SCOTIA : Bakery, retail planned at former fast-food site
Mazzone Management to buy 1.1-acre plot
BY BETHANY BUMP Gazette Reporter
For nearly a decade, 25 Mohawk Ave. has been an eyesore, or as one likely buyer put it — “It looks like a tooth out of a smile.” When McDonald’s closed its village of Scotia operation in 2005, it left a vacant restaurant standing for five years, attracting vandalism and blight to a prime spot along the village gateway. And when it agreed to tear the thing down, it couldn’t find any buyers for the piece of property that had once been contaminated by a car dealership.
   So the property sat for three years, empty and contaminated.
   But on Wednesday, county and village offi cials breathed new life into 25 Mohawk Ave. The Schenectady County Metroplex Development Authority board approved a deal that allowed the economic development arm to purchase the property from McDonald’s Corp. for $1. In turn, Metroplex will clean up environmental contamination at the site and sell it to someone who has had his eye on the site for eight long years.
   Mazzone Management Group will buy the 1.1-acre plot for $250,000 or less, depending on the cost of the cleanup. President Angelo Mazzone hopes to eventually house a retail bakery operation at the site, perhaps situating it amid other retail offerings in a strip mall-type arrangement.
   “I’ve been trying to buy and develop this land since McDonald’s closed,” said Mazzone. “I’ve wanted to move our warehouses there, or put a retail strip mall in or some kind of bakery. I’ve had interest in the site forever.”
   The reason Mazzone couldn’t swoop in and buy the land after the fast-food restaurant left had to do with a fairly common, but strict, deed restriction on the property.
   The restriction is an anti-competition one, limiting future owners from using the property for specific uses. And for McDonald’s Corp., those uses include not just fast food, but any kind of food service operation.
   Years before, it was home to a car dealership that also sold gas. Extensive testing uncovered petroleum in the soil about eight to 10 feet in the ground on the front end of the property, facing Mohawk Avenue. The land was labeled a brownfield site, and since Metroplex has a successful history in brownfield remediation, including cleanup of Schenectady’s former American Locomotive Company site, they had suddenly become an attractive buyer.
   “We got them to make a compromise,” Metroplex Chairman Ray Gillen said of McDonald’s. “They’ve been very cooperative. They limited the deed restriction to 20 years and carved out a release for the retail/baking component that Angelo is looking at for that site.”
   Metroplex, in cooperation with the village of Scotia and the county’s economic development team, negotiated a sale agreement with Pat Mullowney Real Estate Inc. of Wellesley, Mass. BIG RELIEF
   Scotia Mayor Kris Kastberg described the move forward as a “huge relief.”
   “This site has been a priority in the village for many years,” he said. “Metroplex and the county did a great job in securing the site, and with the reputation for quality associated with Mazzone Management Group, this project will be another step forward in energizing Scotia’s business district.”
   Once the contaminated soil has been removed and replaced, with the oversight of the state Department of Environmental Conservation, the property will be transferred to Mazzone Management Group for temporary use as an overflow parking lot for any Glen Sanders Mansion events.
   “We’re going to beautify it,” said Mazzone. “It’s going to look like a park, we hope. It’s going to have trees, maybe a fountain or garden. The site now just looks terrible. It looks like a tooth out of a smile.”
   Mazzone already owns restaurants in Albany, Clifton Park, Schenectady, Scotia, Saratoga Springs and soon Latham, as well as Mazzone Hospitality, a catering company that recently merged with Colonie-based Classé Catering.
   Mazzone Hospitality currently handles all of its bakery operations out of a “very small spot” inside Glen Sanders, Mazzone said.
   “We produce all the baked goods for all of our units, so we’re actually probably the biggest nonbakery bakery in the Capital Region,” he added. “We make like 250 to 300 wedding cakes a year. We make all our own breads for all our restaurants. We make all our own rolls, all our pastries and cookies. And those go out to all of our locations.”
   His hope is to move those operations to 25 Mohawk Ave. He wants it to be attractive and to the village’s liking, he said. So he’s contemplating putting in a building and leasing space out to other retail outfits, with one of them entirely for Mazzone bakery items.
   “People can walk in and buy stuff,” he said. “The bakery we’re in now, you can’t walk in and buy anything. It’s just for our catering staff.”
   As of right now, he confirmed, there are no definite plans aside from cleaning and beautifying the site.
   “We want to make sure everybody is happy with it first,” he said. “We don’t want to put something there that the village isn’t going to be happy with.”
   County officials appear happy with where plans are headed, and emphasized how important it was that McDonald’s responded to the area’s wishes for the long-vacant space.
   “We thank McDonald’s for working with the county’s unifi ed economic development team and donating to Metroplex this 1.1 acre site at the entryway to the village of Scotia,” said Marty Finn, chairman of the county Legislature’s economic development committee.

Previously in Metroplex welfare land:



Schenectady, N.Y., July 14, 2006 -- Metroplex announced today that it has completed the sale of four buildings on State Street to Angelo Mazzone and Paul Sciocchetti. The four buildings at 414-416, 420, 422 and 426 State Street are located between Proctors and the new cinema/office complex under construction at the corner of State and Broadway.

“We are pleased that these four buildings located in a key spot on the Proctors Block will be renovated,” said Ray Gillen, Chair of Metroplex. “We are putting these buildings into the capable hands of two individuals committed to the future of downtown. They have been successful in many other ventures and we look forward to their continued success.”

Mr. Mazzone and Mr. Sciocchetti have purchased the buildings for $200,000 with plans to complete a renovation project worth close to $3 million. Metroplex is providing a $1.3 million loan and a $350,000 toward the renovation project.

Angelo Mazzone said, “Schenectady has come such a long way in the past few years. Although many had doubts, including myself, the improvements that have taken place are truly unbelievable. It’s wonderful that all of these plans are coming to fruition. Downtown Schenectady will return to what it used to be — THE place to go for the theater, dining and shopping. We are very excited to be part of downtown Schenectady’s exciting transition. On a personal note, opening a restaurant in the same place I started is exhilarating. It’s so good to be back!”

Paul Sciocchetti said, “We have been working on this project for a while, and Angelo and I are both excited that the deal has been finalized. We have some great plans for this space. You are going to see some real interesting uses and tenants in these buildings. Metroplex has created real buzz about downtown Schenectady. We are looking forward to being a big part of what is happening there.”

The four buildings will be turned into a mixed use complex ideal for the new downtown Schenectady including first floor retail space, second floor offices and loft apartments on the upper floors of the former Witbeck Building at 414-416 State Street. The first floor at 422 and 426 State Street will be the home to a signature Mazzone Restaurant that will add to the growing arts and entertainment scene in downtown Schenectady.

The buildings represent the last vestige of the former Canal Square complex. In the last two years, Metroplex has successfully redeveloped this site with the renovation of the former Cramer Building by Utech Products and the construction which is underway at the former site of the Hough Building where the new cinema/office complex is now under construction.

“We have replaced empty buildings and an empty lot with a new vibrancy downtown as a result of the unprecedented cooperation that is now taking place between City, County and Metroplex all pulling in the same direction to revitalize our community,” Gillen added.

Another for profit business that will be exempt from taxes?

The 2006 story.   YEP the financially struggling homeowners in the city of Schenectady are paying 100% of the property and school taxes and will do so FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!   It has a 100% exemption with NO END DATE.

Gee, plex doesn't seem to want to report on the occupancy rate of the apartments downtown.  Why not?


But cheerleaders say "the renaissance continues."    What renaissance when not even a cheapo Dollar Store will open in downtown????????    

METROPLEX/GILLEN gets their money from sales tax....right?

DON'T BUY IN SCHENECTADY COUNTY.....k?

It is the ONLY way to stop the beast!!

Quoted from bumblethru

METROPLEX/GILLEN gets their money from sales tax....right?

DON'T BUY IN SCHENECTADY COUNTY.....k?

It is the ONLY way to stop the beast!!

It will only increase the countys squeeze on the city.  They are already cannibalizing us and it will continue.

So, we're to believe that McDonald's Corp. couldn't have been made to clean up the site? This blather about "deed restrictions", did anyone else notice that the Supreme Court said it constitutional to take someone's private property and sell it to someone else if the government decides it's a better use?
We've also had zoning restrictions thrown out the window when somebody with enough pull wants to do something, but all of a sudden, a silly "deed restriction" is a major stumbling block. I call bovine excrement. Pardon my french.

Quoted from Madam X

So, we're to believe that McDonald's Corp. couldn't have been made to clean up the site? This blather about "deed restrictions", did anyone else notice that the Supreme Court said it constitutional to take someone's private property and sell it to someone else if the government decides it's a better use?
We've also had zoning restrictions thrown out the window when somebody with enough pull wants to do something, but all of a sudden, a silly "deed restriction" is a major stumbling block. I call bovine excrement. Pardon my french.

I also heard or read (but cant find the source again) where Plaines Bike and Ski Shop on State Street had there assessment lowered because there are buried oil tanks under the property.  Anyone else see that?  So they actually pay less taxes because they are on oil soaked land.  

Probably true since the oil makes their property worth squat....no?

Yes, it was either in the Gazette or TU, they were having their property appraised for some reason and lo and behold, it was worthless! So they had their assessment reduced then and there. The article did not explain how they weren't aware of the problem from when they expanded the business into the neighboring property some years back. Or how you can be running a profit making business from worthless property, etc.
Shouldn't all Schenectadians with houses they can't sell have their assessments dropped?

Quoted from TakingItBack

I also heard or read (but cant find the source again) where Plaines Bike and Ski Shop on State Street had there assessment lowered because there are buried oil tanks under the property. Anyone else see that?  So they actually pay less taxes because they are on oil soaked land.  

Yes I did, and it was quite a substantial reduction from what I remember.
I think I found the article in the Gazette archives, 2005, it was in the same story about property owned by the city at Broadway, and Congress, but I didn't feel like paying the $2 to read it.

In America the streets are paved in gold....black gold.....so rich we build houses on it.....

Got a good laugh from the 7/6/06 article, I think if you open Schenectady's wallet today, might be a couple of dollar bills in it, or not.. All the vibrancy, so bright I gotta wear the sunglasses. Same tired story line all these years later.

Sunglasses? A blindfold would work better. If I had a blindfold when I went out, I would be able to come home and read the Gazette articles (I would remove the blindfold first, as I don't read braille) and I would believe them.