Quoted from DemocraticVoiceOfReason

So I guess you would prefer to see the ALCO site remain dormant and unused for another
40 or so years?    

In the article it mentions Schenectady Steel that will be landlocked and unable to expand providing more high paying blue collar jobs. The ALCO site is not "dormant". We don't need more surplus housing, The idea that anyone working in Saratoga County would live on a toxic waste site is a joke.

   The cheerleaders all wanted condos on Anthony Street by the waste water plant. Hundreds of trees were clear cut and guess what? The model still sits unsold. Until the school and City taxes turn around nobody wants property in the City. Brad is correct the best use is an industrial/high tech park which would provide needed jobs-not more surplus housing that will cause existing home prices to nose dive. The Maxon Road Corporate Park is completely filled. Use that as a model not Anthony Street's condo fiasco.

Quoted from benny salami

In the article it mentions Schenectady Steel that will be landlocked and unable to expand providing more high paying blue collar jobs. The ALCO site is not "dormant". We don't need more surplus housing, The idea that anyone working in Saratoga County would live on a toxic waste site is a joke.

   The cheerleaders all wanted condos on Anthony Street by the waste water plant. Hundreds of trees were clear cut and guess what? The model still sits unsold. Until the school and City taxes turn around nobody wants property in the City. Brad is correct the best use is an industrial/high tech park which would provide needed jobs-not more surplus housing that will cause existing home prices to nose dive. The Maxon Road Corporate Park is completely filled. Use that as a model not Anthony Street's condo fiasco.

Schenectady Steel can come to Rotterdam Industrial Park when they run out of room.

controlling sprawl.......again NYS 'win' on decreasing 'carbon footprint'.......$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

SHOW ME THE $$ TRAIL

do we really think it's that compartmentalized????

Quoted Text

SCHENECTADY
Alco site clearing begins Condos, marina envisioned along city riverfront
BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter

One of Schenectady’s more notorious landmarks, Building 332, a sprawling, graffiti-tagged industrial shell along Erie Boulevard, will soon be nothing but dust and memories.
Over the next six months, the building and its derelict brethren on the 60-acre site, all remnants of the former American Locomotive Co., will be demolished to make way for a proposed $200 million, multiyear redevelopment project.
    As envisioned by the property owner, The Galesi Group, the project will feature condominiums and a marina along 1.5 miles of Mohawk River waterfront, retail shops, commercial offices and possibly a hotel.
    “This project is a game changer for Schenectady,” said David Buicko, chief operating officer for The Galesi Group. “That means we will create an upscale riverfront residential and lifestyle center that really isn’t around in this area.”
    Galesi is demolishing Building 332 and more than a dozen others it owns on the site using state Brownfi eld Program credits. Testa Corp. of Boston will do the work. Buildings 306 and 304, owned by two private businesses, will remain, as will a small nuclear power testing facility operated by RPI.
    One of the businesses is STS Steel, which has operated at the site for more than 20 years. The project has company owners worried about their future. Once the project is completed, STS Steel will be surrounded by zoned mixed-used development with no ability to expand beyond its present footprint in Building 304, which the company owns. The company had been leasing Building 322 to handle an overflow of work. Galesi did not renew the lease when it bought the property earlier this year for $500,000 from the Schenectady Industrial Corp.
    The most visible display of Testa’s demolition work is its removal of an outdoor steel craneway that runs adjacent to Building 332 and Erie Boulevard. Buicko said Testa will take down the buildings with equipment, not explosives, with the goal of recycling and selling as much material as possible. Many of the buildings are solid constructions of brick, glass and steel, containing high bays that are long and narrow and multiple heavy cranes, legacies of the city’s industrial past.
    Buicko said he hopes to reuse as many of the bricks as possible in new development at the site. “This is a brownfield project and we will integrate as many green features as possible, including LEED criteria in the residential, commercial and hospitality components of the project,” he said.
MARKET CRITICAL
    Buicko said the build-out of the site will depend on demand. “We are doing a market analysis as we speak. What we do there will complement, not compete, with what is going on downtown,” he said.
    The first projects could be built either near the Stockade or near Freemans Bridge, Buicko said. “It is a unique property with close to 60 acres on the river, with great view sheds, and it is an extension to the Stockade area.”
    Galesi has been preparing the site for demolition for the last month, working with the city and utility companies to locate sewer and water lines and to disconnect natural gas and electricity lines to the buildings.
    At its height, Alco, as American Locomotive Company was known, built thousands of locomotives — steam, diesel and electric — in Building 332 and others at the site, beginning in the mid-1800s. It built so many that Schenectady was once known as the “City that Lights and Hauls the World.” General Electric did the lighting.
    Alco also built tanks and other vehicles used in World War II, employing thousands of people in approximately 157 buildings on 112 acres, spread between the Mohawk River and up to Seward Place.
    Alco closed the Schenectady operations in 1969. Schenectady Industrial Corporation then bought the property, renaming it the Nott Street Industrial Park, and it rented some of the buildings to GE through the 1990s. After that, SIC rented them out for sporadic purposes, including at one point for storage of hazardous waste. Galesi purchased the property this year.
    Most of the buildings have remained vacant and unheated in their final years, and many have been swallowed by weeds, rust and neglect. Buicko said Building 332’s roof leaks and parts are open to the sky. “They are structurally dangerous,” he said.
    Building 332 was one of the longest structures in the world at nearly 1,000 feet when it was completed in 1905, according to Dick Steinbrenner, chairman of a group that is seeking to preserve Alco’s legacy in a museum. ......................>>>>..........................>>>>.....................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00101&AppName=1

another project long overdue --- glad the work is beginning on it

By 2012 Mt. Pleasant and Bellevue will be exact replicas of the current Alco location. Graffiti, waste and a barron wasteland. Too bad the Galesi group couldn't spend this money where people actually live. Schenectady doesn't need another downtown, it needs a place where people can live in its neighborhoods.

BTW that 300K+ house in the GE lot was auctioned off today for $159,000. The bidding started at $400K but no one would budge. Auctioneer went to $50,000 to get some sign of life.  

Quoted Text

  Buicko said the build-out of the site will depend on demand. “We are doing a market analysis as we speak. What we do there will complement, not compete, with what is going on downtown,” he said.
    The first projects could be built either near the Stockade or near Freemans Bridge, Buicko said. “It is a unique property with close to 60 acres on the river, with great view sheds, and it is an extension to the Stockade area.”

Gillen marched out Galesi spokesman to do a story with the Gazetto in order to continue to sell the Metroplex lie.  What a misleading headline, a lot of stuff hinges on "depends" and "coulds".  Nothing concrete in the article, a lot of speculation and dreams.  

How do you sell high end condo's near a nuclear power testing facility?  

Don't developers (who aren't working on the taxpayer teet) normally do market analysis FIRST, then start planning/building?

That's like saying "Let's put a BBQ joint in a predominantly Muslim neighborhood" - because there was tax dollars able to do it - THEN determine that no locals would ever eat there.

Quoted from rachel72

BTW that 300K+ house in the GE lot was auctioned off today for $159,000. The bidding started at $400K but no one would budge. Auctioneer went to $50,000 to get some sign of life.  

Thank you for updating this. The MSM cheerleaders refuse to mention it. $159,000 for a mansion that would be $759,000 in Saratoga County. Thank you SS Savage, Mayor SOS and Death Ray for imploding the revenue base of this County.

     The ALCO site should be for industry. manufacturing and blue collar jobs. Not coffeehouses, condos and crapola. Another sad chapter in clueless DEM one party rule. Maybe SS Savage will buy the first condo? LOL. Remember when DEMS were for blue collar jobs?

http://www.rotterdamny.net/m-1289475311/

Quoted Text

Louis Narcavage, 35, said he was willing to pay up to $175,000 for the rambling 106-year-old structure on Stratford Road.

The winning bid for the property was $158,000 but with fees the total cost will grow to $173,800.

Quoted Text

SCHENECTADY (AP) - Demolition work has begun at a derelict industrial site in Schenectady to make way for a proposed $200 million redevelopment project.

Crews on Thursday began tearing down a sprawling, graffiti-covered building on the former American Locomotive Co. site along the Mohawk River. Plans call for demolishing most of the old buildings on the 60-acre site over the next six months.

A developer plans to build condominiums and a marina along 1.5 miles riverfront on the property, along with retail shops, commercial offices and possibly a hotel.

http://www.wten.com/Global/story.asp?S=13492095

Quoted from DemocraticVoiceOfReason

another project long overdue --- glad the work is beginning on it

OH, you are saying that more vacant housing is long over due?

Tell us how many people will be moving there to pay the high taxes?????   Or don't you pay attention to the tax foreclosures?

Since you so heavily support it, then are you going to move out on your own, become a homeowner, and pay the tax bills for Savage's cronies?    I doubt it, why would you choose not to buy one of those condos?  Because taxes in the city are way to0 high---or do you think taxes in the city are low?  To my recollection, you have never stated whether you believe taxes in Schenectady are too high or to low.

Schenectady can't keep the residents/homeowners that are there NOW!!! People are walking away from their homes now because they can't afford the taxes.

So what elected official was the brain child behind this idea? MORE HOUSING???

So, DV, are you going to explain your statement?    Can you explain why generating more vacant housing is long over due?   Are you going to move out on your own like most adults, and into one of these condos and pay Savage's high taxes?

Quoted from mikechristine1

So, DV, are you going to explain your statement?    Can you explain why generating more vacant housing is long over due?   Are you going to move out on your own like most adults, and into one of these condos and pay Savage's high taxes?

I have lived on my own as an adult .. and at this stage of my life I am assisting my elderly aunts.  
I am getting tired of your profoundly ignorant comments and personal attacks.   Grow some balls and
meet me face to face.