BUILDER Enrique Mazada surveyed the rundown former nightclub at the Hudson River shore in Kingston.
The 56-year-old Goshen man envisions that, one day, the place that's all boarded up, with every window broken by vandals, will teem with neighborhood patrons dining out in elegance and enjoying a view just as appetizing.
Turning the structure into a hopping waterfront restaurant won't be easy - nor will building that surrounding neighborhood, where 380 housing units in a development called Sailor's Cove on the Hudson have been proposed. But Mazada remains optimistic, just as he has been throughout the five years since he first proposed Sailor's Cove.
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"It is an amazing piece of property," said Mazada, a Chilean native and father of three who lives in an restored 19th-century brick home in Orange County.
Mazada, who has college degrees in architecture, is working with architect Joseph Hurwitz on the Sailor's Cove project. The development got its name from the two men's mutual interest in sailing.
DESPITE HIS optimism, Mazada concedes the challenges of building such a development - and selling its homes - in the current economic climate. The burgeoning cost of materials is weighing on the construction process, and weakness in the U.S. housing and mortgage industries could make it difficult to sell the development's nearly 400 residences.
"It is a reality," he said of the current economic climate, "but we do have a list of people who are interested. This is a waterfront community, and that makes it unique."
Being at the waterfront also makes the development environmentally "sensitive," Mazada recognizes, but he said Sailor's Cove will be a "thoughtful project."
Sailor's Cove is one of two large-scale housing projects proposed for the Hudson River shoreline in Kingston. The other, to be built by Yonkers-based AVR Acquisition Corp., is Hudson Landing, which would comprise 1,650 units on the former Tilcon Inc. property.
AT PUBLIC hearings, supporters of Sailor's Cove have framed their arguments around the theme that Kingston needs to give up its hardened grip of the past and get with the times. They say the city needs more people to make it bustle and that a project like Mazada's could attract wealthy individuals looking to start businesses. That, the supporters say, would help break the suffocating blues that come with the lack of good jobs in the area.
For his part, Kingston Mayor James Sottile has repeated a familiar refrain in supporting the project: The city needs to grow its tax base, not its tax rate.
BUT OPPONENTS say the project is too big, needs to be redesigned to fit better with the character of the city, is likely to cause traffic problems, could overburden the city's sewer system and could put a strain on local schools.
On the issue of size, Poughkeepsie-based environmental group Scenic Hudson wants Mazada to reduce the number of housing units at Sailor's Cove from 380 to 229, but the builder says that would be economically impossible.
At the same time, though, Mazada said he wants environmental advocates to know that he shares some of their concerns. He describes himself as a "green" builder and said he plans to install geothermal heating systems in all the housing units.
"I am a green thumb guy," Mazada said. "I save trees. I respect trees. They take so many years to grow."
BUT EVEN amid his optimism, Mazada is facing adversity. He and his investors already have spent $5 million to buy the site, clean it up and conduct environmental studies. And just last week, Kingston Planner Suzanne Cahill ordered city-hired consultants to stop their environmental review of the Sailor's Cove proposal because, despite two months of requests, the developer had failed to replenish the fund from which the consultants are paid.
Patrick Oliveri, a local spokesman for Polaris 771, said the developer has sent the city a check for $25,000 this past week.
IN MARCH 2006, the city's Planing Board rejected the first draft environmental study for Sailor's Cove, saying the document failed to address issues laid out in a scope of potential impacts.
Seven months later, Sottile expressed frustrations that Polaris was not getting required paperwork to City Hall in a timely manner.
MAZADA SAID he wants to get approvals for Sailor's Cove soon to the project - complete with the restaurant, floating docks, cafes, a market, and waterfront promenade - can be built over a five-year period.
And as he stood near the smooth, calm water at the property's edge, he couldn't help but notice the beauty of it all.
"This is the perfect sailor's cove," he said.
