Fishkill wants water, sewer and smaller units
New York State is reworking its development plans for the former Downstate Correctional Facility just outside of Beacon, including a 15 percent reduction in housing at the 80-acre site, after negotiations with the Town of Fishkill.
Supervisor Ozzy Albra said in an email to residents on May 30 that he and other officials have met with Empire State Development and Conifer Realty twice since the state awarded development rights to the Rochester firm. The result of those meetings, he said, is that the mixed-use development will have about 1,100 housing units, 200 fewer than first reported.
The town is also pushing for municipal benefits such as the extension of water and sewer facilities to the site, Albra said.
The state development agency announced in June 2024 that Conifer, which has offices in New York, New Jersey and Maryland, had been selected to convert the former maximum-security prison into a residential campus with community space.
The project was said to support Gov. Kathy Hochul’s campaign to build 15,000 housing units to address a statewide shortage, as well as recommendations made by the Prison Redevelopment Commission, an advisory panel the governor created to consider repurposing closed prisons. The first phase of construction in 2026 was to include 375 housing units, with at least 20 percent set aside for households earning less than 80 percent of the area’s annual median income ($97,056).
Albra at the time called the idea a “bad deal for the taxpayers” that, if built as proposed, would overwhelm Fishkill.
A Conifer representative this week confirmed the reduction in housing units. Muammar Hermanstyne, its vice president of development, said in an email that Conifer had signed a contract with New York State “giving us site control.” If a preliminary proposal is approved, he said, Conifer could bring an application to the Fishkill Planning Board as early as this fall.
Hermanstyne did not respond when asked who would need to approve the preliminary proposal, writing only that Conifer looks forward “to providing more details as we continue working with the community and local officials.”
An Empire State Development representative seemed to contradict part of Hermanstyne’s statement, calling Conifer the project’s “conditional designee.” The company is finalizing a development plan with Empire State and the Town of Fishkill, “at which point a binding development agreement can be executed,” the spokesperson said. Until them, the state’s request for proposals at the site “will continue to be an open procurement.”
Hermanstyne said Conifer has agreed to limit construction to 2½-story buildings because the nearest fire department, in Glenham, does not have a ladder truck.
In a statement released last year, the Glenham Fire District, which for years served Downstate prison through a contract with New York State, said its boundaries would need to be expanded to include the redeveloped site. The department relied on tanker trucks because the surrounding homes use wells for their water, while Beacon provided water and sewer service at the prison.
Until Conifer and the state “figure out proper fire coverage,” the project “isn’t going to go anywhere,” Albra said on June 3.
In addition to asking New York State to extend municipal water and sewer service to the site, the supervisor said he will advocate specialized housing, such as for seniors or veterans, and smaller units, to keep from overwhelming Glenham Elementary, which is part of the Beacon City School District.
In a letter to Hochul last July, the Beacon school board said its four elementary schools, including Glenham, are “already at or near capacity.” While the district lost 675 students between the 2012-13 and 2023-24 academic years, according to state data, recent initiatives to reduce class sizes would suffer from a sudden influx of students, officials said.
Citing Hochul’s support of walkable communities, Fishkill also will ask the state to construct sidewalks to bring residents closer to the Beacon Metro-North station, which is nearly 4 miles, through high-traffic areas, from the former prison.
Beacon Mayor Lee Kyriacou has previously suggested that New York State create a road connecting Route 52 (Fishkill Avenue) to Matteawan Road in Beacon. While neither Empire State nor Conifer would comment on whether access to Downstate should be improved, if such a road were built “all of the sudden you’d be able to get into the urban grid of Beacon pretty easily,” Kyriacou said.
Albra, however, said that lingering questions about essential elements such as fire coverage have led him to grow skeptical of the project. “If they want to develop this site, they would be pushing to get this done,” he said.
1,100 units? Are you kidding me? There is no way this small city with narrow roads, small schools, limited water and fewer firehouses than before can possibly absorb 1,100 units. Who in their right mind would think something like this is OK?
Who would think this is OK? Political leaders with no foresight that believe it’s OK to let millions of people cross our borders without consequence.
It should be used primarily as senior housing, or for mental health facilities (God knows we don’t have enough of those!) that way it won’t affect our schools/taxes negatively. This project means we will need more infrastructure/services and that means higher taxes, busier roads and a reduced quality of life. White Plains, here we come!
I have an idea: Reopen Downstate as a prison. It was a much-needed reception and transit prison that worked perfectly for its purpose. Intake and transit at the Green Haven Correctional Facility [in Stormville] is a nightmare because it was not built for that purpose. House well-behaved “honor” incarcerated individuals in a complex who earn a spot there, as it used to be. Trust me, you’ll have no problem getting people to transfer there. Local businesses will reap the benefits and the schools will not be affected. Closing Downstate was a monumental mistake.