Rural Ulster Preservation Company renovates the Kirkland Hotel: A 16,000 s/f mixed-use project

The Stockade Historic District was identified by the Preservation League of NYS as one of the "Seven to Save" in 2007. The Kirkland Hotel is a contributing element and informs both the historic Stockade District (site of the original 1658 village) and the area's uptown business district. The restoration of this structure is seen as the lynchpin of local preservation and economic revitalization efforts. The Kirkland Hotel has sat on the southwest corner of Clinton Ave. and Main St. for over a century. Built in 1899, the building is a four-story frame, half timbered English Tudor revival building listed on the national, state and local historic registers and was originally constructed as a hotel with restaurant facilities in the basement and first floor. In early 2001, then mayor T.R. Gallo was ready to deed the hotel to Ulster County so that a parking garage to serve the adjacent municipal office building could be built. In 1985, county officials had proposed taking the Kirkland by eminent domain and razing it. In 2002, the city approached Rural Ulster Preservation Co. (RUPCO) about the historical restoration of the Kirkland. RUPCO arranged for the building to be designated as a state and federal historic landmark. Principal among their challenges as developer has been to assemble the public and private funding sources sufficient to underwrite the restoration of the building while constructing the economic use of the completed structure. RUPCO has been fortunate to have in its partner, the city, an unwavering champion of the project. The city has been supportive of the project allocating funds to help underwrite total development costs. The project has leveraged permanent and construction funding from 15 different sources. Funders, lenders and partners included: the city, Kingston Local Development Corp., Empire State Development Corp., Home Depot, Key Bank, Key Community Development Corp., NeighborWorks America, NYS Division of Housing and Community Renewal, NYSERDA, NYS Office of Parks Recreation and Historic Preservation, Rural LISC and USDA Rural Development. RUPCO has renovated and restored the physical and structural integrity of the hotel while strictly interpreting the Tudor Revival tradition that distinguishes this building. Wherever practical, they retained or historically restored the salient features of the genre. RUPCO has completed the installation of a geo-thermal system to allow this iteration of the Kirkland to be independent of fossil fuel for its heating, cooling and hot water production. An innovative system of multiple closed-loop, ground source well fields has been installed on this site. Now complete, the Kirkland is a mixed-use project consisting of 16,000 s/f divided amongst four floors and a full basement. The ground and first floors will house a restaurant featuring the largest dining room in the city and will feature a wrap-around porch. The second floor will consist of office spaces for small businesses and the third and fourth floors are comprised of seven apartments, five of which are affordable units. The entire building is now handicapped accessible. On April 11, RUPCO hosted an Open House Ribbon Cutting. Well over 600 people attended. On May 15, the Kirkland Hotel will receive the NYS Preservation League's Award for Excellence.