‘Bike farm’ loses development rights
New York State plans to again request proposals to redevelop the 39-acre former Beacon Correctional Facility after revoking development rights from a New York City builder whose “bike farm” never materialized.
The request for proposals (RFP) process would be similar to one being implemented by the state’s Prison Redevelopment Commission, which is soliciting plans to redevelop a dozen closed prisons, including the Downstate Correctional Facility in Fishkill. The RFP would be administered by Empire State Development, although the agency has no timeline.
The RFP will be the third for the Beacon site, a former women’s prison known as Camp Beacon that closed in 2013. The state initially asked for plans in 2014 and received one proposal, from the New York City-based Doe Fund, which wanted to create a farming and job-training center for homeless and low-income people.
The Doe Fund withdrew its proposal in 2017 after a coalition of officials at the time, including Beacon Mayor Randy Casale, Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro and state Sen. Sue Serino, asked Gov. Andrew Cuomo to reject it because the plan was “inconsistent with the site’s mixed-use, recreational and destination development potential.”
In 2019, Urban Green Food was awarded development rights. Its founder, Eric Anderson, told the City Council that year that he wanted to create a Beacon Bike Farm with a hotel, indoor track-and-field venue and a velodrome for indoor bicycling. The property would also have farmland and bike trails.
Anderson said in 2021 that, although his plans had been slowed by the pandemic, he expected to bring the proposal to the Planning Board in 2022. Empire State Development quietly decertified Urban Green Food as the developer in March 2023, confirming the move to The Current this week after many inquiries. Anderson did not respond to a request for comment.
The prison site, which includes 22 buildings in varying states of disrepair, is hampered by location. While it has been suggested for affordable housing, the only vehicular access is by Matteawan Road, a two-lane road that already serves Rombout Middle School, Beacon High School and two senior housing complexes.
When Anderson spoke to the council in 2019, he said he hoped to open Tunnel Road — a single lane that runs under Interstate 84 and ends at Heritage Financial Park (Dutchess Stadium) — for bikers and pedestrians.
Beacon Mayor Lee Kyriacou has pushed for an access road that connects Route 52 with Matteawan. He said this week that he hopes Empire State Development will require a new road as part of any redevelopment effort, paid for by the state and/or the developer with a contribution from the city.
In the meantime, the mayor has asked the Fishkill Avenue Concepts Committee to study a potential route for bikers, pedestrians and public transit from Route 52 to Matteawan Road and appropriate development in the Camp Beacon area.
Here we go again. It is unconscionable that Empire State Development “quietly decertified Urban Green Food as the developer” over a year ago. Seriously? Letting another year roll by without doing a thing or telling anyone? It took “many inquiries” by The Current to finally get the news? The City of Beacon should sue ESD for malpractice. (And if, in fact, the city was informed a year ago but did not make that public, we should also unelect the mayor and anyone else who knew.) This has been going on for over a decade now, and the buildings on the site are that much further into disrepair. The promised $6 million slated to become available to the developer is supposedly sitting in a bank somewhere. It was apparent from the get-go that the Urban Green Food proposal was fantasy. I wrote an article in the Beacon Free Press in 2021 saying as much. I also went before the City Council to implore the city to work out a deal with the state to give the property over to the City. I’ve been an advocate from the beginning for turning the land over to the citizens of Beacon and letting us figure out how to make it a productive part of the community, a place for local manufacturing, fiber production and processing, farming and value-added agriculture, afterschool learning. We had a coalition of businesses, along with Common Ground Farm, that could have now had 10 years of experience and growth on… Read more »
I had also been hounding Empire State Development for an update on this project and finally received a copy of the RFP withdrawal letter that they sent to Urban Green Food, which states “ESD intends to reevaluate development options for the Beacon Correctional Facility in light of current market conditions.” Two failed RFPs over the course of 10 years, as the property has continued to deteriorate, clearly indicate that a different strategy is needed. I agree with Mark Roland that this property should be turned over to the City of Beacon as a resource for, and with its future decided by our local community. Its proximity to the high school and middle school makes it such an obvious place to create social, educational, and future economic opportunities for our kids. How about that vegetable farm to help them establish a relationship to the land and each other as they learn how to produce the food that they need to survive? How about a bakery where they can experience the joys of bread-making? How about a technology space where they can program computers, build robots, design video games, and fabricate arcade cabinets, furniture, and musical instruments? How about a perpetual Repair Cafe where they can learn how to fix stuff? How about a place where they can salvage and stockpile useful components from local e-waste for use in robotics and art projects? How about a place where they can turn plastics waste into new injection-molded products? There’s so much possibility here… Read more »