Union College plans to build a $9 million, apartment-style residence hall to bring more upperclassmen students back on-campus.

The college's goal is to offer all students on-campus housing. About 200 students live off-campus each year because of space limitations. The proposed residence hall would house about 80 students.

The proposal must be approved by the planning and zoning boards in Schenectady, New York. If approved, construction could begin this fall and the residence could open for the 2015-16 academic year. The residence hall would be built on the lot at Roger Hull Place and Park Place, which the college has owned since 2001. The lot is currently vacant.

The school selected Sano-Rubin Construction Co. Inc. of Albany as general contractor. Envision Architects P.C. of Albany is the architecture firm for the project.

Union College is a private, liberal arts college with an enrollment of about 2,246 students. http://www.bizjournals.com/alb.....-residence-hall.html

Sounds like a good idea.  

Quoted from DemocraticVoiceOfReason

Sounds like a good idea.  

Sure, more tax exempt properties, who's services provided by the city will be paid for by the tormented, overburdened homeowners.

You are ignorant and oblivious to anything but spending other people's money.

Quoted from rpforpres

Union College plans to build a $9 million, apartment-style residence hall to bring more upperclassmen students back on-campus.

The college's goal is to offer all students on-campus housing. About 200 students live off-campus each year because of space limitations. The proposed residence hall would house about 80 students.

The proposal must be approved by the planning and zoning boards in Schenectady, New York. If approved, construction could begin this fall and the residence could open for the 2015-16 academic year. The residence hall would be built on the lot at Roger Hull Place and Park Place, which the college has owned since 2001. The lot is currently vacant.

The school selected Sano-Rubin Construction Co. Inc. of Albany as general contractor. Envision Architects P.C. of Albany is the architecture firm for the project.

Union College is a private, liberal arts college with an enrollment of about 2,246 students. http://www.bizjournals.com/alb.....-residence-hall.html

Hiring Schenectady companies to build it probably never crossed their minds.

Why would it.

They are tax exempt but don't give back anything.

Except to keep the bars open.

200 more units empty rental units.  

Quoted from Libertarian4life

Sure, more tax exempt properties, who's services provided by the city will be paid for by the tormented, overburdened homeowners.

You are ignorant and oblivious to anything but spending other people's money.

It is obvious by your post that you are unable to put together a factual and reasoned argument.  So you resort to ad hominem attacks.

Union College would be spending ITS OWN money on the project.  Furthermore, I have no role in Union College's decisions on how it spends money.  I don't know  where you got the impression that I had any say over how Union College chooses to spend money.

The services would be provided by the city to those students whether they were in Union college dorms or in off-campus housing owned by someone else.  

I do know that property owners in some neighborhoods have had problems with students living in off campus housing.  Moving them on campus would alleviate that issue.

Their money, their land ...

Quoted from Jaystreet

Their money, their land ...

Agree!

Quoted from DemocraticVoiceOfReason

It is obvious by your post that you are unable to put together a factual and reasoned argument.  So you resort to ad hominem attacks.

Union College would be spending ITS OWN money on the project.  Furthermore, I have no role in Union College's decisions on how it spends money.  I don't know  where you got the impression that I had any say over how Union College chooses to spend money.

The services would be provided by the city to those students whether they were in Union college dorms or in off-campus housing owned by someone else.  

I do know that property owners in some neighborhoods have had problems with students living in off campus housing.  Moving them on campus would alleviate that issue.

The taxpaying landlords in that area would also see an additional 100 units or more immediately become vacant causing the Market Values of the Apartments to plummet even more.  This announcement will lead to more vacant buildings, more blight and more foreclosures.  That is a fact.  

The same thing happened when the SCCC "Dorms" were built creating a vacancy issue in the Stockade.  

how absurd....forget about the growth in the City...it's all in the pockets of the millionaires, including the college.

Quoted from Jaystreet

Their money, their land ...

Their taxpayer subsidized land.

They are tax exempt like the other not for profit Proctor's theater, where many people also profit.

but its all to be built for the "children"...got to keep the rich mom and dads kiddies safe and secure from the rest of the schenectady city folk...

This one building will house 80 tenants which used to rent from city taxpayers.  

That is 80 seniors who spent around $5,800 in rent (See rebate below) per year to city taxpayers.  Thats almost $500,000 that city TAXPAYERS used to get to pay CITY TAXES which Union does not pay.

That is 80 seniors who spent around $4,200 in board/food (see rebate below) per year to city taxpayers.  Thats over $300,000 that those tenants used to spend in the city resturants and supermarkets that pay sales tax and employ city residents.  Union College does not pay sales tax and this new building will not mean more people hired.  They will just stretch the current staff thinner.

In the end, this will cause the housing priices around the college to plummet.  The units once filled with college kids will either remain empty or will be filled with Section 8 and drug dealers.  The owner occupied housing rate in the area will plumment becuase they do not mind the college kids as much as people think.   Union The Union College security staff will no longer be traveling down Gillespie and University and Nott. The college will then buy these houses for pennies on the dollar and take more houses off the tax roll like they did on Seward and the GE Plot decades ago.  




2014-15 Student Charges:


Annual      Trimester



A.  Comprehensive Fee:$60,240      $20,080



B. Off-Campus Housing Rebate:$5,808     $1,936



C. Off-Campus Board Rebate:   $4,248     $1,416



D.   Laundry Usage (resident-students only):   $75  $25



E.   Student Health Insurance   $1,003    

Schenectady does have a glut of housing.  Don't forget that much of the housing was built at a time (70 to 100 years ago) when the city was expected to reach a population of 100,000.  It never achieved that level - and then came the move to the suburban towns which didn't help matters.  Further acerbating the problem, is that a number of homes built as single family homes were divided into apartments and many homes built as 2 families homes were divided into 4 or more units.  Net result - the city has too many housing units and, quite honestly, a lot of aging/obsolete housing units.  Whether or not, Union college builds this proposed dorm, the city will still have the same problem.  
Ultimately, Schenectady needs an infusion of private redevelopment dollars to get rid of aging/obsolete housing units, reduce the total # of actual housing units in the city and replace it with new, more marketable housing units.  
To those who attack Union College, it is Schenectady's oldest continuously operating "industry."  Schenectady was a college town long several decades before the locomotives opened and a a whole century before Edison Electric (now GE) located here.  It is a major employer and its presence certainly is an economic benefit to the community.  
It would be fool-hearty to suggest that we take away its non-profit status and make it pay property taxes.   Then you would be left with a few hundred acres of abandoned property when the college moves to another community.  

Your missing my point.  Many landlords used the rental income from the students to improve these home.  What will they do when this developemrnt happens?