Last evening, we attended the Sunset Gardens Tenant Association meeting at the Town of Ulster’s Senior Center. One after another, tenants of apartment complexes in the Towns of Ulster and Esopus spoke of the shocking disrepair, unsafe conditions and treatment of those living at Sunset Gardens (ToU), Lakeshore Villas (ToE) and Black Creek Road (ToE). Special thanks to Laura Hartmann and all of the citizens from Sunset Gardens who had the courage to organize.
The culprit – E & M Management – the real estate investment and management company based in Brooklyn, NY is mostly new to the area, gobbling up apartment complexes that include “68 apartments across from the Rondout Creek” in downtown Kingston and a vacant parcel near the Maritime Museum to build the “Kingston Waterfront Plaza”, a mixed-use project. There is speculation that they are looking at Dutch Village, too – in uptown Kingston.
Although the planning process in Kingston is complete for their new build downtown – with a negative declaration in SEQR which is absolutely unbelievable – we are continuing our efforts to advocate for an improved development process for our planning department and planning board. We will keep a close eye on this company and work with our neighbors to assure that if E & M and all of their LLC partners want to come to our community, it is not on their terms.
Thanks to Clark Richters of The Kingston News for filming the event, brought to you by KingstonCitizens.org.