Ceremony marks official start of Park Street residential project

by Dan McClelland

Northern Forest Center officials welcomed about 60 local and regional leaders and friends of their unfolding residential project to its three-lot site across from the high school Thursday afternoon, marking its official start.

The local project will involve the construction of a new building at 179 Park Street and the renovation of the house next door at 185. Originally the Northern Forest Center had intended to renovate the former Plaza Hotel, but it was later condemned in the winter of 2022-23 after pipes burst in the partially renovated building. After additional structural inspections, the center officials determined the benefits of attempting to salvage the building were not worth the risks and the costs.

Addressing the group first that afternoon in the paved driveway of 185 Park Street in front of the sidewall of the former Plaza Hotel, Leslie Karasin, Adirondack director with the Northern Forest Center who work out of an office in Saranac Lake, welcomed the invited guests, calling the major residential initiative “very exciting.”

She first welcomed to the microphone that afternoon Mayor Mary Fontana and Town Supervisor Ricky Dattola.

The mayor spoke first. “On behalf of the Village of Tupper Lake we want to welcome the Northern Forest Center here and we are pretty excited about this project. It’s going to be a wonderful opportunity for Tupper Lake and we look forward to future projects.”

“Same here,” Mr. Dattola joined in. “We’re very excited about everything in this project. The town can’t wait for it to happen. -And we want to thank Leslie. She is not only leading this effort for her organization, she is also helping us develop new snowmobile trails and new bike trails. She’s become a real asset here and we welcome her.”

He offered a special welcome to the many out of town guests in the audience, many of them state and regional officials.

“So let’s start tearing this building down and building new!” he said in his trademark enthusiastic way.

Ms. Karasin joked Community Development Director Melissa McManus, in the audience that day, had suggested trading the ceremonial shovels for sledge hammers to attack the century old and decaying former Plaza building.

Ross Whaley of Upper Saranac Lake, a board member of the Northern Forest Center, echoed Ms. Karasin’s comment about excitement, saying he was excited too.

“-And I’ll tell you why I’m excited. My postal code is 12986. That means Tupper Lake is my home. When I have visitors I can take them to a museum that is ranked the No. 1 natural history museum in the nation.

“When I’m too lazy to cook, I can take them to the Woodshed on Park, and not only have dinner, but be welcomed.

“If I need boards, I can visit Tupper Lake Supply, and I not only get boards I get the low down on what’s happening politically in the area.”

“That makes me excited!”

“Secondly I’m excited because I’m on the board of the Northern Forest Center. Why would I be excited about that?”

“Millinocket, Maine has a similar main street to this town. Today there are a half a dozen gorgeous apartments- with rents priced for nurses, for school teachers- and they are beautiful.

“Go over to Lancaster, New Hampshire. Downtown three-story buildings converted to apartments with retail space on the first floor.

“-And you know what is more exciting? Someone is doing renovations to the building next door. These projects are contagious!

“Move over to St. Johnsbury. I met a young man- maybe in his twenties- a young entrepreneur who told me he wouldn’t be in business if it wasn’t for the Northern Forest Center who gave him a grant.

“So that’s why I’m excited. Here in my home the Northern Forest Center is doing something that is going to make a difference!”

Rob Riley followed Ross calling his short address “a tough act to follow.”

He introduced himself as the president of the Northern Forest Center who lives in Concord, N.H.

“One of the things I am proud of is that we are now taxpayers in this community. We, as a non-profit organization, feel that it is important that we are not only contributing to and investing in the community, but we are paying a portion to make sure those residents we are hoping to bring to this community are accessing services and contributing to a system that really leads to a vibrant community.”

“I dare to say we’re taking a bet on Tupper but Tupper is also taking a bet on us. That feels like the right type of partnership as we look at the communities that Ross mentioned: Millinocket, Maine, Greenville, Maine, Bethel, Maine, St. Johnsbury, Vt., Lancaster, N.H.!”

“It’s that partnership that provides that deep rooted sense of why we are here and why our work matters beyond the building. It’s about relationships...it’s about people...it’s about the scholars who move this process forward in partnership with us and the review boards at the state and levels that allow this process to move forward. It was our board that allowed us to take this leap forward to buy these buildings so we could try to be part of the excitement that we see as happening in Tupper Lake!

“It all comes down to people meeting with people. In the long-term the building is only a building, but the people who will live in it will be the ones to really lean into it and become part of the community!

“-And that’s what we’re really excited about. I’ve seen this happen in the other places we’ve been. A new couple moves into town. They end up having a baby, and put kids into the local school system.” The result is growth, he emphasized.

He said this school year in Millinocket, Maine, will be the first time in many years that the kindergarten class will be larger than the graduating class, calling it exciting.

“This will be the first year in Bethel, Maine that they will see an old building that has been sitting idle and empty for 15 years that is now seeing work done to it...showing that someone cares and we care!”

“People ask what we have learned from these various projects. We’ve learned how much these buildings and these buildings mean to people. People have told me stories showing this. I’ve received four-page letters from former residents” about their fond memories of these places.

“We take that very seriously, and we take that personally and feel very proud of our community revitalization effort,” Mr. Riley told the five dozen supporters there Thursday afternoon.

“As I measure long-term, what we hope to get out of this project” is new housing, new investments in these neighborhoods. “We hope it builds community pride!”

“People feel very good about living in Tupper Lake.” While that’s already underway, he said he and the Northern Forest Center hope this new project will build more of that feeling.

He introduced some regional officials in the audience that day: Kiley Peck and Jennifer Voss from the state department of state’s office in Watertown. He said they were associated with the village’s successful DRI grant for the uptown area which helped to fund his organization’s project.

He also recognized Steve Hunt of the New York State Empire Development Agency “which is second in state funding” through the village government here.

He noted too a representative from Governor Kathy Hochul’s office had planned to attend, but had to send her regrets at the last minute.

Mr. Riley called the extra money from Empire State Development to this project was “super helpful.”

He said private money through groups like the Cloudsplitter Foundation and the Adirondack Foundation’s Generous Acts program has also been very helpful to their project.

Mr. Riley said that in addition to the state and private contributions, the balance of the cost of the project is being what he called “self-financed.”

“We didn’t have to go to the banks or other lending institutions.” Instead they used in-house “impact investments,” which has helped his organization use “lower-priced capital,” a combination of private money, state money and in-house monies.

He said too their project has attracted new investors from many nearby states in the northeast.

“So thank you for permitting us to be part of this cool project...we’re glad to be here today for this ground-breaking.”

“Our legal department said ‘no sledge hammers’,” he joked.

Next up was Steve Hunt, the regional director for Empire State Development. He joked that he was expecting to have a podium, from which to read his notes on his cell phone. He said to read those words while holding his phone was a little too challenging for him that day.

“So I’ll try to be quick. I love Tupper Lake. It’s a great community. I have a special kinship with the school mascot (the lumberjack) so any time I have the opportunity to be up here is good!”

He introduced several influential people in the audience: Assemblyman Billy Jones, Jim McKenna, co-chair of the village’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative, and already mentioned Kiley Peck and Jen Voss from DOS, Barbara Rice from the Adirondack Park Agency...there are many others who helped.

“On behalf of Empire State Development, I want to thank all the partners involved in this project. When Governor Hochul was talking about pro-housing communities and neighborhood redevelopment, these are the types of projects she was thinking about. So this is great. It has a DRI investment as well as a ‘Restore New York’ grant. They are grants specifically intended to try to revitalize communities, to help build new homes. Right here on Park Street we’re going to have new homes for folks.”

He emphasized that community development also includes new housing. “You need good places for people who work in the community to have quality homes to live in! ESD is excited to be part of this project!”

Assemblyman Billy Jones kept his remarks brief too, joking that at every outdoor event he speaks, that’s when a group of Harley Davidsons passes by, drowning out his voice.

“It’s great to be here in Tupper Lake. As was mentioned, you can feel the excitement here, with all the partners here today, along with the village and town doing so much work here.”

He offered a big thanks to the Northern Forest Center for making this investment here.

“Wherever I go in all of my communities throughout my district,” when you talk to school leaders, government leaders, business owners, hospital operators they all say “we need housing for our work forces.

“This is important in fitting that niche that is needed for middle-market work force housing needed...needed here and all across the North Country!”

“I want to congratulate everyone here today in being so pro-active and making this happen in Tupper Lake.”

“We must continue to push forward” to meet the needs of all communities in this region with more and better housing.

“-And as has been said. These project are contagious. Once this project is done, we’ll move a block over and then again a block over!”

“And eventually people will have the housing they need.” He called the lack of worker housing a huge issue not only in this region, but all across our nation.

He applauded Jim McKenna, who is also co-chair of the North Country Economic Development Council, for making housing a priority for his economic development group.

In closing Ms. Karasin shared some of the details of their project.

She said with all the work that has gone into the project by the host of supporters and supporting organizations, “we’re going to start to see things happening here very soon.”

“This week the asbestos abatement work” necessary has been taking place in the former hotel building. “We’re expecting the all clear news” as early as today.

She said they expect to apply for a demolition permit from Code Enforcement Officer Pete Edwards shortly.

“The community will see visible demolition work happening here soon.

She said when they first bought the former Plaza Hotel “we thought we could rehab it. But by the time we assessed the kind of rehab we wanted to do we came to the realization it made more sense to treat it as a demo project and do new construction. It wasn’t an easy decision for us, because we wanted to take the approach like the frugal, scrappy organization we are and save what we could.

Pointing to architectural sketches being displayed next to her, she said the big new building will be on a similar footprint and of similar scale to the existing one. “But it will be a new building with nine high quality apartments that we will rent to long-term tenants.”

“There will also be some renovations to the house next door, so all together we are going ten units of workforce house between the two buildings!”

She thanked many of the people who have helped in the project, including many others that afternoon mentioned.

Following public hearings here in May and the endorsement of the village board, Ms. Karasin’s group recently won a grant from the ESD’s “Restore New York” grant program.