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SCHENECTADY
Projects totaling $15M planned Officials hail significant downtown plans
BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter

    Two developers are seeking city approval to build three projects downtown worth at least $15 million, officials said Monday.
    The Galesi Group and John Roth are asking the city Planning Commission for site plan approval of their projects. The commission is to take up the requests Dec. 17.
    Galesi wants to add 55,285 square feet to the building formerly known as Center City at 419 State St. Galesi no longer uses the name Center City and is seeking a new name for the structure.
    “We’re going for the maximum build-out, but the market will dictate the final size,” said Galesi’s chief operating officer, David Buicko.
    Roth wants to build two structures, a 16,750-square-foot retail/ warehouse and a 35,000-squarefoot warehouse/office building, on Van Guysling Avenue and Broadway, site of the former Dorp Salvage company.
    Ray Gillen, chairman of the Metroplex Development Authority, said the Galesi project’s cost is approximately $10 million and the Roth buildings will cost $5 million.
    Buicko said the 419 State St. project involves two steps. Step one is to remove the building’s current entrance, which sits between the Grant building and Jay Street. The entrance encompasses the porch, waterfall, performance area, steps, office space and a ramp. Metroplex remodeled portions of the entrance for $1.1 million.
    The next step is to build a new entrance along State Street and to add new retail and commercial space along Jay Street. The entrance will be built flush to the Grant building facade, will be at grade with State Street and will rise three or perhaps four stories. Each floor will contain 10,000 square feet of Class A commercial office space, Buicko said.
    The addition along Jay Street will consist of approximately 20,000 square feet for retail and com- mercial offices, Buicko said. “Our mission is to drive more business along Jay Street, creating more of a retail presence and a synergy with the merchants,” he said.
    Buicko said demolition will begin in the spring, with work on the addition taking about a year to complete. The new addition will be integrated with the rest of the complex, which consists of the Wallace building and the Grant building, he said. Both buildings retain their original facades from decades ago.
    Galesi bought the former Center City complex earlier this year and is spending $12 million to rehabilitate it. MVP, a Schenectady-based health insurer, is leasing 46,000 square feet in the complex. The Capital District YMCA’s board is negotiating to locate the city branch into 30,000 square feet there. Galesi had to buy the portions of the entrance separately from the city. It paid $1 for the property in 2007.
ROTH’S PLANS
    Roth would build his proposed structures in Broadway Commerce Park, a region along lower Broadway he is developing. His company, Highbridge Development, is currently building a $3 million, 27,000-square-foot distribution center for Griffin Greenhouse & Nursery Supplies of Massachusetts. It will be ready for occupancy Jan. 1, Roth said.
    The new projects are to follow. “We’re going to the next level. We will tear down the three-story house on Broadway in the next couple weeks and the site will be clean and ready to go,” Roth said. “We hope to start construction in the spring.”
    Gillen said Roth has tenants for the two structures, but declined to name them.
    “He is far enough along to ask for approval for two structures,” Gillen said.
    Metroplex and Roth demolished the Dorp Salvage building and created a shovel-ready 10-acre parcel at the foot of the ramp to Interstate 890. The Schenectady County Legislature last year allocated a $126,070 state grant to ................................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar00901

Out of all that, which may be great news for Schenectady (downtown), one line, one tiny sentence sticks out in big bold letters



Your tax dollars paid for this folks, many times over. Don't make Galesi or Roth out to be the heroes or saviors the DailyGazette is portraying them as.

I couldn't agree with you more MT. That was the LINE that stuck out...... for me anyways. And they all seem to be the same players. Are these the only contractors that see the potential in this ever evolving downtown that our government officials keep telling us about, as they dole out our money and continually raise taxes? No one else?

To me it just appears to be an opportunists dream come true. Buy property dirt cheap, use taxpayer's money to fix it up and fill your pockets, then sell it for a profit! Cause in a decade, I personally have not seen any return on my tax dollar's investment. Well, other than going downtown for a drink. That's about it!!!!