that, whatever agreement Landmark goes in to, we’re guaranteed,” Scott-Childress said “Whatever happens to them, there’s a backup, so that we’re guaranteed that money through the term of the loan.”
After being sent back to committee to be voted on again, Common Council President James Noble said he believes the council did their due diligence regarding the pilot, and that they did the right thing.
“They looked at it,” said Noble. “They waited. They postponed the vote. They referred it back to committee and they discussed it and had other questions they asked. They hashed it out, and we feel that from what we’ve received so far in PILOT agreements, this agreement rises to a higher level.”
