Bill Oderkirk, landlord of Uptown Kingston’s Opera House. (Photo by Phyllis McCabe)
Vasquez had rented space in the storefront on John Street for over a decade before the building was bought by a new owner who dramatically raised the rent and charged him for water and other expenses. The slow economy added to his difficulties.
Vasquez bought the building on Wall Street in June 2011 after the city cut the taxes in half, thanks to a reassessment that took into account the poor condition, and the bank allowed him to make a small down payment. The renovations took a year, and the kitchen is still bare-bones.
Vasquez said he has cut down on expenses by using recycled material whenever possible, relying on supplies and labor donated by friends and family, doing all the cooking himself, and employing his daughter and that of his business partner, Susan Vixon, as waiters.
Vacancies hurt
The biggest impediment to Uptown’s growth, said Vasquez and other business owners, is the two large vacant storefronts on the north side of Wall Street. Vasquez said the city should take action. “If people own a commercial building and don’t do anything, they should be penalized,” he said.
One challenge is the large size of the two storefronts, said Uptown realtor Jon Hoyt. The smaller, mostly occupied, storefronts on neighboring North Front “are easier to rent because the net overhead for the entrepreneur is less.”
A plan by a recent prospective buyer to create a marketplace — similar to Manhattan’s astonishingly successful Chelsea Market; a redevelopment of an industrial building into a mall of mostly food-oriented shops and restaurants — in one of the buildings, formerly a Woolworth’s, excited many people. Sources said the deal fell through for complicated reasons, including issues with the rear parking lot and numerous liens on the property.
“Once that building is developed it will be the turning point for Uptown,” said Bill Oderkirk, who owns the Opera House building, on John and Fair.
Jennifer Fuentes, executive director of the Kingston Local Development Corp., said the city’s lawyer is currently being consulted as to whether the city could foreclose on the property, which would give it some control in the redevelopment.
Hoffay agreed that the vacant Woolworth’s building was a problem. He also expressed hope that the years-long renovation of the abandoned building next door would soon be completed.
But overall Hoffay was optimistic, pointing to numerous improvements in the Stockade District: A vacant storefront on North Front, which had numerous code violations, is now occupied by Blue 57, a chic liquor store. Signature Fitness has relocated to the same block, benefiting from its access to the lower level of the city parking lot out back. Carole Shiber Designs, which sells fine fabrics and employs local artists, opened last summer on the corner of John and Fair. And the backside of the hats and blues emporium Blue-Byrd’s Haberdashery & Music, on Wall Street, is rented to a women’s millinery company, which does its own manufacturing on site.
Realtor Hoyt, who is also a long-time resident of Uptown, attributed the boon to “a young creative artistic entrepreneurial group that seems to have found Uptown and likes it,” thanks to the area’s affordability and safety.
Strategizing landlords
Landlords who care have certainly played a role. Oderkirk, for example, said he has at times lowered rents to bring in desirable businesses, or given an existing tenant suffering from the tough economy a break.
Oderkirk said when screening prospective tenants, he examines their business plan. “I was eager to get Yum Yum Noodle Bar, because I knew they were going to put a big effort into the business,” he said. He seeks to fill his storefronts with businesses that attract walk-ins — currently three restaurants, a realty company, an eBay trading company, a newspaper, an art and crafts consignment shop, an artisan soap store and the local Democratic committee.
Finding a good commercial tenant isn’t easy. However, Oderkirk, who’s owned his building for five years and said his upstairs office tenants include psychiatrists and other mental health professionals, artists, an acupuncturist, a realtor and a graphic designer, said things have definitely improved. “Taxes have leveled out … If I had the money, I’d invest in another building.”
The taxes in Kingston need to still come down significantly! The homestead, non-homestead status needs to be eliminated!The city has a lack of diversity in housing. The housing it has is too dependent on the government, and grants. What is the incentive for an absentee landlord to fix their place when they have a steady stream of income coming from the taxpayer? This problem would be eliminated if the housing stock was not subsidized. Prices on apartments would be more competitive, and the apartments would be nicer if left to the free market. If the apartment you were renting was a dump, and expensive, people would rent elsewhere. Local housing organizations do as much harm as good. The city would do better to see them dissolved, and the housing stock returned back to the open market.
We need more of our city, and county employees to live, and spend money here. They make significantly more than the average resident, and if their incomes were put back into the local economy it would make a substantial difference.
Too many people on the council have never owned,or developed a business in this city, or anywhere else. Many of the decisions they make speak to their ignorance, and naivety. They get excited about all the grant opportunities out there, and fail to realize how this exacerbates the problem with our high taxes, and debt.
The non-profit sector needs to pay more into city services so the tax burden is not shifted onto commercial, and residential properties. There should be a review board that looks at every non-profit annually to see if there is a benefit to the community, and to see if they are achieving their mission in a way that is sustainable, and not a constant drain on the taxpayer, through tax subsidized grants. The end goal of these non-profits should be to transition to self sustaining businesses with a conscience.
The success of Uptown has everything to do with the rugged individuals who have made it happen here, and nothing to do with local,state, or Federal Government. In fact the leadership has done everything to undermine the success of this city, and the Uptown neighborhood.(The pike plan,meters, etc.) If the local “professionals” would get out of the way, and lower our taxes, perhaps we could see continued success in the city. We could see a true renaissance.
Yes, taxes are high. But that sort of thing you price into your carry costs. And if the numbers don’t work, you locate somewhere else where the numbers do work. That’s where I’m at right now – ready to pull the trigger on investment/development, waiting for the right moment, the right price, the right city.
I think a bigger issue is demand. Currently, demand is low. People are saving, paying down debt. Major chains are planning to shutter thousands of stores this year. Type “retail apocalypse” into google for the details.
Further, Kingston has a structural issue: decades of sprawlification in Lincoln Park has created a situation where national chains provide a diversity of goods and low paying jobs while extracting a value out of the local economy. Money that gets spent at the big boxes is money not being spent in Kingston.
Add to that the ongoing emergence of e-commerce experimenting with new ways of selling things; coming up with different techniques all the time. This poses a challenge to local brick n mortar operations, both local businesses and national chains alike.
With bad news coming from UPS and FedEx, one might suspect that right now NOBODY is buying anything anywhere.
It’s a dog fight out there.
Waiting. Waiting for just a hint of positive change. Closely monitoring the indicators.
One or two tiny little shifts in public policy in this city might be enough to spark investment.
Kingston might be “wasting a perfectly good crisis”.