Poughkeepsie Waterfront Set for Makeover
The waterfront just in front of the Poughkeepsie train station has been under-utilized for years. Several private properties dot the land, but the City of Poughkeepsie and Metro-North Commuter Railroad own significant portions of it.
Now, they are working together to form a thriving waterfront district between the Mid-Hudson Children’s Museum and the Rip Van Winkle House.
The Poughkeepsie Waterfront Redevelopment Strategy (PWRS) aims to not only create a waterfront district, but also to improve its parks, and create a continuous waterfront greenway. The City of Poughkeepsie adopted the strategy in May 2015 and has since worked out a deal with Metro-North to begin planning the future of their collective property.
“At a city council meeting (in November), the City and railroad authority voted for an MoU (memorandum of understanding) to discuss development in that area,” City of Poughkeepsie First Ward councilman Chris Petsas said.
An MoU is a non-legally-binding, essentially informal agreement between two sides. In this case, the two sides are discussing something that is so far in the future, it is not worth legally hammering out just yet.
As for potential tenants on the property, a Request for Expression of Interest (RFEI) will be released by the fall of this year to determine what developers think of it.
“The main surface parking lot at the train station is an area we have identified as a spot to build two-story buildings, so we will replace the parking lot,” Community Development Coordinator Paul Hesse said. “We want to know what the private sector would build there, what the market is.”
“The city has ancillary parcels — two strips of land between the train tracks and Rinaldi Boulevard — so modifications to Rinaldi Boulevard may make something available in terms of a parking garage.”
But all this, Hesse said, is just speculation. The RFEI is meant to gauge interest from the private sector to see if it is an economically-feasible project.
According to Scenic Hudson urban designer Peter Barnard, who works closely with Hesse and the City of Poughkeepsie on the PWRS, the waterfront parks portion of the plan is currently on hold. A grant was applied for last year and was supposed to be a part of what Barnard called the Fall Kill Trail Project, but it was unsuccessful. The City moved forward with that project and opted not to include the waterfront park re-design plans, deeming them not as vital to the community as the larger project.
The part of the PWRS that is furthest along is the planned continuous greenway project. Part of the project is what Hesse and Barnard call the “Kaal Rock Connector,” a proposed cantilever bridge that will link the waterfront near the train station and the waterfront at Kaal Rock Park by going around Kaal Rock, a physical obstacle.
“Within the PWRS, Waryas Park is the main park and just south of that is Kaal Rock Point and Kaal Rock Park,” Barnard said. “To get from Waryas to Kaal Rock Park, you have to go around the point. Going over it doesn’t work for anyone [who] has a wheelchair, a walker or limited mobility, because it is too steep on the other side to get down.
“The Kaal Rock Connector provides a way to make the waterfront continuously accessible for everyone while adding to the visual interest of the waterfront and complimenting the city’s historic bridges.”
Barnard and the City of Poughkeepsie are working to develop the Request-For-Proposal/Request for Qualifications (RFP/RFQ) so they can hire a consultant to draft a design for the bridge. Then, they will be able to ask builders how much it will cost.
It’s still early, but significant change can be expected in the coming years at Poughkeepsie’s waterfront.
More information about the PWRS can be found here.
