Bonura Bringing Newcomers to Poughkeepsie
For the past 16 years, developer Joe Bonura Jr. has been working to transform the previously idle southern Poughkeepsie waterfront.
South of the Mid-Hudson Bridge, he owns a significant amount of land that is home to three major projects, one of which has already been built — the Grandview and Shadows on the Hudson, completed in 2006 and 2007 respectively.
Bonura’s current project is Water Club Luxury Living, an apartment complex right across the railroad tracks from Shadows and the Grandview. He broke ground on the Water Club in March 2016 and was able to move in his first residents just eight months later. Such efficiency is essential to proving to other developers and Poughkeepsie residents alike that property development in the city can be done quickly and with a great community benefit.
“It’s nice to know that, regardless of who built this project, more people are interested in investing in Poughkeepsie,” Bonura said. “When a project like this happens, it brings more investment. Now that we got off the ground and building and rented, that gives confidence to other people who have big projects or even small projects that ‘if they can do it, so can we.’ So it helps economic development and it helps everyone sort of feel ready to move forward.”
The Water Club project has been in the works for over a decade. The City of Poughkeepsie released Request for Proposal (RFP) in late 2001 to gauge interest in three pieces of property that had been vacant and contaminated for quite some time. Bonura stepped in and made a plan to build in three phases, one per property.
The first property was an abandoned site where the city’s former sewer treatment plant once sat. Bonura turned the five-and-a-half parcel into Shadows and the Grandview.
The second phase is the Water Club site. “This site was known as PURA 14 — Poughkeepsie Urban Renewal Area #14,” Bonura said. “In the 70's, there were planners that figured out a plan to level certain areas that were under-utilized and instead turn them into future development opportunities.
“This one, which included Tulip Street — which ran through the property — was contaminated. We worked on a long-term lease with the City of Poughkeepsie whereby we would build this property, the City would receive taxes and we could help continue the City’s rebirth. We worked on this for quite some time, got all our approvals and started construction last year.”
The apartments were built in three phases and are now complete, with 80 of the 136 units currently occupied. They were designed to give residents unobstructed views of the Hudson River.
“There are a lot of buildings in Poughkeepsie that are historic and beautiful,” Bonura said. “They were built a long time ago, used historic materials. Then there are some transition buildings and there are some modern buildings.
“This site lends itself to the view of the Hudson River. We angled on a 45 degree angle each apartment so everyone on the west side of the building could see the river clearly without looking at their neighbors.”
Bonura explained that Water Club’s design is called a Ziggurat design — the building has a saw-toothed shape to it and it allows for a lot of natural light. Each apartment has nine or more windows due to extra wall space; if it was built in a straight line, he explained, there would be far fewer outside walls and windows.
“We believed that Poughkeepsie was ready for a modern, urban building, so that’s what we designed,” Bonura said.
Water Club targets two demographics that Bonura thinks are very similar, despite a huge age gap — young professionals and empty-nesters.
The building has everything young professionals would want coming out of college — walking distance to the train station, walking distance to the waterfront, outdoor space, indoor amenities — and at a reasonable price, especially if they are not ready to buy a single-family home just yet.
Then there are the empty-nesters, those aged 50 and up, which Bonura said make up approximately 70 percent of the building’s current tenants.
“They want to have all the amenities they had in their house but they don’t want to deal with shoveling the snow, cutting the lawn or paying taxes separately,” Bonura said. “They want to have everything handled for them and just enjoy living and getting out and seeing the world.”
Most amenities in the complex are complete, making it a very livable space despite just recently being completed.
Bonura thinks of the building’s lobby as a gathering place for its residents, and there is a concierge service at the front desk that is staffed seven days a week. There is a business center and conference rooms for those who wish to have a home office, and there are also storage units for those who need extra space. Bonura said the apartments are urban living-sized and range from 680–1,200 square feet, so having those designated spaces outside of their personal apartments can be very useful.
Water Club also has mail services, including a unique package concierge system.
“It’s a way for residents to receive their packages and come get them whenever they feel like,” Bonura said. “One of the annoyances I used to have when I was living in an apartment building in Washington, D.C. was I would come back and my Amazon would be held hostage because I always worked.
“I worked until 8 or 9 o’clock at night, the office was always closed and I could never get my stuff. I had to make it a point to go and get it during the day,” Bonura said. “So this way the residents will get a text message and a locker will pop open when they type in that code and that will allow them to get to their packages.”
Also unique is the complex’s enclosed heated parking garage. Bonura said there are not many of those around, and it holds up to 108 cars, shielding residents (and their cars) from the elements.
There is also a gym with treadmills, ellipticals and other exercise machines, as well as a club room with games and TVs where residents can meet up with friends in a common space.
Water Club is very pet-friendly — something not often associated with apartment buildings. It has its own dog park, where people can bring their dogs to play, go for a walk (there is a walking trail around the park and another that extends from Laurel Street to Pine Street) or just enjoy the outdoors.
There is also a dog wash room, where residents can walk their dogs up a ramp into a stainless steel tub, clean them off and not have to worry about tracking dirt into the building or getting hair all over their apartments.
Bonura likened the future pool area to a “mini-resort,” highlighting some of its features when it is completed: private cabanas, lounge chairs and sitting areas, outdoor barbecues, a fire pit and a waterfall for ambiance.
Also to be completed is the rooftop terrace, which he expects to be done within the next month or two.
“The rooftop terrace is a place to get all the way up, 70 feet in the air, and enjoy the view,” Bonura said. “You can see the Mid-Hudson Bridge clearly, see up and down the Hudson River and the entire City of Poughkeepsie — it’s really a beautiful vantage point.”
Bonura aims to make Poughkeepsie a destination for those who are not originally from here. According to him, none of the 150 people living in the 80 occupied units at Water Club lived in the City of Poughkeepsie prior.
And to Bonura, that is an accomplishment.
“We are bringing 136 families, whether it just be two people or three if they have children, to live in the City of Poughkeepsie, and they are getting to see that it is a great place,” Bonura said. “In order for the City to come back and revitalize and thrive again, people need to live here. They need to be here at night. They need to not just work downtown and then split. They need to actually spend their time here.
“We have some people from New York City who moved here who wanted to move to the Hudson Valley but couldn’t find the right place, and now that the right place exists, they are calling Poughkeepsie home rather than Beacon or some of the other cities that people had previously been moving to.”
But the third property Bonura owns near the waterfront may become the biggest draw for newcomers to Poughkeepsie once completed.
“Right along the water’s edge will be a riverfront promenade — it will be a public park walkway, open to anyone to stroll the entire length of the City of Poughkeepsie’s waterfront,” Bonura said. “It will be connected from one end to the other, although we are only responsible for the southern waterfront redevelopment which stretches from the oil tanks up to just past the Grandview. That being said, it’s about 3,000 linear feet or three-quarters of a mile of river frontage.”
The first phase of this project will be the construction of the Marina Club — something Bonura compared to a summer pool club — which will feature an outdoor pool, cabanas and a tiki bar restaurant. The marina already exists and may be expanded eventually; it currently has 55 slips, but he said he is permitted to expand it to 100.
The mixed-use building that is to be completed on the property will include more apartments in addition to restaurants, a spa and retail space. Bonura specified that this will be targeted retail, though — not big retail.
“Most people are not spending their time shopping at retail stores, but something Hudson Valley-focused or destination-focused we think could work there,” Bonura said.
There will also be what Bonura called “public enjoyment space” outdoors. Though it won’t be a dedicated public park, he plans to open a park that will be open to anyone and will be open the same hours as any other public park.
“We plan to have summer concerts down there… there will be an area that will be shaped like an amphitheater where we will have summer outdoor concerts,” Bonura said. “There will also be a space where we could host a farmer’s market, although I don’t know right now if we’re going to do it. And there is also space for quiet enjoyment of the river — you could read a book, just hang out and watch the ships go by.”
Bonura’s southern waterfront properties have already breathed new life into the City of Poughkeepsie, but he said that in the next two years, a lot more development will occur on the currently vacant three-quarters-of-a-mile lot just south of Shadows and the Grandview where the mixed-use project is slated to be.
The new development is part of an effort by both the city and other developers to revitalize Poughkeepsie’s entire waterfront, which includes the Dutton Project and the Poughkeepsie Waterfront Redevelopment Strategy to the north.
