POUGHKEEPSIE – The City of Poughkeepsie is seeking qualified developers to offer their vision for a prominent 14-acre site on the city’s southern waterfront. The city has released a Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEI) for the troubled DeLaval site, which was the subject of litigation between the former developer and the city, as a result of actions taken by the common council.
The site is the last undeveloped multi-acre parcel on the city’s waterfront, with views of the Hudson River and the Highland bluffs of Franny Reese Park in the Town of Lloyd. The city’s goal is to identify qualified developers/organizations that have both the experience and financial and design/construction capabilities to be able to successfully complete a redevelopment project.
“This is a key opportunity for the city and the community to see their visioning of the southern waterfront come to fruition,” said City Development Director Natalie Quinn. “For a confluence of reasons, this site has been idle for too long. The parcel is not only of historic significance, but it has the potential to play an essential role in an active, vibrant waterfront that helps to connect the city’s southern and northern ends. We look forward to seeing what kind of innovative ideas are proposed for the best and most realistic use of the site.”
The city has completed a number of visioning exercises concerning the site and arrived at the overarching goal of creating an anchor on the southern waterfront — providing public space and water-related uses, driving tourism to bolster the local economy, and complementing existing waterfront assets, such as Waryas Park and the Walkway Over the Hudson, according to John Penney, the city’s director of Community Engagement.
The RFEI is designed to encourage dialogue between the city and qualified respondents to develop a plan that meets the objectives of the city and is financially feasible. Penney also pointed out that the RFEI seeks the broadest range of responses, in light of the once-in-a-lifetime development opportunity presented by the waterfront property. The city’s development goals for the site include:
- Establishing mixed-use waterfront facilities and programming that make optimal use of the city’s waterfront, including day and nighttime activation via development that includes a creative mix of uses, such as restaurants, a boutique hotel, docks, water recreation, or other such uses.
- Making the site fiscally productive, contributing to tax revenue generation, both on and off-site.
- Providing riverfront walkway connectivity and public gathering spaces.
- Landscaping and architecture that is inspired by the site’s unique location, including consideration of native plantings and resiliency to climate change.
“Careful and strategic development of this waterfront property offers us tremendous opportunity for transformative change in the City of Poughkeepsie,” said Mayor Marc Nelson. The mayor stressed that the RFEI will be marketed across the nation to bring the most competent developer to Poughkeepsie to bring the vision to reality. Nelson pointed out that, if done properly, the development will create jobs, rejuvenate the city’s economy, improve the tax base, and create yet another major tourist attraction to the city.
Nelson wants the proposals to emphasize public access to the waterfront and the city’s goal of advancing Poughkeepsie’s designation under the New York State Climate Smart Communities Program. The administration indicated that it prefers responses that use the city’s updated Comprehensive Plan and Local Waterfront Revitalization Program (LWRP).
The RFEI and instructions can be found here. The submission deadline is March 23, 2023.
