Where Clinton and Kirkland’s $10 million downtown grant has gone so far
Townhouses are going up on a former brownfield and the Cider Mill is planning for its centennial. The $2 million Village Green redesign is still in design.
By Tom Brezinski
Clinton and Kirkland won $10 million from New York’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative in 2023. In May 2024 the state picked 11 projects to split $9.7 million of it. Since then the money has been moving at very different speeds depending on who’s spending it.
The private housing projects have gone furthest. The public ones, the Village Green and the street work, are still in design and engineering. One project has dropped out of the program altogether. Here’s where each stood in the most recent updates from the Clinton Kirkland Improvement Corporation, the nonprofit that wrote the grant application and tracks the work.
Housing: the most progress
The furthest along is the townhouse community on a cleaned-up brownfield at Taylor Avenue and Utica Street, at the north end of the village. Lewis Brothers LLC is building about 30 townhomes there, an $8.99 million project with $1.5 million in DRI money. In February, CKIC reported the first building was closed in, with framing, electrical and mechanical work going on inside. The second building was on hold because of winter weather.
On Lewis Road in Kirkland, John Spinella Excavating plans about 40 affordable apartments and townhomes on vacant land. It’s the biggest project on the list at $11.6 million, with $1.5 million from the state. As of August 2025 it was in Planning Board review, and the developer hoped to start construction by fall of that year.
The smallest housing project, a new apartment building at 17 Kirkland Ave., left the program. Its sponsor, Kogut Excavating, decided last fall to build without the $440,000 in DRI funds.
The Cider Mill’s 100th year
Two of the projects belong to the Clinton Cider Mill, which turns 100 in 2027. The plan at the Elm Street mill is a climate-controlled addition with indoor seating, restrooms and an expanded patio, so the mill can stay open all year instead of shutting down after the apple season. That’s a $910,000 project with $364,000 in DRI money.
The second is a hard cider operation in a former commercial laundry at 43 College St., using fruit pressed at Elm Street. It costs an estimated $675,000, with $270,000 from the state. Last year the mill was working with architects on both designs, looking at a tasting room and a large mural on College Street, and building a storage structure and bigger parking lot to get ready. The goal is to finish in time for the centennial.
Public projects are slower
The single largest award, $2 million to redesign the Village Green, is still on paper. The village has a state contract and hired EDR as its consultant, with village engineer Tim O’Hara overseeing the project. The plan calls for better traffic flow around the green, rebuilt and relocated sidewalks, new lighting and landscaping, and public Wi-Fi.
The Kirkland Art Center has a $1.93 million award toward a $2.7 million rebuild of its old barn into a pottery studio, children’s dance studio, culinary studio and space for visual arts, plus work to stabilize its historic church building. The center has a contract with New York State Homes and Community Renewal and hired Heritage Resources LLC to administer the grant. A conditions report on the barn was underway, and it planned to look for an architect next.
The Town of Kirkland’s $750,000 complete streets project is focused first on new sidewalks along Franklin Avenue. They’d connect to the sidewalks the state Department of Transportation has been putting in on Meadow Street, giving people at Clinton Manor and Mohawk Valley Apartments a walkable route. The town was doing an engineering study and final cost estimate.
The Kirkland Town Library’s $153,000 makerspace and gathering space and the Clinton Chamber of Commerce’s branding and wayfinding sign project were both still in contracting.
Money for storefronts
The piece most likely to show up on College Street soon is the $600,000 Small Project Fund, which pays for facade and interior upgrades at local businesses and nonprofits. CKIC hired LaBella Associates to run it, and a review committee announced the first awards in September 2025.
The timing matters for the village’s shops. Downtown Clinton has picked up new businesses lately, including Old Dog Coffee Company. It has also lost one. The Rolling Cone ice cream shop opened in May and closed Sept. 6, about four months in. Its owner told Hamilton College’s student paper that seasonal business is tough when most students leave for the summer. A downtown that draws people year-round is the whole point of the grant. The Cider Mill addition, once it’s built, is the most direct test of that.
CKIC posts project updates on its website. Several updates are now months old, and the village and town boards are where the next steps, especially on the Green, will come up first.