FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 6, 2025

Kingston Project Awarded Restore New York Grant

KINGSTON, NY – Mayor Steven T. Noble is pleased to announce that the City of Kingston has received a Restore New York Communities Initiative grant from the Empire State Development for $477,000 in support of Headstone Gallery’s renovation of 289 Foxhall Avenue. 

Located at the entrance of the Cornell Street arts corridor, the long-dormant commercial property at 289 Foxhall Avenue will be rehabilitated by Headstone, Inc., creating new opportunities for jobs, apprenticeships, and job shadowing for high school students. Studio spaces will be available to lease by local independent artisans and will provide administrative spaces for local arts organizations. Parking lots will be landscaped to anticipate planned street redesign and provide a welcoming space on a street that has become an arts destination.

“We are so pleased to receive another Restore NY grant for our community. These grants provide a unique opportunity for local businesses and organizations to make substantial improvements to structures in disrepair,” said Mayor Noble. “I thank Governor Hochul and the Empire State Development Office for their continued investment in Kingston, and I congratulate Headstone on this award. With previous rounds of Restore NY funding, we have been able to support projects that revitalize neighborhoods, encourage economic growth and community development, and create new business and housing opportunities. We are excited to see this work moving forward on a long-vacant building on Foxhall Avenue.”

Lauren Aitken and Chase Folsom of Headstone Gallery said, “We are so thrilled and grateful to have been awarded a Restore NY Grant for the renovation of our recently acquired property at 289 Foxhall Avenue. Thank you to the City of Kingston, the Grants Department, the Ulster County Economic Development team, and our incredible art community for their unwavering support and assistance. We cannot wait to renovate and share this new space with Kingston and the greater Hudson Valley communities.”

Governor Kathy Hochul’s office announced that more than $50 million in awards for 50 projects through the grant program. Restore New York supports municipal revitalization efforts with funds to help remove and reduce blight, reinvigorate communities and generate new residential and economic opportunities statewide. The program, administered by Empire State Development, is designed to help local governments encourage new commercial investments through community revitalization, growing local housing, and putting properties back on the tax rolls to increase the local tax base.

“Revitalizing and rehabilitating vacant and blighted areas of our communities for housing or development is vital to make downtowns thrive,” Governor Hochul said. “Restore New York helps our municipalities plan for the future by catalyzing economic growth and supporting housing, businesses and cultural spaces. We are further unlocking the potential of these sites and communities across New York.”

A full list of Restore New York projects awarded funding in this round is available below, or online here. More information at https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-hochul-announces-more-50-million-awarded-through-restore-new-york-communities.

Past City of Kingston Restore NY Grant awards include:

Kingston Standard Brewing Company– to reconstruct a portion of an adjacent commercial building, adding more than 5,000 square feet of operational space and creating a cutting-edge zero fossil fuel facility. The project will incorporate CO2 recapture, electric stream generation, and an offsite community solar farm, to become a pioneering example of environmentally conscious craft beer manufacturing and will create eight new full-time jobs. ($550,000 award)

St. Joseph’s Lofts project-- to support an adaptive reuse project to a renovate a former schoolhouse in Uptown Kingston into three floors of office space and an event center. ($1.15 million award)

The Center for Photography at Woodstock-- in 2022, CPW was awarded funding to adaptively reuse and rehabilitate the 40,000 square feet former cigar factory in Midtown Kingston. ($1.5 million award)

Barrel Factory Lofts Project-- adaptive reuse of a 120-year-old warehouse in Midtown into a mix of live-work spaces for artists, commercial flex spaces, and amenities spaces. ($840,000 award)

In 2017, the demolition of the former Mid-City Lanes bowling alley to create RUPCO’s Energy Square, a mixed-use residential, commercial, and nonprofit space. ($500,000)

The Kingstonian-- mixed-used development that will transform an underutilized site at Fair and Wall St. by adding 143 residential units (10% affordable workforce housing); 8,500 square feet of commercial space; a 32-room hotel; and a 420-space parking garage with 250 spaces dedicated for public use.