Quoted Text

Proctors repairs and expands its buildings
By TOM KEYSER Staff Writer
Published: 12:55 a.m., Sunday, November 14, 2010


Despite an economy that is strangling some arts organizations, Proctors is pushing ahead with upgrades and expansion financed by a variety of means: donation, state grant, insurance settlement and sale of a building.

"While we certainly feel the effects of the economy, for a variety of reasons it has not been debilitating -- at least not yet," says Philip Morris, CEO of Proctors. "We have had an attitude of growing our way out of it and not, if we can avoid it, traversing the slippery slope of decline.

"We've been aggressive with programming and continue to be aggressive. We're just trying to make more happen. So far so good."

Three years after the completion of Proctors' $30 million renovation, these new projects involve the arcade floor, balcony ceiling in Mainstage and the KeyBank building next door at 436 State St. Proctors bought the building in the spring, renamed it Key Hall at Proctors, and refurbished it for 40 to 50 events per year: conferences, banquets, meetings and about 10 acoustic-music performances. The Mazzone Management Group was named Wednesday as caterer for Key Hall.

Proctors kept Key in the name because the purchase couldn't have happened without KeyBank's largesse, Morris says. The sale price was $450,000, of which Proctors paid $150,000, and KeyBank donated $300,000, he says.

Then, Proctors spent another $300,000 refurbishing the building. To finance the purchase and renovation, Proctors is selling the 440 Building (at 440 State St.).

It has a buyer, says Dan Sheehan, operations director at Proctors, and would have closed the deal several months ago. But first, he says, Proctors management wanted to make sure the artists and arts organizations renting space at 440 found new homes. That has now happened, he says, and an announcement about the buyer will be made soon.

While renovating Key Hall, Proctors preserved a safe door, estimated to weigh 14,000 pounds, and Italian marble that lined the teller counter. Farren Mion, of Anthony Mion and Son in Schenectady, disassembled the marble from the counter and reassembled it along a back wall.

Mion also restored the Tennessee-pink marble floor, leaving a series of minor depressions where the teller windows used to be. The depressions were caused by customers standing at the windows for the 100 years the building was a bank.

To preserve the safe door, made of steel, Proctors hired the Albany rigging firm Burkins and Foley. Workers hoisted the door and moved it to a prominent spot along a wall, where it was installed for aesthetic and historic purposes, Sheehan says. The door features an elaborate network of locks and tumbler assembly.

With new paint and restored plaster on the 40-foot-high ceiling, Key Hall has about 4,000 square feet and can accommodate about 400 diners and an audience of 500 to 600 for performances. Management is still working on what kind of performances will take place there, Sheehan says.

Mion also is overseeing the fine-grinding and polishing of the terrazzo arcade floor -- paid for with a donation by Jane and Neil Golub, of the Golub Corp,, which operates the Price Chopper grocery chain.........................>>>>..............................>>>>...................http://www.timesunion.com/living/article/Proctors-repairs-and-expands-its-buildings-812270.php

Your tax dollars at work folks.

Talk about the bottomless pit that Proctors has become. Let's see a report on how much money Proctors makes per year to see if it warrants this type of expenditure.

Wouldn't it be a hoot to see taxpayers picketing all of downtown, but in front of proctors on Lion Kings opening night for raping the taxpayers!

Let's see a report on what Mercury Morris is pulling down a year. No belt tightening at his new home. And he brags about it that he is "doing his part". What a joke.

     Of course they are not feeling the pinch-but the taxpayers that support this crap certainly are. The Key Bank debacle is finally waking the sheeple up. Another huge building off the declining City property tax rolls AND a favored caterer that can underprice all competitors. Another So Schenectady.

what tax dollars u talking about? Proctors getrs 99 percent of its revenues from ticket sales, and only some money thrugh the Motel Tax.... get your facts straight, please.

First of all he got tax money from the County. Second he flatly refuses to pay a PILOT. Get your facts straight. Then he pulls other property off the tax rolls-so County taxpayers must pay for his police and fire protection.

     What is his yearly salary?

Morris got a new house? What happened to his house in the Stockade?

Quoted from Smoking Bananas

what tax dollars u talking about? Proctors getrs 99 percent of its revenues from ticket sales, and only some money thrugh the Motel Tax.... get your facts straight, please.

Not true. Proctors also receives $10,000 rent per month from the Muddy Cup. Add the rents from the other businesses in the "Gallery" (NE Fine, etc). This money is going directly into the Proctors pocket. It's not hard for a tax exempt, for-profit landlord like Proctors to have $30 million in surplus. Instead of the Lion King maybe the Vampire Chronicles should come to Proctors. Sucking the life out of the City has become an art form!

While the Mayor is asking Not for Profits for help, Morris is expanding and taking another building off the tax rolls. What does he care he doesn't live in the city anymore.

Quoted from Smoking Bananas

what tax dollars u talking about? Proctors getrs 99 percent of its revenues from ticket sales, and only some money thrugh the Motel Tax.... get your facts straight, please.

Who feeds you this information?

Quoted from Smoking Bananas

what tax dollars u talking about? Proctors getrs 99 percent of its revenues from ticket sales, and only some money thrugh the Motel Tax.... get your facts straight, please.

And would you care to provide some proof??????

We have provided some of our proof.  For example, do you know what "assessment value" means?   It is what your property is worth.  And it is that value on which a homeowner pays taxes.  Now, non-profits are exempt from property and school taxes, however, they MUST be assessed at their full value, and by full value I mean their 100% value while taking into account the equalization rate.  Equalization rate changes pretty much every year based on property value fluctuations as a whole.  Good example is provided by using Rotterdam prior to the reassessment.  Typical assessment values were in the four-digits, let's say certain house had an assessment value of $4,500.  Hardly it's full value.  If the equalization rate in that year was 4.5%, then the full value of the house would be $100,000.  Then the town comes along and reassesses and if the certain house is still worth (on the open market) $100,000, then the assessor should assess it for $100,000.  And the state will officially declare that the equalization rate for the town is 100%.   Assume in the following year that the market has gone down, property values are going down.  If the town does not reassess every year, your property will remain assessed at $100,000 but you will read that the equalization rate for the town might be 105% which means that the values of property are going down.  When real property market values go up, and if the town does not do a reassessment, then the equalization rate goes down.  

The one thing in the law that is part of this is that ALL, that is EACH AND EVERY property in the municipality MUST, ABSOLUTELY MUST be assessed at the same percentage of value.  A municipality may NOT, say, assess residential parcels at 90% of value, commercial properties at 90% of value, non-for-profits at 70% of value, etc.  

Now tell us, SB, tell us what do you think Proctors is worth?  It has it's enormous size, the exquisite gold leaf, the elaborate chaneliers, the marble, etc.  Think of St. John the Evangelist church, tons of marble inside, a restoration only a fraction of the cost of Proctors.  The church does not have the elaborate gold leaf and crystal chaneliers.  The church is assessed at just over $2 million.  In other words, just because the church is religious and religious properties are tax exempt (the idea is that they provide services to the communities thus saving taxpayers from higher taxes), but while tax exempt, they MUST BY LAW be assessed at the SAME percentage of value as all properties in the city.

Thus we see an assessment value of the church at just over $2 million.  Proctors as a building has so much more, gosh, look at all the bathrooms---just like a house, the more bathrooms you have, the higher your assessed value.  The church has one bathroom in it, how many does Proctors have???????   Think of the houses in the GE Plot, why are they worth more than houses just outside the plot?  Because of how elaborate they are, grand staircases, fancy fixtures, and so they may be assessed at $300,000 while a typical house might be assessed for $100,000.  

So, tell us what you think Proctors is assessed at???????   It is assessed for a mere, get this, $100.  Just one hundred dollars!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   And despite that it is a money making theater, it is wholly tax exempt.  Even IF Proctors paid taxes, it would be paying taxes at a teeny weeny fraction of it's value.  That place must be worth at least four or five million dollars.  So for one thing, property and school taxes on the building are covered by increases in property and school taxes to the residential homeowners in the city.  But if it was not exempt from property taxes, this money making business would be paying taxes on an assessed value of just $100 while a struggling homeowner would be paying taxes on their own house of assessed value of typically $100,000.  

I DEFY you to provide proof that a grand, exquisite, ornate, elaborate, enormous building is worth $100 while old decaying burned out houses are worth often close to $100,000?

Now, would you care to provide a copy of the budget, give us the line items, including the taxpayer subsidy, the support your original statement above?  Preferably sicne it get's government money, then I would say also an audit by the state.

And, by the way, Smoking B. my source of information is from the county government, real property tax records.  And if you want, I can give you not only the website, but I can give you page by page, button by button instructions to get you to the information on Proctors.

Can you do the same to support the statement you made?  From an official source as opposed to a tabloid?

Quoted from Smoking Bananas

what tax dollars u talking about? Proctors getrs 99 percent of its revenues from ticket sales, and only some money thrugh the Motel Tax.... get your facts straight, please.

Once again the anonymous disinformers on the democrap payroll with their heads shoved up Heart-Attack Gardner's butt! LIES LIES LIES LIES LIES LIES LIES LIES LIES! Proctors is the recipient of millions of dollars of taxpayer cash courtesy of the county legislature. I once, during a county meeting witnesses Morris promising a legislator that he would THANK THE TAXPAYER in the next Proctor's program. But he never did. He lied too, just like the rest of the pro-Proctors junta.

SMOKING BANANAS IS A LIARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. HE HAS JUST LOST ALL HIS CREDIBILITY.

Go to the Gazette site and search "Proctor's grant from county"

Date: September 21, 2007
Publication: Daily Gazette, The (Schenectady, NY)
Edition:Schenectady/Albany; Final
Column:LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Length: 1250 Words
Page: A11

Re your Sept. 12 article "With $450K grant, Proctors comes full circle,"at the Sept. 11 county meeting a spending vote for a large grant to Proctors Theatre was called in what is known as the "Rules Committee."This committee gives the chairwoman a way to put major legislation up for a vote on a half-hour notice.

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Proctor's, Little Italy projects get a lift
State grants will aid renovation of theater, street

Author: MICHAEL DeMASI Gazette Reporter  
Date: October 25, 2002
Publication: Daily Gazette, The (Schenectady, NY)
Edition:Schenectady Albany; Final
Column:
Length: 456 Words
Page: B-01

SCHENECTADY - Two downtown redevelopment projects received boosts Thursday with the announcement of up to $1 million in state grants to expand Proctor's Theatre and create an Italian-themed retail district on North Jay Street.

The $500,000 for Proctor's would help finance a $22.5 million renovation at the historic theater that would include expanding the main stage to accommodate large-scale Broadway touring shows and building a smaller, 450-seat...

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Author: Bill Rice Gazette Reporter  
Date: November 4, 1997
Publication: Daily Gazette, The (Schenectady, NY)
Edition:Schenectady Albany; Final
Column:
Length: 733 Words
Page: A-01

SCHENECTADY - A $1 million state grant for Proctor's Theatre and the surrounding Arts and Entertainment District was announced Monday by State Sen. Hugh T. Farley.

The money is earmarked for improvements to Proctor's, to a three-story building next door called 440 State Street and to the Center City Sportsplex across the street.

"The funds will serve as a jump start for the revitalization of downtown Schenectady,"Farley,...

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Theater project receives funding
Project a part of downtown's transformation

Author: MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter  
Date: January 15, 2004
Publication: Daily Gazette, The (Schenectady, NY)
Edition:Schenectady Albany; Final
Column:
Length: 648 Words
Page: B-01

SCHENECTADY - Proctor's Theatre won approval Wednesday for a $22.4 million renovation project, intended to help transform the city's downtown into a prime destination for entertainment in the Capital Region.

The Metroplex Development Authority board unanimously voted to award a $9.5 million matching grant to the Arts Center and Theatre of Schenectady, which owns and operates Proctor's Theatre.

The development authority board has also...

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With $450K grant, Proctors comes full circle

Author:    MICHAEL LAMENDOLA

Gazette Reporter
Date: September 12, 2007
Publication: Daily Gazette, The (Schenectady, NY)
Edition:Schenectady/Albany; Final
Column:SCHENECTADY COUNTY
Length: 685 Words
Page: A1

The circle is complete.

Seven years ago, the Schenectady County Legislature gave Proctors $1 million to jump-start a project many hoped would revitalize the city's decaying downtown.

On Tuesday night, the Legislature gave Proctors another grant of $450,000 to close a project that many believe succeeded beyond expectations.

"The county started us and it finished us,"said Proctors CEO Phillip Morris.

The one-time grant closes out...

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Date: November 3, 2001
Publication: Daily Gazette, The (Schenectady, NY)
Edition:Schenectady Albany; Final
Columnusiness Briefs
Length: 94 Words
Page: C-01

SCHENECTADY - County tourism efforts will receive a boost from the state next year, according to the Schenectady County Chamber of Commerce.

The chamber, which administers the county's tourism program, said it will receive an $82,266 matching grant from the state for 2002, up from $41,473 this year.

The grant will used for local and national print advertising, a redesigned county travel guide, new tourism packets and continued distribution of a quarterly events...

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State provides $2M to keep river clean
Grants to support Troy waterfront, Albany cathedrals, Proctor's Theatre

Author: SHIRIN PARSAVAND Gazette Reporter  
Date: July 16, 2004
Publication: Daily Gazette, The (Schenectady, NY)
Edition:Schenectady Albany; Final
Column:
Length: 597 Words
Page: B-01

ALBANY - Six area communities and a regional planning group will share in a $2 million state grant to safeguard the Hudson River from sewage and stormwater runoff, Gov. George Pataki announced Thursday.

Pataki said the work will go a long way toward his goal of making the entire length of the Hudson River swimmable by 2009.

"We're going to be able to swim whenever the water is warm enough, not whenever the water is clean enough in the Hudson River,...

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Center City gets boost
$2.5M grant part of state's Restore NY program

Author:    MICHAEL LAMENDOLA AND BOB CONNER

Gazette Reporters
Date: January 16, 2008
Publication: Daily Gazette, The (Schenectady, NY)
Edition:Schenectady/Albany; Final
Column:CAPITAL REGION
Length: 1189 Words
Page: A1

An anchor of downtown Schenectady will get the benefit of a $2.5 million grant from the Restore NY Communities Initiatives Program, the governor's office announced Tuesday.

The city will use the grant to renovate the 170,000-square-foot Center City building at 415-419 State St. The Galesi Group is in the process of buying the building and will contribute $2 million toward its renovation.

Projects in Albany, Cohoes and Rensselaer also will receive grants from Restore...

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Proctors wraps up its rehab finances

Author:    MICHAEL LAMENDOLA

Gazette Reporter
Date: September 12, 2007
Publication: Daily Gazette, The (Schenectady, NY)
Edition:Saratoga; Second
Column:SCHENECTADY COUNTY
Length: 685 Words
Page: B1

The circle is complete.

Seven years ago, the Schenectady County Legislature gave Proctors $1 million to jump-start a project many hoped would revitalize the city's decaying downtown.

On Tuesday night, the Legislature gave Proctors another grant of $450,000 to close a project that many believe succeeded beyond expectations.

"The county started us and it finished us,"said Proctors CEO Phillip Morris.

The one-time grant closes out...

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Theater plan gets Metroplex grant

Author: MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter  
Date: December 23, 2003
Publication: Daily Gazette, The (Schenectady, NY)
Edition:Schenectady Albany; Final
Column:
Length: 581 Words
Page: B-01

$9.5 million will help revitalize Proctor's

SCHENECTADY - The Metroplex Development Authority Monday approved financing for the next phase of downtown's revitalization - the conversion of Proctor's Theatre into a year-round performing arts center.

Metroplex will provide Proctor's with a $9.5 million grant toward the $22.4 million project. The board is scheduled to award the grant following a public hearing on the...

Quoted from Smoking Bananas

what tax dollars u talking about? Proctors getrs 99 percent of its revenues from ticket sales, and only some money thrugh the Motel Tax.

  ROTFLMAO!!

Talk about delusional. What about corporate sponsorship? That keeps the doors open not ticket sales. The County threw in over $10 MILLION just for the expansion-no repayment. Another $300,000 for Arts Night Promotion which is a complete and total flop. Then Morris had a $125 a ticket open house for the DEM swells. These DEM stooges are getting more and more scared. Throw a GOB Party at the Key Bank after Election Day 2011.

     On Morris' house he bought a larger mansion in the Stockade. Went from 18th Century to 17th Century. First order of business a new $50,000 Viking kitchen. While the oppressed County residents eat cheese sandwiches.