ANOTHER PLAN FOR DSS

Carole Osterink

ccSCOOP News

07-21-09 - 9:30 p.m. - In the "spirit of cooperation," Board of Supervisors Chair Art Baer (R-Hillsdale) and Hudson Mayor Richard Scalera annnounced a plan to keep the Department of Social Services in Hudson. The announcement was made at a brief press conference held at 4:30 on Tuesday afternoon.  Flanked by Deputy Chair Phil Williams (D-Livingston), Chair of the Workspace Evaluation Subcommittee Roy Brown (R,C,I-Germantown), and Social Services Commissioner Paul Mossman, Baer and Scalera disclosed that the County was in discussion with First Niagara Financial Group to purchase Hudson City Centre.

The building, located at the corner of Green and State streets in Hudson, was constructed in the early 1990s as the headquarters of Hudson City Savings Institution (which became Hudson River Bank & Trust Company in 1998) and is Hudson's largest and most potentially valuable commercial space. The building is now owned by First Niagara Financial Group, acquired early in 2006 when the Lockport-based bank bought out Hudson River Bank & Trust.

Hudson City Centre was one of fourteen sites considered by the County Capital Building Search Subcommittee and included in the PowerPoint presentation prepared in July 2008. Among the factors cited then for rejecting the building were that two-thirds of the building were encumbered with existing leases, a "professional image" would have to be maintained for current tenants, there would only be room in the building for the District Attorney's office and DSS executive offices, and purchase of the building by the County would remove $6.22 million of taxable property from the City of Hudson's tax rolls. So what's changed in the past year?

For one thing, the District Attorney's office has been relocated to 325 Columbia Street. Beyond that, according to Baer, it's all about the price. The economic slump has forced First Niagara to lower its asking price, and the City of Hudson is having to lower the building's tax assessment. Baer maintains that, because of the real estate slump, purchasing Hudson City Centre is a "no-impact decision." The lowered assessment of the building by the City of Hudson will make it possible for the County to enter into a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) agreement with the City which, Baer says, would make the City "pretty much whole." Baer cautioned, however, that the County was "still in discussion with First Niagara," there were other bidders on the property, and there were "still a lot of pieces to be put together."

With the acquisition of Hudson City Centre, the County is contemplating vacating 401 State Street as well as 610 State Street and moving the departments and personnel now located in those two buidings to either Hudson City Centre or Ockawamick. This would free up adequate space in these two buildings (24,000 square feet at 401 State and 12,000 square feet at 601 State) to accommodate the Department of Social Services and other human services agencies and keep them in the City of Hudson. The scope of the Ockawamick renovation would be downsized, and the plan to create a transportation system to Ockawamick would be scrapped, since the Department of Social Services would remain in Hudson. A five-year-old plan to develop a City-owned vacant lot at the southwest corner of State and Fourth streets—across Fourth Street from 401 State—into a parking lot will move ahead "to supplement the existing parking."

The reconsideration of the plan to move DSS to Ockawamick comes, said Baer, "in response to the legitmate and thoughtful concerns raised by the Mayor, various public officials, and members of the public."

At the end of the press conference, Linda Mussmann, who as head of the Bottom Line Party had been the principal organizer of the many protests against moving DSS out of Hudson, asked Baer if he was committed to keeping DSS in Hudson. After Baer responded in the affirmative, Mussmann expressed her appreciation for being allowed to participate in the discussion instead being relegated to carrying signs out on the sidewalk. But in this golden moment of cooperation and bipartisanship, Scalera advised her not to throw her signs away just yet.