Mixed-use development planned

By Jeff Simms

Beacon has sold the site of its former highway garage, a 2.6-acre lot on Creek Drive, to developer Rodney Weber, who plans to build nine residential units along with a 12,000-square-foot “co-working” space.

Weber already owns the adjacent parcel, which has been approved for 46 residential units and is nearly complete. He could have built 10 more units on the parcel, but those will be shifted to the former Department of Public Works site and reduced by one. The two properties will share access, making the land sale, as Council Member George Mansfield called it, a “win-win.”

The city will sell its parcel on Creek Drive (Google Maps)

The city issued a request for proposals on the parcel several years ago but it brought in only one application, for a residential development. A second request, issued more than a year ago, generated two residential proposals and Weber’s mixed-use plan.

The council approved the sale for $150,000 at its March 19 meeting. The agreement also requires Weber, who is developing the proposed Edgewater project on the west side of Beacon, to make significant improvements to the site, including building a public park that would tie into the planned Fishkill Creek Greenway & Heritage Trail and a smaller pocket park between the two buildings.

After tearing down the highway garage, Weber will construct the mixed-use building in the historic industrial style prominent along Fishkill Creek, architect Aryeh Siegel said. The developer will seek a variance from the Zoning Board of Appeals for the height of the mixed-use building. It and the building under construction will both be four stories, but because the ground is lower in that area, they’ll appear shorter, Weber said.

The nine residential units at the highway garage site would range from 2,000 to 3,000 square feet. The plan for the co-working space, he said, is to “attract innovative think-tanks and new ideas and companies.”

Behind The Story

Type: News

News: Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.

Simms has covered Beacon for The Current since 2015. He studied journalism at Appalachian State University and has reported for newspapers in North Carolina and Maryland. Location: Beacon. Languages: English. Area of expertise: Beacon politics

4 replies on “City Sells Former Highway Garage Site to Developer”

  1. This building is actually a full story higher then allowed. I guess if you build down by the river any building can be as high as they want for the reason it will look shorter when you look down on it. The property went for $150,000 and the developer says residential units are needed to make this project feasible? Yet Weber could/would not give how much the rents well cost? Most lots in Beacon cost that much and only one or two houses are built, yet it seems anything in Beacon that an outside developer wants is OK? “Win-win” for who? Beacon is overbuilt as it is and yet the city keeps allowing more buildings five stories up with insane rents. We are in big trouble. I will give credit to some on the council for bringing out problems with building up when they can’t build out.

  2. Units on 1 East Main a little further down the creek are selling for over $1 million each. How is $150,000 a fair price for that prime real estate? Somehow a variance is required to make it “profitable” so the city will break the rules for another developer. How is any of this a good deal for the tax-paying citizens of Beacon?

  3. Regarding the property near the creek, some people say the developers had to clear/clean a contaminated piece of property and will now make it a great place. Years ago the Church Street property was going to be developed with an amphitheater with a hotel by a developer who the city council could not get/give enough love from. The only problem was they did not tell the owner of the property about this project. He found out about it at a zoning meeting that he was not invited to. Later he was offered $50,000 but held his ground and for years beat off the waves of carpetbaggers our “leaders” fell in love with.

    Years later he got a decent price, but fought off a slew of property inspections during the years trying to get them out. I know it’s great to have our city prosper, but at what cost? One money-grubbing developer has asked my friend, “So, you don’t like the value of your house now?” The answer is yes. But while our house’s value has gone up, our income hasn’t, which in a few years only a few original Beacon family’s will still be able to be here. I just drove on 9D near City Hall and thought about Beacon being called the “City Of Trees” as what was left of any trees in the city seemed to have been cut and neatly stacked. Maybe we can call it the Last City of Trees.

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