In downtown Newburgh, New York, a new boutique hotel project aims to spark economic revival and boost tourism in a city long marked by challenges and untapped potential. Foster Supply Hospitality, a Western Catskills-based company led by Sims Foster and Kirsten Harlow Foster, is converting three early 20th-century buildings on Grand Street into a 74-room hotel complex featuring retail, dining, and event spaces. The $45.9 million development, which broke ground in December, is projected to open by late 2027.
The project centers on adaptive reuse of historic structures, including a former American Legion post, a defunct YMCA complex, and the adjacent Masonic Temple. The latter will accommodate restaurants and conference facilities, with a planned martini bar offering views over the Hudson River. Foster Supply Hospitality is known for transforming “unexpected places” through design-driven hospitality ventures, having established a reputation in rural communities of the Catskills with inns and restaurants recognized for boosting local tourism economies.
Newburgh’s urban environment contrasts with the rural settings of Foster’s previous projects. With a population around 28,000, the city has struggled with a persistently high crime rate, although statistics show a decline over the past decade and a half. Moreover, Newburgh last hosted a hotel over a century ago, with the Palatine Hotel having closed and been demolished in the 1970s. Despite these challenges, the Fosters see an opportunity to attract visitors from nearby New York City, capitalizing on the city’s architectural heritage, emerging food scene, riverfront location, and proximity to destinations like West Point and Dia Beacon.
The Fosters’ entry into Newburgh was encouraged by community advocates like Naomi Hersson-Ringskog, an urban planner who relocated to the city and identified a need for more local amenities to invigorate commercial and residential life. Hersson-Ringskog approached Foster Supply Hospitality in 2019, highlighting potential properties for redevelopment and the availability of historic tax credits to support financial feasibility. The project secured a 12-year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) agreement with Newburgh, originally estimating costs at $24.4 million; however, inflation and tariffs pushed the final financing closed in late 2025 to nearly $46 million.
The hotel development has elicited mixed but cautiously optimistic responses from local residents and business owners. Kim Turner, founder of the Boys & Girls Club’s Newburgh Performing Arts Academy, which relocated from the former Legion building, expressed enthusiasm about potential new customer engagement as tourism grows. Similarly, long-standing business owner Mann Hall, who runs a local apparel shop, welcomed the prospect of revitalizing the community’s commercial activity while advocating for visitors to support existing local establishments.
Nonetheless, some remain wary, recalling earlier failed redevelopment efforts in Newburgh, notably the urban renewal projects of the 1960s and ’70s that resulted in demolished neighborhoods and unfulfilled promises. Yet others, such as Jacqui and Eric Jarmann, local entrepreneurs, have noted significant visible progress on the site and view the project as a potential turning point that could reshape Newburgh’s development trajectory.
The anticipated hotel also appears to be catalyzing broader cultural investments nearby. Architect Mike Pomarico and arts magazine cofounder Karen Ghostlaw recently opened a new gallery space within walking distance of the hotel site, citing the project as a motivating factor in their timing. They and other observers believe the area is nearing a critical moment of momentum that could foster sustained growth and community engagement.
As the Foster Supply Hospitality project advances, all eyes remain on its ability to overcome longstanding economic and social obstacles in Newburgh and deliver the turnaround that local advocates and developers envision.