KINGSTON >> Mayor Shayne Gallo is taking heat from an election challenger for dropping the plan to convert a former bank building into the city’s police headquarters.
In a posting on Facebook, fellow Democrat Steve Noble said the lack of vision for the empty Bank of America building at Broadway and Henry Street is disturbing.
“I am deeply dismayed and disappointed at the lack of forethought this administration had in developing its plans for this site,” Noble, who hopes to wrest this year’s Democratic nomination from Gallo, said in the posting. “While it was Bank of America’s choice to remove its operations from this building, it was this administration’s agenda that further exacerbated the situation.”
Gallo, in an email sent by his secretary, responded: “Mr. Noble is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own misplaced, inaccurate facts. I am too busy running the city.”
Gallo at one time called the building the “centerpiece” of his plan to revitalize Midtown but said this week that it was up for sale.
The building was purchased by the Kingston Local Development Corp. $1 in January 2013.
In November 2013, a state review of the Kingston Local Development Corp. questioned whether the purchase fit with the agency’s mission.
“This property was purchased with the expectation that it would be used by the city as a police station, rather than developed and marketed for private commercial use,” the report stated.
The report noted Gallo said the plan for the bank building would help improve public safety in the area, “which would have a direct correlation to economic development.”
The KLDC paid a total of $82,500 in 2012 and 2013 in expenses related to the building, such as closing costs, taxes, insurance, utilities and consultant fees, the report said.
Gallo said previously that putting the police station in Midtown was part of his Business, Education, Art and Technology, or BEAT, initiative,
City police long have been headquartered in the building at 1 Garraghan Drive in Rondout district. That building also houses the city’s court operation and used to be home to the city’s municipal offices.
Gallo said in April 2014 that federal funding had been found to remodel the Bank of American building so that it could house both the police and court operations. On Monday, though, he said the city couldn’t raise the money needed for the work.
Noble said the whole matter of the Bank of America building was mishandled.
“As an experienced grant writer, I can tell you that the acquisition of funding is not as simple as money being ‘freed up’ and given to a project,” said Noble, who works for the city as an environmental educator. “Having a good idea, which in this case was questionable to begin with, is not enough. If this project was planned and implemented according to the guidelines set forth by federal funding sources and secured through a competitive application process, then perhaps there would have been resources for this project. But that didn’t happen.”
Gallo has said recent interest in the bank building has included “anything from restaurant to office to retail. For all I know, there could even be someone interested in housing.”
“For all I know?” Noble responded. “Is it not the job of our city’s top executive to know? Is it not the job of our community’s leadership, who took on responsibility for this building against the wishes of many residents, to have a responsible plan for this critical site in the heart of Midtown?
“Here’s what I know,” he said. “The acquisition of this building increased our burden by removing it from the tax rolls and forcing us to maintain yet another aging and vacant facility. The future of this building is our responsibility now, and we should not be guessing at where its fate lies. If our current leadership does not have practical and strategic ways to accomplish tasks like this, then the people of Kingston need to change who is steering this ship.”
Noble said that, if elected in November, he will work to “identify resources to help the eventual buyer to be successful in this space.”
“Ideally, this building should be a bank, which would provide financial stability to the residents of Midtown,” he said. “Our hard-working residents should not have to lose a chunk of their paychecks to high check-cashing rates.”
Noble also said he would “work with our partners to identify resources to help the eventual buyer to be successful in this space.”
Noble is a nephew of James Noble, the Common Council president and Gallo’s running mate in the 2011 city election.
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