The Kingston Planning Board has approved a 70-unit housing project on the site of the former King’s Inn in Midtown Kingston.

The site of the long-demolished former hotel at 615 Broadway, which began life as the city’s finest lodging and ended life as anything but, is planned to be the site of a mixed-use development of 70 apartments and ground-floor commercial space. Community development firm Baxter is behind the redevelopment.

Of those 70 units, approximately 20 percent will be designated as “affordable housing” and the rest as “workforce housing.” The units are reserved for individuals and families making an average of 80-120 percent of Area Median Income. The proposed project also includes a publicly accessible courtyard inspired by local artist Pauline Oliveros’ Deep Listening Plaza, built there in 2018. The OK brings the total of housing units approved in Kingston since 2024 to 138.

At the planning board’s June 16 meeting, Baxter representative Natalie Quinn appeared virtually. She said that they received the letter of authorization and OK to proceed with the access and purchase agreement from the Salvation Army, which owned part of the land needed for the project, after working with them for 15 months.

According to Quinn, the regulatory agreement for the affordable units and the access easement agreement for adjacent properties were submitted to the board’s lawyer for review. They also discussed the site work estimate and amended information at the request of engineers, and attended the Parks and Recreation committee meeting to discuss a waiver of the parkland fee or reduction. The Parks and Recreation committee was unable to vote on a recommendation.

“I feel very confident in making those conditions of approval,” Planning Director Suzanne Cahill said. “That commission’s [Parks and Recreation] recommendation is an advisory opinion only, and this board, under the current law, has the final authority to set what the payment plan will be.”

According to Cahill, the board has reviewed a recommendation to change how the recreation fee is assessed, which may be voted on July 1. If approved, the amendment would set the recreation fee as a specific amount, allow the Common Council to adjust the fee annually, and exempt all permanently affordable units from having to pay the fee as long as they meet base code requirements.

Under the current law, the fee would be $198,000. However, Cahill stated that she could exempt 14 units that are deed-protected as permanent affordable housing. She could also add four more units to the exemption “if you choose to come up with your own creative calculation.”

The site plan also includes a plaza area open to the public, which Quinn says they are working with the Midtown Kingston Arts District to use as a community events space. For this reason, the applicant is requesting that the board consider a reduction fee of $3,000 to $2,000, a 33 percent or 30 percent reduction that would bring the final fee to $104,000.

The board agreed to reduce the fee from $3,000 to $2,000, exempting the first four units. The recommended performance bond was set at $4.5 million, and the site is part of the Brownfield Cleanup Program (BCP) and may require specific stormwater systems.

“We voluntarily entered the program because we did find some metals in the soil, organic compounds in the soil, as well as CVOCs [Chlorinated Volatile Organic Compounds] in the soil vapor, so all those are intended to be cleaned up through this program,” Quinn said.