The old railroad depot that once sat at the center of the historic city of Hudson, New York, is now a bar; rail passengers today board Amtrak trains for the ride to New York City at a station near the Hudson River on the city's western edge, where sailing ships once set off from the wharves and down to the Atlantic. But the old Depot District remains, a grittier and more industrial piece of Hudson a few blocks north of the high-end restaurants, antique shops and offbeat boutiques of Warren Street, the town's main thoroughfare.
The effort to transform and revitalize the Depot District, and to meet community-identified housing needs, took a step forward in 2025 with the opening of the Hudson Depot Lofts at 76 N. Seventh St. The multifamily project earned a 2026 CoStar Impact Award, as judged by real estate professionals familiar with the market.
The project introduced 64 mixed‑income apartments, adding much‑needed supply as demand for attainable housing continues to grow. Almost half of these units, 27, are larger two‑ and three‑bedroom layouts, designed in response to feedback from residents and city leaders who emphasized the shortage of family‑size housing options. This focus on accommodating working families helped position the development as a critical contributor to Hudson’s workforce housing ecosystem.
By incorporating commercial space alongside residential units, Hudson Depot Lofts is helping activate a section of the city that has long lacked investment, encouraging new business activity and greater pedestrian presence within the Depot District.
Public discussions around affordability and rents based on area median income also highlighted the development’s significance in broader conversations about regional housing policy. Throughout 2025, community meetings and planning reviews frequently referenced Hudson Depot Lofts as a model for responsible, community‑aligned development. Its balanced approach to market‑rate and income‑restricted housing underscored its role as a standout project in Hudson’s evolving development landscape.
What the judges said: “This project was a collaboration between the developer and the community and serves specific housing needs of this community for family housing for working families to be able to stay in the community and obtain affordable housing," SAID Jessica Richer, licensed real estate associate broker at Hanna Commercial Real Estate. "Its ability to provide market-rate as well as income-restricted housing was a critical reason for me choosing this as the multifamily development of the year.”
“Although it's not the largest project," said Jeffrey D’Amore, executive director at Cushman and Wakefield/Pyramid Brokerage Co., "I believe it was the most impactful because it created mixed-income housing in a market with limited supply.”
They made it happen: Amanda Baxter, president, and Eric Baxter, vice president, of R.L. Baxter Building Corp., along with Lauren Rutkowski, director of real estate development at Hudson Depot District LLC, developed the project.