It is very exciting when a Rescue Me home is posted and there are a ton of replies saying, “How can I get this home?” Often there aren’t any contact details to be able to purchase the home or contact the owner. Fortunately there is a sign here from Prudential Realty # 845-634-1034. If you look it up online most sites it is not for sale. But don’t let that stop you from trying if you are interested.
Details about the block: it is located right next to 307 Liberty that has seen a beautiful restoration to the façade of the building. It is for sale. Across the street is the historic Old Town Cemetery and Weigand Tavern. The Tavern is for sale. And down the block, other home owners are restoring homes that used to look just like this at one time. It could be such a cute home. Won’t someone rescue 309 Liberty?
There are over 700 abandoned or vacant properties in the City of Newburgh. Habitation of these properties is vital to the revitalization of the city. 309 Liberty Street Newburgh NY Google Map
This building has been owned for over 20 years by one the two people who brought you N4N- the sale sign lists the other. Even though the owner lives less than a block away, the property has never been maintained, the snow never shoveled off the walks, the garbage never picked up in front of it, the facade never painted. It was bought for $1,000 or less from the city. This has been one of Newburgh’s problems, people warehousing buildings that they attained cheaply enough to hold on to and the city doing nothing to discourage or prevent it. Warehousing is what destroyed half the East Parmenter Street neighborhood. The culprit ended up donating the property to Habitats but after they had already destroyed the historic buildings by neglect. And it was all for greedy speculation.
Uh oh
Its not greed Mr. Shin, If i buy something I can do whatever the heck I want to do with it! Yea whoever owns this should be considerate for his neighbors and his community obviously he does not give a rats ass about Newburgh and the efforts and sacrifices people are making to make it a more attractive better place to live. Its not his fault for being greedy it is the fault of the local leaders who sell it to these flippers and what they should do is sell it to first time home buyers young recent grads from the Hudson Valley who want to make Newburgh their new home!!!!
You are correct. I know several people who have had empty buildings for long periods of time. Difference was they maintained them and didn’t piggyback off a stagnant non-profit for their own for profit agenda. (See NPA- the shell organization for N4N. Formed by committed citizens to be a non-governmental force to save historic structures. It became inactive when most of its founding members moved away by 1991. Was restarted by N4N to park their donations for their slumlord fest. Revisionist history on NPA website.) Yes, it is partially the city government’s fault, but in this lawless place the only thing that has preserved what remains are responsible citizens. What’s most despicable about this building is that the owner lives less than a block away, claims to have an interest in preserving Newburgh, yet does nothing to maintain his own properties. Like a pig living in his own… This is a small community. There should be societal pressures put on such members of this city who pull this crap.
I don’t think making inflammatory comments without knowing the entire truth about any situation is helpful. We all know there were many failed projects in this city that had millions pumped into them, just as there are many abandoned buildings that are barely maintained by the city itself, as we lack enough resources.
One of the more recent N4N ventures, the architectural bus tour, brought a nice group to Newburgh recently, and some of the visitors stayed behind to investigate properties for sale and rent, including FSBO and the Atlas Industries building. It was at great cost to the organization and I am pretty certain that the advertising and the rentals used up almost the entire bank account.
What was priceless, however, was that two of the passengers were journalists–one for the Mid Hudson Times and another for the New York Times. And both articles shed some nice light on Newburgh and the people who are working hard to make a difference.
And why are you calling the Newburgh Preservation Association a ‘shell?’ I know at last count there were quite a few well-respected citizens of Newburgh on the board of that organization, and I personally have attended at least three Holiday parties for the group and have met at least 100, or perhaps more like 150 people, at those events.
Let’s respect what Newburgh Restoration is trying to do as well. The mission of this blog is to help revitalize and promote the positives of Newburgh.
Mr Shin, thank you for your insight. As a NYC resident who owns properties in the city of Newburgh, I find many things peculiar. It appears there is an entrenched oligarchy who control the property market (the acquisition of property for peanuts etc) to the detriment of investors like myself who purchase at market value, renovate / restore, maintain our properties well and rent to decent, hard working long term tenants, some from further up north or NYC. Our property values suffer because of neighboring properties like the above and the out of town slumlords who somehow seem to have favor since no one bothers their crack houses.
An outsider like me is hard pressed to explain the usefulness of a preservation association other than for tea parties and networking. The Weigand Tavern, Monell mansion, Selah Reeve house (has anyone bought that one for a buck :)?) etc are all crumbling. The association’s website hasn’t been updated in years. So how exactly are they helping to preserve anything in Newburgh?
Bus tours are useless if the malfeasance is permitted to continue. New owners / investors become disenchanted, lose their homes to foreclosure or quit altogether and the vicious cycle repeats itself leading to more bus tours for the unsuspecting.
I have stopped investing in Newburgh altogether. I should have stuck with the NYC area which is not prone to the small town politics and ruling oligarchies which make any discussion about bringing jobs to the area etc useless. Speaking of which, whatever became of the vaunted economic development initiative?