I don't think that anyone is not in favor of an 'anything but what is there' approach to the capital plaza beast.
However................I am dead set against government sealing a deal, with a million dollar company that is a PRIVATE transaction WITH taxpayer's money!! Doesn't ANYONE have a problem with this picture. The original concept of the RIDA was to offer tax incentives to INDUSTRIAL businesses. Not to sweeten the pot and grease palms and garner votes and dig their heels in for political gain.
It is a sad day for rotterdam! IMHO
I'm all for principals for attracting businesses to the town..when viable, but no one else is playing by those rules. Looked what Troy did in attracting Dinosaur BBQ, and Malta w/global Foundries..
If Industrial business is the purpose of RIDA, then they should pack it up and disband. In this Economy, you bring in what you can, when you can. I hate to break it to everyone, but Rotterdam is not Malta, Clifton Park, or even Troy..
"Arguing with liberals is like playing chess with a pigeon; no matter how good I am at chess, the pigeon is just going to knock out the pieces, crap on the board, and strut around like it is victorious." - Author Unknown
There are at least two basic issues. The first being the expected longevity/sustainability of such a project. How long does a fad bar exist before it's out of vogue with the patrons? And if the business is not sustainable, we are back to the old Capital Plaza scenario, but with newer vintage buildings.
The second issue is that there is little to no property left to develop new business that potentially might be a better fit. If Rotterdam is that dependent for its existence on these types of projects, where will be in 5 to 10 years when there is no more room for spot zones and promoting these types of establishments? So viewing the crystal ball into the future, what will Rotterdam have left to offer business? These projects are temporary band aid fixes to the Town's tax woes with short term benefits that don't address long term needs.
-IMHO
The Altamont Ave area is retail, and will be for the foreseeable future. What else are you going to develop at Capital Plaza? With the lack of land and residential areas being close, retail is the only option. Longevity in retail? Take a look at Altamont ave, starting at Curry Road and count the number of businesses that have come and gone. Who cares if Recovery Grill lasts 5 years, at least what left is more easily convertible, instead of the hodgepodge capital Plaza. You take what you can get, like I said before, Rotterdam isn't Atlanta
"Arguing with liberals is like playing chess with a pigeon; no matter how good I am at chess, the pigeon is just going to knock out the pieces, crap on the board, and strut around like it is victorious." - Author Unknown
The RIDA should not be involved in this. This is a way for Metrograft to deflect the growing criticism that they are for alcohol fueled projects. They are very thin skinned. Look at the uproar over Richard Eats observations about removing a $1 million taxpayer funded porch at Center City. BTW, he is right about the horrible modern architecture that clashes with the existing street scape.
There is plenty for the RIDA to do in the town industrial park. Has the old bakery been rented? RR is opening up all around us on their dime. Only in Schenectady County must there be greased palms, politicians jumping up in the air and taxpayer involvement.
Let the plex continue to take all of the 'false credit'. Bow Tie Cinema....Saturday night...15 people! Ask any eatery down town....they are all barely hanging on. Proctors...Miss Saigon....low ticket sales. Silver Dollar restaurant....demolished. The Big Hose fiasco....lost money! Railex would have landed in the industrial park any ways. The Recovery grill will attract the undesirables after the rotterdamians are done experiencing it. Crime will rise just like the city. Just what the RPD needed....another watering hole to monitor. And the plex will drain the RIDA dry and will be taken over.
Rotterdam is just a little hamlet. Due to all of the reckless and irresponsible spot zoning, it WILL end up being just like the city with HIGH TAXES and a sh!thole!!! IMHO
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
Bumble you seem to get much pleasure seeing businesses that are less than profitable. Why? Because a dem helped a project, you are against it? I don't get it! I'm a republican through and through, but I hope and expect recovery to be profitable. Why? Because I care a hell of a lot more about my TOWN than my PARTY. Have the dems done things I'm against? Absolutely! Am I against everything they do because they did something I didn't like? NO!
Recovery is similar to an applebess I wouldn't call that a gin mill anymore than I'd call Mallozzi's a gin mill...
LAsk any eatery down town....they are all barely hanging on. Proctors...Miss Saigon....low ticket sales. Silver Dollar restaurant....demolished. The Recovery grill will attract the undesirables after the rotterdamians are done experiencing it. Crime will rise just like the city. Just what the RPD needed....another watering hole to monitor. And the plex will drain the RIDA dry and will be taken over.
Rotterdam is just a little hamlet. Due to all of the reckless and irresponsible spot zoning, it WILL end up being just like the city with HIGH TAXES and a sh!thole!!! IMHO
Bumble, you are so full of it. Why don't you ask Katie O'byrnes, Clintons Ditch, Pinheads and the VanDyke how business is? I guess you haven't been downtown lately, you just stay on this board and complain. Yeah, Proctors had REAL trouble selling Phantom and Cats tickets..get real...but you did manage to pick one poor campaign.. during the summer and spa racing season ..congrats Silver Dollar? If they cleaned the place up, it would still be in business..but lets face it, it was a sh!thole..my wife was afraid to go in eventually. and Recovery Grill? Its a sports bar, not a damn strip club or kids bar..totally different clientele Yeah, just leave the capitol Plaza there, and let the local teens use it as a drug or drinking haven...your plan is sooo much better.
"Arguing with liberals is like playing chess with a pigeon; no matter how good I am at chess, the pigeon is just going to knock out the pieces, crap on the board, and strut around like it is victorious." - Author Unknown
Bumble you seem to get much pleasure seeing businesses that are less than profitable. Why? Because a dem helped a project, you are against it? I don't get it! I'm a republican through and through, but I hope and expect recovery to be profitable. Why? Because I care a hell of a lot more about my TOWN than my PARTY.
You hope they make a profit at the expense of places like Scarborough’s, Marks Tavern, and Jonny C's? These businesses worked hard establishing themselves over the years, selling goods and services and collecting the sales tax, for what, to hand it over to Metroplex to fund your competitors? Why work hard to establish a business, just to have a politician/Metroplex take credit for a shinny new building that will take customers away from your business and possibly put you out of business?
What good is a town where elected official appoint political cronies to pick the individual winners and losers in the name of the “collective good” of the town. You're right; you are a Republican through and through. That's why there is a Tea Party.
Maybe the Desmond would like to open another location. RIDA should court the owners of the Desmond and see if they would be interested in the capital plaza location. Or maybe Wegmans could build a supermarket there. That would be more competition, and that is good for the town residents.
There are at least two basic issues. The first being the expected longevity/sustainability of such a project. How long does a fad bar exist before it's out of vogue with the patrons? And if the business is not sustainable, we are back to the old Capital Plaza scenario, but with newer vintage buildings.
The second issue is that there is little to no property left to develop new business that potentially might be a better fit. If Rotterdam is that dependent for its existence on these types of projects, where will be in 5 to 10 years when there is no more room for spot zones and promoting these types of establishments? So viewing the crystal ball into the future, what will Rotterdam have left to offer business? These projects are temporary band aid fixes to the Town's tax woes with short term benefits that don't address long term needs.
-IMHO
CHA-CHING!!!!!! The shortsighted GUMBAS left this CRAP....without vision or planning.......right now they are all in and out of the locker room, patting each other on the a** for quickie ups for $$ before they retire(really really soon) cause the boomers are on their way out.......I say cut the losses and stop voting them in........I just hope their off spring are a little more on the independent libertarian thinkers than their commune thinking parents.....FDG and posse'..........
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
How about relocating town employers like Golub and the Bakery to the City-with your County sales tax dollars-was that a great idea too?
Subsidizing a bar that is in Amsterdam, Colonie and Albany does not make any sense. Let them come without the governmental largess. It's a golden location and would have succeeded without RIDA involvement.
Villa Italia wanted to build in Rotterdam near Curry and Heldeberg .. but was shot down by "the previous administration" .. so they went looking for another location.
Golub should have built in Rotterdam -- but then no one was asking for my approval on the subject.
We need to take the politics out of economic development. For example --- although I have political differences with Mr. Parisi .. I would very much like to see him rebuild his pizza place in Rotterdam. I think that every effort should be made to "fast track" the rebuild. (and no - I don't expect a free pizza for my comments )
George Amedore & Christian Klueg for NYS Senate 2016 Pete Vroman for State Assembly 2016[/size][/color]
"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground." Lyndon Baines Johnson
There is a "finite" amount of assessed value in Rotterdam or any municipality. This value is reflected in the property taxes, school taxes, highway taxes, and county taxes. We have been hearing for decades that commercial/industrial is the salvation for the Town, yet we never see it in our tax bills. Once development saturates the Town, where will the future value be? We have seen RailEx, Golub Frozen Food Warehouse, Golub Warehouse Expansion, Long Pond Village, SI Group, and PILOTS that are "designed" to help the tax base, but yet the rubber never meets the road. The tax backbone of Rotterdam is and always will be the residential housing. Town, County, State and Federal government needs to realize that they need to maintain their budgets within reasonable parameters as dictated by the finite value of Towns, Counties, States, and ultimately the Country.
I don't see how Recovery Room being profitable will drive Scarboroughs, Mark's or Johny C's out of business...It's a completely different establishment, it's a glorified Apple Bees. Fine dining? Nope! Local bar? Nope! It's a decent restaurant/sports bar. No one had a problem with putting Paesan's Pizza up in a town with a bazillion pizza joints. Why object to Recovery Room? If anything this will bring more business to rotterdam because people living in town will no longer go out of town for an apple bees type place and people from outside of town will travel to rotterdam for the ambiance.
There is a "finite" amount of assessed value in Rotterdam or any municipality. This value is reflected in the property taxes, school taxes, highway taxes, and county taxes. We have been hearing for decades that commercial/industrial is the salvation for the Town, yet we never see it in our tax bills. Once development saturates the Town, where will the future value be? We have seen RailEx, Golub Frozen Food Warehouse, Golub Warehouse Expansion, Long Pond Village, SI Group, and PILOTS that are "designed" to help the tax base, but yet the rubber never meets the road. The tax backbone of Rotterdam is and always will be the residential housing. Town, County, State and Federal government needs to realize that they need to maintain their budgets within reasonable parameters as dictated by the finite value of Towns, Counties, States, and ultimately the Country.
Finite???? yeah,,,,based on the Rating giants,,,IE: moodys and the like......what about the value of Schenectady....HOW did it go up so fast except that there was an a** pat on their wallet,,,,to lure investors......it's not finite.....the value of the ratings change and so do the LEVYS.........
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
If anything this will bring more business to rotterdam because people living in town will no longer go out of town for an apple bees type place and people from outside of town will travel to rotterdam for the ambiance.
Why object to Recovery Room? If anything this will bring more business to rotterdam because people living in town will no longer go out of town for an apple bees type place and people from outside of town will travel to rotterdam for the ambiance.
Hilarious post! Will they drive in from Amsterdam? How about Colonie/Albany? They all have Recovery Rooms. Some of yous really need to travel the area more. People from Saratoga are laughing their arse off at the idiots from Schenectady County that give bars industrial grants. Nobody else does this. Applebees is by Home Depot near the town line. Talk to Dunzee's and the other local watering hole owners. They don't need governmental supported competition. This is not a difficult concept.
Miss Saigon is another in the long list of flops at Proctor's. Nobody wants to talk about The Big Hose, Robinson's Retail Plaza (now a hole in the ground) or Van Dyke II. Schenectady County {with Metrograft} is the ONLY County to have 2 straight quarters of declining sales tax revenue. The retail and business climate continues to deteriorate.
If anything this will bring more business to rotterdam because people living in town will no longer go out of town for an apple bees type place and people from outside of town will travel to rotterdam for the ambiance.
This is even funnier. FV thinks economic development is transfering customers that once went to Applebees(Schenectady County) to the Recovery Room(Schenectady County).
It's scary how many people believe that erecting a building partially funded by tax money equals long term economic development
Logged
The RIDA should not be involved in this. This is a way for Metrograft to deflect the growing criticism that they are for alcohol fueled projects. They are very thin skinned. Look at the uproar over Richard Eats observations about removing a $1 million taxpayer funded porch at Center City. BTW, he is right about the horrible modern architecture that clashes with the existing street scape. 
Silver Dollar? If they cleaned the place up, it would still be in business..but lets face it, it was a sh!thole..my wife was afraid to go in eventually.
