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SCHENECTADY
Front Street project dead
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

    Forget the riverfront condos, the townhouses and the gardens. Write off the long-promised restaurant and dock. And don’t think the new houses are coming anytime soon, either.
    The developer of the longawaited East Front Street project can’t even complete the one house he was supposed to renovate. The upscale development he promised to build behind the house is far beyond his means, city officials said.
    They have taken back the title of 219 Front St., which David White was to have renovated four years ago. All summer, they allowed White to try to redeem himself by finishing the job, but after repeated complaints from neighbors, the city ordered workers to change the locks Tuesday.
    The work this summer led to new siding — although each side of the house is now a different color — but little else, neighbors say. Over the years, White has also fixed the roof, installed new windows and done significant work inside the building, including flooring and at least one new kitchen.
    “We have been trying to work with him,” said Corporation Counsel L. John Van Norden. “We have bent over backward with our patience.”
    Van Norden took the issue to the City Council on Monday night, where White begged the council to give him one more chance.
    Zoning Officer Steven Strichman also argued that White couldn’t get the project off the ground because the state Legislature did not approve repeated requests to allow a common type of financing that would have paid for the development.
    “New York state failure to enact this change is ludicrous given the state’s current fi nancial crisis,” Strichman said, noting that the change could encourage development and would not cost the state anything.
    But the council, which sold White the building for $1 in 2005 with the belief that he was working on the riverfront development, was not persuaded to give White more time.
    “It seems like the project is dead,” said Councilwoman Barbara Blanchard. “David White is not going to do that project. He can’t even do 219 Front St. It’s just not going anywhere.”
    She added that she had assumed the project was under way. An environmental review was in the works two years ago, ....................>>>>....................>>>>...................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....508&ViewMode=GIF

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Waterfront dreams sunk on Mohawk
Proposed townhouses and marina frozen amid downturn in economy

By LAUREN STANFORTH, Staff writer
First published in print: Tuesday, October 13, 2009

SCHENECTADY -- The brick structure at 219 Front St. on the edge of the city's historic Stockade neighborhood is almost ready for tenants, an "Open House" sign is displayed in the window and new cabinets in the kitchen are visible from the street.
But renovation of the former liquor store near the Mohawk River has ceased, after city officials told the new owner last week to leave because they said he took too long to finish the job..............>>>>............>>>>..............................................................
http://www.timesunion.com/AspS...../2009&TextPage=1

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New life for renewal plan
Schenectady hopes for urban growth near Mohawk River shore

By LAUREN STANFORTH, Staff writer
First published in print: Thursday, February 18, 2010

SCHENECTADY -- The city is resurrecting an old, sometimes controversial, redevelopment strategy in hopes of one day transforming part of the Mohawk riverfront.
     
Steve Strichman, director of planning and development, wants the City Council to approve a Northwest Urban Renewal Agency for the East Front Street neighborhood and part of Schenectady's northside that would allow the city to acquire and hold on to property without paying school or county taxes.
Strichman said the renewal agency would assist in stalled plans to purchase and level about 11 houses on Front Street, most of which are rental properties, replace them with new townhouses and and possibly build a marina. The Northwest Urban Renewal Agency would also include the old county Department of Social Services building on Nott Street, which is now empty, but would leave out the former American Locomotive Co. plant. The Schenectady Metroplex Development Authority is working on getting private developers interested in the sprawling factory site on the Mohawk River..........>>>>.........>>>>...........Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/AspS.....8/2010#ixzz0ftDcTV3I

Great idea take more property off the City tax rolls? And more housing! So what if no one wants condo's in Schenectady-we will keep pushing this stale idea for Alco and the Stockade!

    Schenectady housing: Too much supply+ Too little demand+ Record taxes= tanking home prices.

It would appear that no developers want to have anything to do with the toxic land that is the old ALCO plant probably due to the cost of clean-up b4 any building can be done. You're right Benny, there are vacant houses all over the city and nobody wants to buy them just as you said the high taxes are killing this city.

Record taxes+ horrible schools+ nit wit leadership = zero demand for City housing. But sheesh..don't tell that to the Gazetto editors or "planners" at City Hall.

      New housing idea! Empty out the Ed Kosiur type lobs from City Hall and sell condo's in the empty offices! This is a win-win and could be part of the alleged "renaissance" downtown!

Quoted from benny salami

Record taxes+ horrible schools+ nit wit leadership = zero demand for City housing. But sheesh..don't tell that to the Gazetto editors or "planners" at City Hall.

Imagine what Schenectady would be like if we didn't Recurit the people of Guiana to live here.  The City would be empty.

All those giant press conferences held by the county and Metroplex for these projects should be held again as re-dos along with the pandering cheerleading articles and editorials done by the locally government owned rag THE DAILY GAZETTE! which should have its name changed to LIES WRITTEN BY LOSERS"  They never report objectively or look into why and how these phony election-time press conferences are staged, they never once delve into the pitfalls and pratfalls of such BS and harebrained schemes. They just spoonfeed the  bullshit by the shovel load straight from Democrat flak mouths to the gullible public's ears! WHY FRAUDS THE EDITORS AT THE GAZETTE HAVE PROVEN TO BE! TIME AND TIME AGAIN! SHITBIRDS ALL! HAHAHAHAAAAA  

Did you hear that Gazette? You have again and again lost all credibility and have proven yourselves to be phony partisans deeply in the pockets of your Democrat puppeteers. you haven't a shred of journalistic integrity left and you are disgusting and irrelevant and 100% dishonest and slanted. Great job. When you look into the mirror tonight, ask yourselves where you went wrong since you left college. We know it was a long time ago, but did you ever think you would fall that far, and that hard from the ideals of journalistic integrtty which supposedly inspired you at a young age. It was easier to side with the winners in politics, wasn't it. Even if it meant you lost all of your self-worth and the respect of the world.

The people read the gazette cause there is no other option....YET!

And of course the gazette is nothing more than a cheerleader for the current administration. The day they removed the obituaries from their on-line version of the paper, was the day they no longer were the hometown newspaper. It was clearly just their last attempt to succeed.