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SCHENECTADY
Deli may open at Arthur’s Market site
Other proposals for historic store lacked funding
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

    Arthur’s Market may soon be open again, but two inventive uses for the popular gathering spot had to be abandoned for lack of funding.
    A deli may open there next month. The operators are getting their licenses now.
    “It’s not defi nite yet, but we’ve got someone that’s really interested in it,” co-owner Joyce Wachala said, adding that deli business was the most profitable part of her venture.
    But it wasn’t enough for her — or for the deli that opened prior to her ownership.
    “It’s a tough spot,” Wachala said. But residents will bring them business, just as they did for the last three failed efforts to use the market, Stockade Association President Mary D’Alessandro said.
    “Anyone who puts forth that initiative has always had the support of the Stockade,” she said.
    Wachala wants more. She tried to sell the market to people who would try new ways to use the property. But the greenmarket that one neighbor proposed won’t open there. And neither will a cafe with a country store above it.
    Both developers needed money, and they couldn’t get funding from Metroplex Development Authority, which offers loans and grants to encourage economic development.
    Wachala said the agency should help turn the historic store into a successful business.
    After all, she said, Metroplex helped stabilize and reopen the Van Dyck, a restaurant and entertainment venue just a few blocks from Arthur’s Market.
    “But when [market buyers] went to Metroplex, they told them, ‘We can’t help you,’ ” Wachala said.
    That’s because Metroplex is strictly barred from helping create commercial space in the historic Stockade neighborhood.
    It can support historic renovation and put money into entertain- ment venues like the Van Dyck...................>>>>................>>>>...................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00902&AppName=1

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        2. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, unless amended pursuant
      to  local  law,  the  Schenectady  metroplex  service district shall not
      include any parcel of real property upon which a  non-multiple  dwelling
      residence  is  located  in  the  city  of  Schenectady  and  within  the
      boundaries of the historic GE realty plot district,  the  Union  College
      Triangle,  the  Mont  Pleasant  neighborhood association, or any defined
      neighborhood within the Schenectady united neighborhood associations.
        3. The  Stockade  Historic  District  shall  be  included  within  the
      Schenectady  Metroplex  Service District for the purposes of the design,
      development,  planning,  financing,  creation,   siting,   construction,
      renovation, administration, operation, management, and/or maintenance of
      facilities,  structures or parks as defined in paragraphs (e), (f), (g),
      (h), (i), (j), (k) and (l) of subdivision eight  of  section  twenty-six
      hundred fifty-five of this title.

Quoted from DemocraticVoiceOfReason

The law which created Metroplex needs to be amended so it can do its great work ANYWHERE in Schenectady
County.

Quoted from 147

No, Metroplex should be abolished. Along with the added tax burden it carries.

Quoted from 615

Who cares about Arthur's Market, the last three initerations were bad business plans

Quoted from rachel72

Sure. Who would care about a business in Schenectady which actually paid both property and sales taxes. Good riddance to them - let the Plex set up more tax exempt shops to suck dry the taxpayer.