SCHENECTADY Fate of Silver Diner serves up controversy BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter
Ed Zemeck is getting used to rejection. For four years, he’s tried to persuade the city to sell him the Silver Diner. Instead, city officials have chosen to leave it vacant, rotting and falling apart. The only work that’s been done on it in years has been Zemeck’s — he quietly spent $10,000 to shore it up last fall when he was allowed inside to do a structural analysis. But still they won’t let him buy it. So it stands braced-up and decrepit on Erie Boulevard near State Street. The trouble, according to Metroplex Development Authority Chairman Ray Gillen, is that Zemeck wants to use the diner as an office for his historic renovation company, Prize Construction. Others have proposed using it as an “eclectic space” for retail. None of the propositions involve selling food. “The discussion is, what’s the highest and best use of the property? Gillen said. “Is it really that historic? I guess it is and it isn’t. Is it historic just as a diner? That’s something we’re struggling with.” Schenectady Heritage Foundation Chairwoman Gloria Kishton said the decision should be a nobrainer. Any use is better than leaving the diner to rot, she said. “The most important thing is to use buildings. This is what keeps them in circulation and in repair,” she said. She added that many of Schenectady’s historic buildings are being reused in new ways. The Foster Building, for example, is about to undergo renovations but will not be reopened as a hotel. “There’s all sorts of creative uses for historic property. Even our [former] courthouse down the street on Union is going to become offi ce or residential,” she said. As for the Silver Diner, she thinks turning it into an office would be fine. “I don’t think that’s a problem. I don’t think it makes it less historic,” she said. “To have an in-residence caretaker is the priority.” Gillen is not so sure. He has shown the railcar to numerous restaurateurs in hopes of reopening the diner, but every operator has balked at the price tag. According to Zemeck’s report, Gillen said, it would cost about $400,000 to bring the diner into compliance with food codes. That’s mainly because the bathrooms are downstairs. They must be moved to the back of the structure so that the disabled can reach them. “It’s fixable to a point where it could be a facility for something [like] an office,” Gillen said. “To actually have it come back as a food establishment would cost a considerable amount of money. You’d basically have to add an addition in the back.” The report will be on the agenda for the next Metroplex board meeting, he said. He wants the board to discuss whether the diner could be sold to a non-restaurateur. And, he noted, Zemeck still badly wants the railcar. “Zemeck said he can do his office there. He probably did $10,000 worth of work in there because he’s so committed to it,” Gillen said. “Is that what people want?” The Silver Diner is one of a handful of converted railroad dining cars still standing in the United States. Housed in a 1918 Delaware & Hudson Railway Pullman car, the diner opened in 1936 and closed in the late 1990s. The city took it for back taxes in 2000.
Schenectady Heritage Foundation Chairwoman Gloria Kishton said the decision should be a nobrainer. Any use is better than leaving the diner to rot, she said.
I have to agree with Ms.Kishton. I don't think there are many buildings left downtown that are attempting to be used with what was their original intent. The Silver Diner is just one of them.
The only work that’s been done on it in years has been Zemeck’s — he quietly spent $10,000 to shore it up last fall when he was allowed inside to do a structural analysis.
So, hired by Metroplex - put $10k out of his pocket into fixing it up already ... is there REALLY any question what will happen here? Of course Metroplex will give it to him - for whatever he wants. I'll lay a cash money bet on that one.
Until the round-about goes in....or maybe it will be an attraction for it----IF done right......
make it look like a GE washer/refridge etc.......whatever........capitalize on what we gots.......alot of old buildings and alot of old history....nothin' new but the college kids and art.......
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
SCHENECTADY Silver Diner backer buying site BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter
The man who has been aching to save the Silver Diner will finally be allowed to buy it. City and county officials announced Monday that Ed Zemeck will buy the Silver Diner from the city for $1. He plans to restore it inside and out and then use it as his engineering office until he can fi nd a way to reopen it as a diner. To help with the restoration, the Metroplex Development Authority will lend Zemeck $40,000. The Downtown Schenectady Improvement Corp. will give Zemeck a $50,000 facade grant as well, and Zemeck has promised to put at least $90,000 of his own money into the building. “But knowing Zemeck, he’ll put in a lot more than that,” Metroplex board Chairman Ray Gillen said. Zemeck has estimated that it will cost $400,000 to reopen the rail car as a diner. He made that determination last fall when he was allowed inside to do a structural analysis. During that job, for which he charged $3,000, Gillen said, Zemeck also quietly spent $10,000 to shore up the diner. As an indication of how eager he was, even then, to reopen the diner, he sent out an excited e-mail when he discovered sugar contain- ers and coffee cups still sitting on the counter. He snapped a picture of himself, holding a coffee cup in the gloom with only his headlamp for light, and captioned it, “Silver Diner welcomes first customer of 21st century!” Above him, parts of the ceiling hung down; he wore a helmet for safety, but even that didn’t seem to diminish his enthusiasm. But city housing supervisor Steve Jacobson said the roof was in such bad condition that he thought the diner was about to split apart. “There was a 20-foot addition put on and that seam was splitting like a sardine can. We were afraid the front wall was going to fall into Erie Boulevard,” Jacobson said. He recommended that it be demolished. However, Zemeck was willing to fix up the old rail car with just a $40,000 loan. “It would cost us more than that to demo it, and Ed will save it,” Gillen said. “This is really the most cost-effective option.” EXPERIENCED EYE Zemeck, who owns a historic renovation construction company, plans to use the diner as an offi ce for at least a short time. But his main goal is to find a way to turn it back into a functional diner. So he won’t remove the counter and other diner elements even when he begins using it as an office. “Our first intent is to save the original. We’ll take the interior apart, make it structurally sound,” Zemeck said. “The counter I’m thinking it will make a good conference room.” Before a diner-operator could take over, Zemeck needs to build an addition for handicapped-accessible bathrooms. The current bathrooms are in the basement. Zemeck called the addition a “design challenge.” “That’s down the road a ways,” he said. But it will at least be possible, thanks to the demolition of Robinson’s Furniture Building. The diner itself sits on a tiny parcel of land, without enough space for an addition. But Robinson’s — which stretched from behind the Silver Diner to State Street — is now gone, giving Zemeck enough space to add the bathrooms. Part of the Robinson’s parcel will be deeded to Zemeck with the Silver Diner land, Gillen said. Council members praised the transaction without mentioning that they rejected Zemeck when he made a similar offer four years ago. In 2004, when the council asked for proposals to buy the diner, Zemeck was the only one interested. He offered to buy the diner for $1, renovate it and have a nonprofit agency run the restaurant with employees who were in the later stages of drug and alcohol recovery. The idea was that they could learn job skills. The council wanted to sell because the diner, which had then been vacant for about six years, was deteriorating badly. However, they decided not to hand the diner to Zemeck. In the following years, the eyesore just off Erie Boulevard produced a steady stream of complaints, particularly from residents and visitors who wanted the rail car preserved. Among them was JoAnn Zingoni, the daughter of Joe Cecilian, who owned the diner until his death in 1972. “I went by there the last time I was in town. I was just horrified,” she said. “And now they refer to it as an eyesore. Oh my God, that went to my heart. It is now, but only because it’s taken so long.” When Gillen publicly said last month that he didn’t know whether to support Zemeck’s office proposal or continue to look for a diner operator, Zingoni was one of many who told him to take any proposal that would stabilize the building. “At this point I’d be happy to see it as an office. I’d just be happy to see it preserved,” she said
Like so many Schenectadians, Ed Zemeck loves that old, deteriorated landmark on Erie Boulevard, the Silver Diner. Unlike the rest, though, he has come forth with a serious plan to save it. The city is right to give him the property for $1, and Metroplex and the Downtown Schenectady Improvement Corp. are right to give him give him a $40,000 loan and a $50,000 facade grant that will make it possible. Zemeck will put at least as much as $90,000 into the project, probably a lot more. Last year the city, after rejecting previous offers from Zemeck, allowed him in to survey the stainless steel rail diner and see if 1) it could be saved structurally and 2) it could be reused as a diner. The conclusion was yes to the first question and no to the second — at least in its current shape, because the bathrooms are in the basement and not handicapped-accessible. (There is apparently no provision for getting around the Americans with Disabilities Act, even for historic landmarks, although there should be.) Zemeck, who is a contractor specializing in historic renovations, plans to use the diner for his business office, at least temporarily, keeping the counter and other diner elements intact. Sounds like a fun place to work, with or without food. He will also apply to have the 1936 structure listed on the National Register of Historic Places, where it definitely belongs. In the longer term, Zemeck wants to use it as a diner again, which would require an addition to the back side. That would be great, but the most important thing is that this cherished piece of Schenectady history will be saved and reused — and by someone who really appreciates it. Considering that the alternative would have been demolition, at an approximate cost of $40,000, it’s a great deal for the city. A real blue-plate special.
So the logic is-----if one person cant have just destroy it.......it's like murder of passion......."If I cant have you no one will." bang...........
Quoted Text
2) it could be reused as a diner. The conclusion was yes to the first question and no to the second — at least in its current shape, because the bathrooms are in the basement and not handicapped-accessible. (There is apparently no provision for getting around the Americans with Disabilities Act, even for historic landmarks, although there should be.)
hence,,,,,legalism leads to a paradox........
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
SCHENECTADY Landmark diner sold for a buck BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Kathleen Moore at 395-3120 or moore@dailygazette.com
Ed Zemeck is now the proud owner of a leaky rail car. The Schenectady City Council officially sold the Silver Diner to Zemeck for one dollar on Monday, although the mayor will have to sign off on the deal before Zemeck can actually take possession. The engineer, who restores historic buildings, has lobbied the city for four years in hopes of saving the rail car. He will renovate it — carefully restoring all the diner amenities — and then use it as his office until he can find a diner operator to take over. He would also have to build handicap-accessible bathrooms before it could be used as a restaurant again. C o u n c i l w o m a n B a r b a r a Blanchard enthusiastically supported the sale, saying that it would have been nearly impossible to sell the diner to owners who wanted to move it elsewhere. “Wanting more room, the diner was expanded both lengthwise and widthwise,” she said, describing the addition that left a now-leaking seam running down the center of the diner’s roof. “That’s why it’s so difficult to move, because it’s not really a rail car anymore.”
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Just wait for the taxpayers in wheel chairs, crutches, walkers, canes, oxygen etc etc.....or just some hanging plaque in their rearview mirror......when they find out the bathroom in the basement......
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Metroplex expansion plan on tonight's council agenda
By LAUREN STANFORTH, Staff writer Monday, August 18, 2008
SCHENECTADY -- The Metroplex Development Authority wants to take over ownership of the old Robinson Furniture Building lot from the city in order to give the redeveloper of the Silver Diner more room to expand, said Authority Chairman Ray Gillen.
Metroplex is scheduled to discuss the move at tonight's City Council committee meeting.
Gillen said Prize Construction Inc. President Edward Zemeck needs more land in back of the Silver Diner on Erie Boulevard in order to make good on his plans to not only rehab the art deco diner, but to build another restaurant in the back.
The Robinson building at 238-248 State St. had to be demolished in September after the floors pancaked on each other. Metroplex had promised in the past to rehab the building. Gillen said Metroplex will continue to market the State Street front parcel where the Robinson building once stood, and then split the profits with the city once the rest of the property is sold.
There are some great historic pictures of Schenectady in the Times Union's on-line edition. This was just one we thought we would share of the old Silver Diner on Erie Blvd.
I've had quite a few meals, pie and coffee in the Silver Diner when it was open in the 50's and 60's but the way it looks right now I think it's in such bad condition that it's beyond saving.
The Silver Diner is another disgrace that must be put at Death Ray's feet. This is a historic diner that could have been sold and moved to another City. Instead Death Ray allowed it to fall apart, refused to act, so now it cannot be relocated. A diner exactly like this was moved from NYC to Wyoming.
This is a City that has no regard for its history, has "leaders" that lie about historic preservation and continues to make the same mistakes over and over. Meanwhile, Troy is protecting its historic Downtown and opening new businesses without a Metrograft sales tax and idiotic extra level of unelected fatcats.
Logged
The Silver Diner is another disgrace that must be put at Death Ray's feet. This is a historic diner that could have been sold and moved to another City. Instead Death Ray allowed it to fall apart, refused to act, so now it cannot be relocated. A diner exactly like this was moved from NYC to Wyoming. 
