By PAUL KIRBY
Freeman staff
pkirby@freemanponline.com; twitter.com/PaulatFreeman

KINGSTON, N.Y. — Artists and other interested people were given a tour this week of a former curtain factory that’s due to be renovated and become an affordable housing complex.

The tour of the former United States Lace Curtain Mill, at the corner of Cornell Street and South Manor Avenue, was led by officials from the Rural Ulster Preservation Co. (RUPCO) in an effort to get generate suggestions about how the project should proceed, according to Kevin O’Connor, the agency’s chief executive officer.

RUPCO is planning to buy the building, which currently serves as a storage facility, by the end of this year and create 55 apartments for artists, plus work space.

The agency plans to use federal, state and historic preservation tax credits to help fund the project, estimated to cost $15 million.

Architect Scott Dutton, who is designing the project, said RUPCO has submitted its plan to the Kingston Planning Board for a formal review.

Among those touring the building on Monday was Vindora Wixom, executive director of the Arts Society of Kingston, or ASK.

“My first impression was potential, potential,” Wixom said. “It would be a very interesting and important project for Kingston.”

Wixom said ASK, with a membership of 500, could have much to offer as the project develops.

“We have resources and we have accumulated emotional wisdom that could be put to good use,” Wixom said.

Also taking Monday’s tour were artists Tom Pfeffer, Steve Ladin, Susan and Rick Whelan and George Allen, a former executive director of the Kingston Library; Ray Curran, a senior planner for Poughkeepsie-based environmental group Scenic Hudson; and Ron Marquette, former executive director of the Ulster Performing Arts Center. Continued...

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Marquette also is affiliated with AVR Acquisition Corp. of Yonkers, which plans to build the Hudson Landing housing project along Kingston’s Hudson River waterfront.

RUPCO said the group toured the building for about an hour accompanied by O’Connor; Chuck Snyder, who is the agency’s director of real estate development; Guy Kempe, the agency’s vice president of community development; and Joan Lawrence-Bauer, the agency’s director of communications.

Lawrence-Bauer said the group went to Dutton’s office after the tour for “brainstorming about features that would attract working artists and creative people.”

“It was a wide-ranging discussion of what would be ideal in the living spaces, in the public spaces and out of doors as well,” Lawrence-Bauer said.

Dutton said much of the discussion focused on  what to do with public spaces.

“There was discussion about communal spaces and public spaces, as there was about the lofts themselves,” Dutton said.

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