SCHENECTADY COUNTY IDA foreclosing on 8 business loans Loan program had high rate of failure BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter
The Schenectady County Industrial Development Agency is foreclosing on eight loans worth $263,000, according to filings with the state Supreme Court. Many of the loans are with companies no longer in business or under new management, such as J.G. Roman Villa and Pit Stop Motorsports; none is for more than $35,000. “The loan fund had a 37 percent failure rate, and we shut it down,” said Ray Gillen, chairman of the Metroplex Development Authority. Metroplex, which now administers the county IDA, ended the revolving loan program in 2005. It also repaid the county $350,000 it had loaned years earlier to the county IDA to establish the loan fund. “Every nickel provided by the county for this failed loan fund was returned as a result of new management of the county IDA,” Gillen said. The delinquent loans were made between 1998 and 2003 when the Schenectady Economic Development Corp. administered the county IDA. In total, the county IDA loaned $717,122 between 1986 and 2003 to more than two dozen small businesses. The businesses repaid $451,000. Metroplex wrote off approximately $100,000 in loans as uncollectible, Gillen said. “These were soft loans. They were not secured with real estate or other collateral. We ’t figure out what they did with them,” he said. For instance, the county IDA provided a $35,000 loan — the largest it ever made — to Sentinel Products. Sentinel moved into the former Campbell Plastics building in Rotterdam, but was forced out by a fraudulent asbestos abatement in 2000. It never repaid the loan and the loan is now termed uncollectible. Gillen said he is unsure what Sentinel did with the loan, as the SEDC maintained poor records. The county IDA, which owned the Campbell Plastics building and parcel on which it sat, ended up paying $265,000 toward the $1.3 million demolition cost of the asbestos- and plastic-contaminated building and $45,000 in legal expenses. A former tenant of the building, Cellect, paid $400,000. Gillen said Metroplex also repaid almost $400,000 to the city in delinquent loans made when the SEDC ran the city IDA. Metroplex also administers the city IDA. Gerald Guidarelli operated Roman Villa for years and closed it several months ago. He owes the state almost $200,000 in unpaid sales and withholding taxes. The state has filed liens against him. His brother, Peter, reopened the business under new management and does not owe any money to the state or Metroplex. These companies are delinquent on the following loan amounts to Metroplex: Pit Stop Motorsports, $5,162; Tire Conversion, $29,282; Scotia Publishing, $5,149; Stone Illusions, $12,956; J.G. Roman Villa, $7,152; Better Sleep, $22,951; Suits Reinforcement, $18,900; and Princetown Autobody, $6,160.
Sorry Mr. Gillen. It's just a little too late for you. This is not your soul saving penance for all the years of the corrupt, mis-management of the Metroplex beast. It is not your soul saving penance for all of the hundreds of millions of our taxpayers dollars that were invested irresponsibly. It is not your soul saving penance for never have aggressively seeked a return on our money that you and Savage so recklessly spent.
Your power driven arrogance and lies to the hard working taxpayers is unreconcilable.
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
Good point Kevin! Hopefully the audit will reveal ALL!! Although Gillen and Savage may be forced out of their arrogant hard shelled exterior and start spilling their guts BEFORE the audit!!
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
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