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SCHENECTADY
Gillen confident downtown club will open some day
BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter

    The opening date of “The Underground,” formerly known as the Big House, on State Street, remains a big mystery for now, according to Metroplex Development Authority Chairman Ray Gillen.
    Gillen told Schenectady County legislators Monday night that owner Stephen Waite needs another $400,000 to complete work on renovating the building at 411 State St.
    Gillen was answering a question from Legislator Joseph Suhrada, R-Rotterdam. Suhrada wanted to know whether “we are at a point where we should look at protecting the people’s investment.”
    Gillen said he is in constant contact with Waite. “I am disappointed it has not opened, but I am confident it will open and that every dime will be accounted for,” he said. “The club will open and it will be a good venue for downtown.”
    The club has missed several announced opening dates, with no new date set, Gillen said. “He needs the $400,000” to get a temporary certificate of occupancy from the city for the basement club. “He has the commitments.”
    Waite was not available for comment. He is not seeking additional public financing from Metroplex, Gillen said. Metroplex has already provided him with a $1 million, 15-year loan, a $250,000 facade grant, $50,000 to remove asbestos from the structure, and a $100,000 loan toward a tax payment under the Empire Zone plan.
    Gillen said Metroplex has not “invested in the Big House. We have invested in 411 State St.”
    As part of the Metroplex’s commitment to the project, first announced in 2005, Waite was expected to create 40 jobs by 2008. Once it opens the structure is expected to generate $100,000 in property taxes.
    Gillen said Waite has met or will meet the job projections this year. Waite’s law practice and staff occupy the fourth floor of the building. He plans to put a restaurant on the fi rst floor and to rent the second and third floors to professional and business tenants.
    Gillen said Waite continues to hold onto the building as an investment. “We have had dozens of offers to buy the building, more than enough to satisfy our commitments,” he said. “Waite is not close to default.”
    Waite initially named the 411 State St. project the “Schenectady Big House,” patterned on the Big House he opened in Albany in 1996. He chucked that name for “The Underground.”
    The scope of the work has resulted in the long delays, Gillen said. The project required both state and federal approvals and the city once requested Waite install a fire escape behind the building, a request since withdrawn.
    As part of the work, Waite had to nearly gut a 26,000-square-foot, century-old building, Gillen said, and Waite has invested more than $1 million of his own money in the project.
    During the rehabilitation he discovered that the first floor was not properly supported and only covered by layers of plywood. He also had to install the elevator, new bathrooms and complete heating, ventilation, mechanical and plumbing systems as well as a new roof.
    Waite is a perfectionist, Gillen said. He had the building’s facade replaced several times because he was not pleased with the work, and he has refused to pay some businesses, which have filled liens against him.
    He had planned to open Dec. 31, 2006, and then on St. Patrick’s Day 2007, then when Proctors had its grand opening during the summer.

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Retail store, other uses could fill first floor of long-delayed Big House project in Sch'dy
The Business Review (Albany) - by Michael DeMasi The Business Review

The first floor of the long-delayed Big House restaurant and nightclub in downtown Schenectady may not be a restaurant after all as owner Stephen Waite pursues other options.

A real estate agent is showing the building at 411 State St. to prospective tenants who could wind up using the space for a retail store or other purposes, Waite said Tuesday.

But Waite said he could end up running a restaurant there as originally planned.

Armida Rose Realty in Schenectady has the listing for 9,000-square-feet on the first floor and for office space on the second floor, Waite said.

Waite, an attorney in Albany, N.Y., still plans to open a music club in the basement called Big House Underground and use most of the upper two floors for offices.

Much of the work is finished in the basement but Waite was reluctant to say when the music club would open because he has missed previous estimates.

Waite said he started considering leasing the first floor to other users because people were expressing interest in the space. The facade has already been restored to resemble its original, 100-year-old look, and other new development is happening downtown.

"Since the building is coming to life and Schenectady is getting more attention, we've gotten inquiries from probably two dozen people," Waite said. "It started us thinking."

Ray Gillen, chairman of the Schenectady Metroplex Development Authority, said the first floor has been shown to other potential users "for months." At this point the agency would like to see a retail store or something else other than a restaurant.

"We have a lot of successful restaurants downtown and are looking to diversify our product mix," Gillen said.

Waite, though, said he may wind up operating a restaurant on the first floor as was originally planned when the Metroplex announced in April 2005 the Big House would open downtown.

"At some point we draw a line and say 'No, we're in here operating,'" Waite said.

Waite ran a brew pub called The Big House in downtown Albany for about 10 years and was lured to Schenectady by officials who wanted to create a similar attraction that would help bring Union College students downtown.

Since the announcement three years ago, however, the project has been fraught with construction delays and financing problems.

The delays have led to much speculation in the city about whether Waite will make good on the $1.4 million in grants and low-cost loans the Metroplex provided to renovate what was then a dilapidated three-story building.

Waite has invested about $2.1 million into the roughly $3.4 million project, including a construction loan. He said he is not trying to bail out of the project.

"Oh, God no," Waite said. "Absolutely not."

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Thursday, April 3, 2008
Former Big House brewpub in Albany owes state $44K in sales taxes
The Business Review (Albany) - by Michael DeMasi The Business Review

The Big House Brewing Co. closed three years ago in downtown Albany, N.Y., but owner Stephen Waite said the state is demanding $44,000 in unpaid sales taxes from the business.

The state Department of Taxation and Finance filed a warrant in Albany County on March 19 to recover $44,614 from the former brewpub at 90 N. Pearl St.

Waite said he was told the money is owed for a period of time during which sales taxes weren't collected on admission charges to music acts performing on the third floor of the brewpub.

Waite said he initially didn't collect sales taxes on admissions because his accountant told him the charges were exempt.

Waite said he changed the policy after a state tax auditor informed him that admissions were taxable because the third floor performance spaces was considered a "rooftop garden."

From that point on, Waite said the sales taxes were collected on admissions until the brewpub closed in 2005.

"What they're coming after us for is something that happened seven years ago," Waite said.

Tax Department Spokesman Tom Bergin confirmed the warrant was filed but said he couldn't discuss Waite's tax situation because of privacy laws.

Waite, who is an attorney, said the state owes him about $70,000 in sales tax refunds because of other unrelated projects, including the bar, restaurant and office building he's developing in downtown Schenectady.

Waite has been under pressure to open the business in Schenectady, which has received $1.4 million in taxpayer-subsidized loans and grants from the Metroplex Development Authority.
Waite has encountered numerous delays renovating a deteriorating, three-story building at 411 State St. into the new bar, restaurant and upper floor offices.

The facade is done but work remains on the interior.

Waite said the music club in the basement, which will be called Big House Underground, will open first but he declined to set a date because so many previous expected openings have been missed.

Waite also said he will satisfy liens that were filed on the property by two contractors once he finalizes the permanent financing.

Advance Welding & Fabricating Inc. in Green Island filed a $39,507 lien in July 2007. Triple A Iron & Ornamental in Duanesburg is owed $14,000.

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Friday, October 26, 2007
Waite, cancer survivor, readies Schenectady 'Big House' after long delay
The Business Review (Albany) - by Michael DeMasi The Business Review

Correction at bottom of article


DONNA ABBOTT VLAHOS | THE BUSINESS REVIEW
411 State St., the site of the planned Big House restaurant and nightclub. The basement-level nightclub, called Big House Underground, will open “within weeks,” possibly timed to the Thanksgiving holiday, says Stephen Waite, the developer of the project.

Three years after being diagnosed with tonsil cancer and going through the pain and discomfort of treatment, Stephen Waite took on another big challenge.

He decided in 2005 the time was right to renovate a deteriorating, vacant building on State Street in downtown Schenectady and turn it into a nightclub, bar and restaurant modeled after Big House Brewing Co., a popular business that Waite owned for nearly 10 years in downtown Albany.

"I think you have two choices when something like this happens to you," said Waite, 54, a tall, trim attorney whose neck bears the scars from three surgeries to remove cancerous cells. "You can either retrench and start establishing a transition as if you're not going to be here, or you can go the other way, which is it isn't going to beat you. You need to keep moving on."

In this case, moving on meant tackling a project across from Proctor's Theatre that has proven harder and taken much longer to finish than anyone anticipated.

Several expected opening dates have been missed due to unforeseen construction problems.

A complex undertaking

The Schenectady Metroplex Development Authority, which provided $1.4 million in grants and loans, listed the total project cost as $3.25 million, according to a project plan approved in May 2005. Waite said the total will be closer to $3.5 million, including equipment, but insists the final price tag is still on budget.

The delays have prompted speculation in Schenectady that the money dried up after much of the three-story red-brick facade at 411 State St. was restored to resemble how it looked in 1906.

Brown paper on the ground-floor windows shields all but a sliver of the interior from spying eyes, but it's easy to see the empty office space through the large second- and third-floor windows.

Metroplex Chairman Ray Gillen said the gut rehabilitation was a complex undertaking but that the end result will be worthwhile. He also said the timing works well because it fits in with other recently completed projects on the street.

Waite himself is frustrated by how long the job has taken but said it was more important to do it right.

Although he's hesitant to announce a date, he said the basement-level nightclub, called Big House Underground, will open "within weeks," possibly timed to the Thanksgiving holiday.

The first-floor restaurant will open at a separate time. The interior will simulate a city street, with a cobblestone path, curbs, a fire hydrant and an enclosed bar called The Big House.

The walls are being decorated to look like the facades of downtown shops and a movie theater. The interior support columns will resemble trees.

Waite wouldn't divulge the name of the 280-seat restaurant, nor when it will open, but vowed it would be before the end of the year.


Correction:
An earlier version of this story stated incorrectly that Stephen Waite received a $1.5 million loan from Sunmark Federal Credit Union.

He plans to move his law office into the upper floors of the new restaurant, along with a company he owns, SourceOne Network Inc., which provides accounting, payroll and technology services to small businesses.

'An unusual animal'

Waite knows there's a lot of anticipation for the nightclub, bar and restaurant.

"The Big House is an unusual animal," said Waite, whose current office on Sheridan Avenue in Albany is next to the five-story brick warehouse where The Big House was formerly located.

Waite closed The Big House in 2005 at about the time he took on the Schenectady project, but continues to own the building, which is now leased to the Skyline Restaurant & Lounge.

During its heyday, The Big House was a big draw. The restaurant and bar brewed its own beer and had a nightclub on the third floor. Lines could stretch around the block on weekends.

In 1999, Waite opened the Big House Grill on Wolf Road, but closed it in 2003 during his battle with cancer.

"Having been through it before, the ingredients have to be correct before you open those doors," Waite said. "There are other factors out there that have to be in place that are outside our control."

One of those factors is the parking lot behind the building in Schenectady, which Waite said must be well-lighted so patrons feel safe driving to the nightclub and restaurant.

"Certain things have to be in place to ensure that the experience is really good for the consumer," Waite said. "If you make a mistake, that's it. You will kill your business very fast. Everything's got to be just right."

'I'm not checking out'

Gillen first approached Waite with the idea of opening a business downtown in 2004. He knew how popular the Big House had become in Albany and wanted to bring that same energy to Schenectady.
Waite mulled over the idea with his wife, Christine, for about year. By that time his radiation treatments had ended.

"I think, to some degree, it was almost therapeutic to me," he said. "It was the idea that I was still creating. I'm not checking out, if you will."

Replacing the Family Dollar store required a big investment of taxpayer money to rescue a building that had deteriorated so badly the beams holding up the first floor had rotted, meaning all the weight rested on the columns in the basement and on the interior walls.

All the rafters and beams in the roof had to be torn out because of water damage. And the sanitary sewer line had to be rerouted so that the wastewater exited the rear of the building instead of the front.

The Metroplex, which is financed by a portion of the county sales tax, purchased the building from James Commarto in April 2005 for $200,000.

It then sold the building for $1 to Waite's development arm, Sheridan Hollow Inc.

Under the terms of the agreement, the Metroplex provided a $1 million, no-interest loan, a $250,000 facade improvement grant, $50,000 for asbestos removal and other environmental clean-up, and a $100,000 working capital loan for the first two years of operations (the loan will be repaid by Waite with refunds from the state's Empire Zone program).

No payments are due to the Metroplex during the first five years of the $1 million loan.

Separately, Waite has a $1.5 million loan from Sunmark Federal Credit Union and was expected to invest $350,000 in equity.

"It's an ideal fit with what we're trying to do downtown," Gillen said.

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METROPLEX CHAIR SAYS BIG HOUSE HUBBUB IS A LOT OF HYPE

Posted on: 05/02/08
Written by: Ross Marvin, Spotlight Staff
email: marvinr@spotlightnews.com

The media hype over the discontinuation of the Big House restaurant project at 411 State St. isn’t big news according to Metroplex Chairman Ray Gillen.
Earlier this week, reports in several news outlets characterized the discontinuation of a Big House Restaurant project by owner Stephen J. Waite in favor of a Big House Underground nightclub as a breaking development.
These same reports indicated Gillen hadn’t properly informed county officials of the project’s status.
The allegations that led to the news items were made by County Legislator Joe Suhrada, R-Rotterdam, who found a real-estate listing on Monday, April 28, that offered the site’s 9,000-square-foot first floor for lease.
Suhrada said that Gillen had been dishonest with the Legislature about the status of the Big House Restaurant on several occasions. He also said he didn’t think Waite should have asked for money from Metroplex, an urban renewal agency funded by a portion of the sales tax, if he didn’t intend to open the initially proposed restaurant.
In a recent interview, Gillen said Suhrada’s comments don’t hold water.
“He called the media, and he thinks he has some big ‘gotcha,’ but he doesn’t,” said Gillen. “I’ve been very forthcoming about this project.”
Transcripts from Metroplex’s annual report to the Schenectady County Legislature in early March show that the plans for the space at 411 State St. had already been discussed.
When questioned by Suhrada about the status of the Big House project, Gillen specifically indicated the uses for the building’s basement and for three of the building’s four stories.
He said a nightclub operated by Waite called Big House Underground would occupy the basement and that Waite’s law firm would inhabit the building’s third floor.
In March, Gillen said, Metroplex was actively seeking tenants for the building’s first and third floors. He said showings continue today and that he’s been shopping the property since January to interested retailers.
Waite said the second floor would also be office space available for lease.
According to Gillen, the building renewal project should have never been thought of as the “Big House,” but rather an investment in the failing State Street building.
“We haven't invested in the Big House.  We've invested in 411 State St.,” said Gillen, who acknowledged that delays in the nightclub project were a disappointment.  “Our money went into a complete gut renovation of this building.  Top floor office, third floor office, first floor retail, and, yes, there will be the Big House Underground in the basement.”  
Susan E. Savage, chairwoman of the Schenectady County Legislature said she is updated by Gillen daily on Metroplex projects and that she knew the restaurant project had been discontinued well before Metroplex’s annual report was delivered to the Legislature. Savage said that Suhrada’s recent comments are evidence that he “didn’t pay attention” during committee reports.
“I was under the assumption that everyone knew the status of the project,” said Savage. “He [Suhrada] or anyone else had an opportunity to ask questions when the topic was in front of the Legislature.”
But Suhrada maintains that the failure of the Big House restaurant is evidence of the failure of Metroplex.
“He [Gillen] hasn’t been up front with the Legislature,” said Suhrada. “Susan Savage needs to fire Ray Gillen and get someone who will be honest with the Legislature.”
He said Gillen should be accountable to the public when they ask why something that was promised will never open.
But Savage said that the Big House is only one example of a “modified” project and that Metroplex’s more than 100 successful economic development projects show that in the majority of cases, projects come to fruition as promised.
Metroplex has awarded Waite a $1 million, 15-year loan, a $250,000 facade grant, and $50,000 to remove asbestos from the building over the past three years. They also provided a $100,000 loan toward a tax payment under the Empire Zone plan.
Waite has also invested more than $1.6 million of his own money in the project, to make renovations to the 26,000-square-foot building.
Waite said he speaks with Metroplex representatives on a daily basis and that plans for a nightclub are moving forward.
“I’m not sure why people are attacking Ray Gillen,” said Waite. “Do people remember what Schenectady looked like four years ago? They ought to be making him the king of the parade.”
Although Waite said a design for a first-floor restaurant was completed, he said that from day one, the Big House would occupy the basement alone.
“We were going to look for a restaurant tenant for the first floor and then Metroplex approached us with the possibility of a retailer who was considering the space,” said Waite.
Waite said that no final decision has been made about the first floor and that if the interested, but unnamed, retailer passes on the space, a restaurant project may yet develop if an interested tenant emerges.
The first-floor space is available for lease for $12 to $15 per square foot.
Waite said he’s currently in the process of raising $400,000, which he said would complete the construction of several additional safety features. He said he’s already invested $1.6 million into the building.
“I’ve been told that once we have the funds for the final work we can inhabit the basement and third floor within four weeks,” said Waite.
Gillen stood by the county’s original investment when he spoke to the Legislature in March.
“We had two empty dollar stores in downtown Schenectady in early 2004,” said Gillen, in response to a question from Suhrada.  “Think about that.  Our community, the downtown community, the city, was not even able to support a dollar store.”
While he didn’t provide a timeframe, Gillen said he was confident that Waite’s nightclub will open in the future and that “every dime” will be paid back.

Quoted from GrahamBonnet

Yeahhhhh, OK Sal. Let's make sure no one asks even one question against the pure, innocent and perfect government clowns! I just saw Surhada on TV and he called the Big House "The biggest run-around in the history of Schenectady!" LOL!!! THAT WAS FUNNY AND TRUE! WAKE THE HELL UP SAL AND ALL OF YOU FOOLS, IT IS YOUR MONEY AND SURHADA IS AT LEAST FIGHTING FOR YOU TO KEEP IT!

Quoted from GrahamBonnet

Waite seems very up-front (NOT.)