It has been over two and a half years since anything has been heard from the Chapman Steamer Collective. It has certainly not been for lack of trying. Just this week, they reached out to Newburgh Restoration to update everyone on their current status. It seems they are in a very precarious situation and need help. If you think you can be of assistance, please email them. See below for their official letter to Newburgh:
JUST LEFT US WONDERING WHY!
Because we know now that our rich and varied cultural heritage has a profound power to help build our community. Knowing that the struggles against injustice and inequities are part of our identity, part of our culture; if indeed we are to rise from the wretchedness of division and conflict, we have to cultivate and defend those selfless efforts and talents dedicated to this goal. -Adapted from Nelson Mandela 1996 Heritage Day Address
All we wanted to do was to offer our Newburgh community the Firehouse Arts & Community Center. A gathering space of their own… A place that speaks in their voice… A place that allows their voices to be channeled into positive energy and constructive communication achieved through proactive methods and techniques. A haven to provide opportunity to lift every voice and to no longer be discounted.
We thought we possessed the fortitude to withstand the barrage of attacks, but it finally got to us. We lost our resolve amongst the negative voices and destructive acts… and we surrendered, we abandoned our belief, we abandoned Newburgh, and for that WE APOLOGIZE.
Our own conscience and courage to do what is right had to be reawakened. To no longer concede to the destructive and unscrupulous acts of a few.
We love our Newburgh community! Like the pride one feels for a good friend, close cousin because you see their potential for an amazing future. For nearly two years now, we lost sight of that.
Idealistically we trusted that the needs of the community were, and are, far more compelling than the coveting of a few. We trusted in their strong proclamation of community development lending with emphasis on highly distressed and underserved communities like ours despite it being a turbulent time for the banking industry. We naively believed they could avoid the typecasting and profiling of our community based on its present economic and social condition, its national reputation and our country’s banking and housing crisis to fulfill its promise to our community project. To our disappointment, we bore witness to a community lending mindset that lacked the courage not to let their conviction be deterred by the economic crisis—that instead reneged on their promise to our project, to our community, for no legitimate banking reason, and in their reneging, we witnessed a greater wrong—the sacrifice of the Firehouse Arts & Community Center project.
GRACIAS A LA VIDA QUE HA DADO TANTO
Five years ago we came to Newburgh, NY and the firehouse for very selfish reasons. Five NYC friends with savings looking for an outside-the-NYC weekend residence that could fulfill our desires—close to the city, access to public transportation, large space and where our money could stretch further. We must admit, even with the gracious welcome by Newburgh the deciding factor to ignore what we heard and witnessed of Newburgh, was the Chapman Steamer No. 1 firehouse on the corner of South and Dubois Streets—its size, its architecture and its price at 7,500sq. ft was irresistible compared to other similar size properties we had viewed. And so, in late 2007 we closed on the firehouse and opened to the City of Newburgh.
We never anticipated so much attention—people filled with curiosity, excitement and love for the resurgence of the firehouse would constantly approach. Engaging them found us embracing a higher purpose for the firehouse something far greater than our desires—the desires and the needs of the many. Not an easy sell but SOLD! And now the purpose of the firehouse would take on its intended meaning—to serve and nurture the community.
Fueled by our newly impassioned mission we established the Chapman Steamer Collective (a diverse group with a shared vision for the firehouse and its service to the community) and we organized the creation of Firehouse Arts & Community Center. We established our project team; committed to community involvement throughout the entire project, on all levels of input; and committed to a LEED certified center. Ambitiously and somewhat idealistically we envisioned a project, a center for the people, by the people.
COURAGE TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT
In the summer of 2008 KeyBank offered us a construction loan under the federal New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) program for distressed and underserved communities. For three years we fought hard for this ever-mutating device through all types of obstacles from all directions. Each transformation required us to rework the numbers and project elements, all to continue to assure them of a positive project return, all to firm up their confidence. And even after their last-minute inexplicable rejection of our NMTC loan we made every effort first to learn the reason why and secondly in asking them to do the right thing by reviving our loan offer or providing some other financing solution so that we may complete the project—only to have, after several months without any response from KeyBank, our communication rerouted to an outsourced Albany, NY law firm. And with this final apathetic and obstructive act the fight in us had been exhausted.
For a year and a half, from May 2008 through December 2009, KeyBank had assured us of a construction loan based on the strength of our project specifics. All their communication and efforts were directed toward that very goal right up to that shocking day and their nebulous last minute rejection on December 9, 2009. Until we received that shocking email that morning, we had fully anticipated obtaining a NMTC loan through KeyBank CDL. And even though the loan process had taken more than a year we perceived the delay to be linked to the economic crisis at the time.
In reneging on our loan, KeyBank calculated — based on what some of history has shown—that we would go quietly into the night and they would get away with this unjust act. And for a time, nearly two years, we let them. Until with eyes open and standing for something greater than the sum of our parts we realized that we cannot just walk away, that we must stand against wrong, should not turn away from unethical, unscrupulous mistreatment no matter the consequences, no matter if they be the bank and we be individuals. With this awakened inner strength… WE ARE BACK in the fight! With cause for and the hope that fair treatment, honest dealing, and the establishment of Firehouse Arts & Community Center may be achieved.
And now, KeyBank has received a foreclosure decree based on the court’s disallowing discovery on our negligence–fraud counterclaim. (A decree ordered on a bridge loan–line of credit with a one-year maturity that was supposed to have been covered “in the short term future” with the construction-to-permanent loan—“no worries, we don’t want you to lose project momentum”, as KeyBank assured us) This injustice, travesty of the fair lending laws, and deliberate transgression of the federal NMTC policies will not see us stop our fight even with the potential loss of the firehouse and by consequence the end of the Firehouse Arts & Community Center. We will fight to the highest level.
We tried standing alone in attempting to raise KeyBank’s conscience to do what is right, to no avail… And now, we could use your help, your voices, your input, your energies, and your strength.
All we ever asked is that they follow through on what they professed to, that which is so prominent throughout their community development banking lending principles (as proclaimed on Key.com) – “innovative and complex financing from a variety of sources…” and “providing unique solutions to underserved individuals.”
In it to the end,