ABOUT

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MISSION

Hudson Development Corporation [HDC] is a non profit Local Development Corporation (LDC) established to sustain, promote and attract projects that improve economic opportunities for businesses and residents, create jobs and enhance the quality of life in the City of Hudson.

PURPOSE

The HDC is a special not-for-profit corporation– a Local Development Corporation. Local Development Corporations are created persuant to Not-for-Profit Corporation Law, Section 1411 for the purposes of:

  • Relieving and reducing unemployment;
  • Promoting and enhancing employment opportunities;
  • Instructing or training individuals to improve or develop skills;
  • Conducting scientific research to attract or retain industry; and
  • Lessen the burdens of government and acting in the public interest.

In general, LDCs are authorized under state law and are often used by municipalities to support particular public purposes. Today, municipally created LDCs, like the Hudson Development Corporation, have become an important tool in local economic development; their boards often include ex-officio municipal officers and local business owners. Of significant note are an LDC’s special powers to “acquire” property from a municipality without appraisal or bidding. Furthermore, an LDC is under no obligation to participate in a competitive bidding process or comply with public procurement laws. LDCs can construct, rehabilitate and improve properties and can take a range of other actions to aid business development, or meet other local needs.

LDCs created by municipalities are quasi-public entities undertaking activities in areas of public concern. These LDCs also fall under the reporting requirements of the Public Authorities Accountability Act. For more information about local development corporation reporting, please visit the New York State Authority Budget Office.

MEMBERS OF THE BOARD

The Hudson Development Corporation’s Board is comprised of nine Directors.  Four Directors serve ex officio: the Mayor of the City of Hudson, the Majority Leader of the Common Council of the City of Hudson, the Minority Leader of the Common Council of the City of Hudson and the President of the Common Council of the City of Hudson. The remaining five (5) Directors are elected to three-year terms, renewable for an additional three-year term. The five Directors must be employed by an entity which does business in the greater Hudson Area or practice a trade or profession in the greater Hudson area.

The Directors are responsible for setting policy, supporting the Director and staff, guiding long-range planning and development, monitoring finances and working cooperatively to fulfill the mission of the organization.

William Hallenbeck JrWilliam Hallenbeck Jr
Mayor, City of Hudson
Perry LasherPerry Lasher – Vice President
Perry is the Vice President of Commercial Lending with The Bank of Greene County.  He has worked in and around the City of Hudson for over 10 years.  Perry has also served as a Director with the Columbia County Chamber of Commerce, The Greene County Chamber of Commerce, The Coxsackie Regional Chamber of Commerce, and The Zone Administration Board for The Greene County Empire Zone.
D CalhounDuncan Calhoun – Treasurer
Duncan is co-owner and co-founder of The Croff House B & B and The Barlow Hotel, both located in the City of Hudson. Originally from Nebraska, Duncan came upon Hudson 20 years ago while living in NYC and he immediately purchased his existing home in Hudson’s first historic district. Having worked in marketing and publishing for 25 years, he resigned from his 16-year tenure with The Walt Disney Corporation in 2012 to focus full time on his businesses in Hudson.
victor-mVictor Mendolia
Victor Mendolia is the Chairman, Hudson Democratic Committee
don-mooreDon Moore
Don is President of the Common Council of the City of Hudson.  He has broad experience in government and the nonprofit professional performing arts and higher education in administration, communications, and fundraising. Don has been a Board Member since January 2010.
seth-rapportSeth Rapport
Seth currently serves as the President of the Board of HDC. For several years he has lived and worked in the Hudson community as an attorney and the owner of Valley Mortgage Company, Inc.  Seth is a member of the NYS and Columbia County Bar Associations, the NYS Mortgage Brokers and the Columbia County Chamber of Commerce.  He also sits on the Board of the Fund for Columbia County, a local fund of the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation.
carmine-pCarmine Pierro
Carmine is Alderman, Majority Leader
lori-seldenLori J. Selden
Lori is CEO of the Mexican Radio Restaurant Group, with locations in the City of Hudson, New York City and Schenectady, NY.  A lifelong community activist, Lori is Co-Founder of Columbia County Bounty, a local Farm to Plate initiative, and has served on numerous tourism and economic development boards and committees in Columbia County.  Currently Chairperson of The Hudson Business Coalition, Lori has served on the Board of HDC since 2007 as a representative of the local Hudson business community.
O-stewartOhrine Stewart
Ohrine serves as Alderman, Minority Leader
STAFF
sheena-salvinoSheena Salvino, Executive Director
e: sheena@hudsonfirst.com
p: 518-565-0483A Greene County native, Sheena lived and worked in the Capital Region for eight years. After completing her degree in Economics she moved to New York City for a Marketing & Communications job with a private company. After spending some time in the private sector, she returned to Albany to pursue her Master’s Degree in Urban and Regional Planning. During her studies at the University at Albany she was employed as an Associate for the Hudson River Valley Greenway. This unique position offered her multiple opportunities to work with public and private organizations, grass roots groups and nonprofits throughout the Hudson Valley. After graduation in the spring of 2009, Sheena took the job as a Grants & Development Manager with an area non-profit. Finally, in May of 2011, the right opportunity presented itself and she became the newest member of the HDC team.
maryMary Rembach, Executive Assistant & Bookkeeper
e: mary@hudsonfirst.comMary is retired from the Sheet Metal Workers Union in Albany, where she was the Assistant Funds Manager for over 35 years, managing the health insurance and pension funds for the union membership. She does bookkeeping as an independent contractor, has been the part-time bookkeeper for HDC since January 2007 and has lived in Columbia County for more than 30 years.
John-DJohn ‘Duke’ Duchessi, Grant Writing & Administration
e: duke@hudsonfirst.com
HISTORY OF HUDSON

The City of Hudson is located along the western banks of the Hudson River in Columbia County, New York. Hudson has inspired countless explorers, builders, artists, and entrepreneurs over the past two centuries– and continues to inspire a new tide of adventurers today.

After the Revolutionary War, a group of seafaring men from Providence and Newport, Nantucket and Edgartown, fearing retaliation from the British, sought a safe harbor for their vessels. In the spring of 1783, Thomas and Seth Jenkins set out to find such a place and found it in on the banks of the Hudson. They purchased a large tract of land known as Claverack Landing. By that fall, the founders of Hudson, most of whom were Quakers, began arriving in ships with their families and possessions. Some even brought with them houses that had been framed out in Nantucket.

At their first meeting in 1784, the founders, who called themselves Proprietors, set to work designing the city. In 1785, the City of Hudson was chartered, making it the first city to be chartered in the new United States.

By 1788, Hudson had become a commercial city with a considerable population, warehouses, wharves and docks, ropewalks, and the din of industry. Its economic mainstays were whaling, sealing, and international trade. The discovery of petroleum in the mid-1800s decreased the demand for whale oil, and this, combined with the coming of the railroad in the late 1840s, which transected the north and south bays, caused Hudson to enter a period of decline.

Even as the railroads sealed the fate of one era, they fostered the beginning of a new era and enabled new industries to prosper. In the 19th century, knitting mills and cotton mills opened and brickyards flourished, as did breweries and an iron works. But by the end of the 19th century the economy of the city once again began to decline. The cement industry, which had arrived about 1900 and dominated the economy until the Great Depression, finally closed in the late 1960s.

During the middle years of the 20th century, Hudson’s economy continued to be depressed, and because no one could afford to do so, or was able or interested in doing so, many of Hudson’s elegantly simple buildings, along with its mansions, rode through time unappreciated, neglected, then abandoned, and finally, for some, demolished. Despite depredation caused not only by neglect and the passage of time, but by planned demolition and ill-considered destruction, it remains a cause for celebration that the city of Hudson has retained so much of its superb architectural heritage.

In the past two decades, Hudson has renewed itself as it had twice before in the 18th and mid-19th centuries. The city, with its architecture and unique character, has come once more to be avidly appreciated, and more importantly, saved and restored by some long-time residents and by many new devotees of the city—all the spiritual if not the actual heirs of those who built—and rebuilt—Hudson better than they found it.

- courtesy of Historic Hudson