Robin Cooper of the Albany Business Review had a piece on the Moore Hall demo.

According the ABR, Jackson Demolition of Schenectady is the contractor for the take down.  Bonacio has placed the cost of the whole project at $23 million dollars.

Bonacio expects it to take a month to complete the removal.  He expects to start excavating the foundation in October.

The project manager is Christopher Levitas.

Norstar Development whose corporate offices are located in Buffalo paid Skidmore College $1.12 million dollars back in 2009.  Rick Higgins, who lives in Saratoga Springs is one of the principle executives at Norstar.

Balzer + Tuck Architecture did the design.  Brett Balzer is the architect.

Capital Demolition of Amsterdam removed the asbestos and the internal structures such as the drop ceilings, furniture, etc.

Levitas estimates it will take sixteen to eighteen months to construct the five buildings that will contain the condos.

 

TREE TOGA #5 on October 1, 2016 Sustainable Saratoga’s Next Planting Day

[From the blogger: With regrets to our friends at Sustainable Saratoga, I could not properly format their invitation to volunteer.  To view it properly visit their website.]

Tree Toga Volunteers – April 30, 2016 Photo courtesy of David Aimone

 

Since 2014, Sustainable Saratoga’s fabulous volunteers have planted 114 trees in key locations around town. And our great tree hosts have given needed care (mostly water) to help the trees thrive and mature.   On Saturday, October 1, with the help of many people, we will put another 25 trees in the ground. Generous donors to Sustainable Saratoga’s tree fund have made this planting possible.

 

 

HOW CAN YOU HELP? Here are four ways you can contribute to our success on October 1st.

 

Would you like a FREE TREE? Know someone who would? Share this Free Tree Flyer to help us place the trees in good sites. Send us an email at trees@sustainablesaratoga.org to volunteer as a Tree Host. Believe it or not, helping us to identify good planting sites (with tree hosts) is one of the best things you can do for Sustainable Saratoga’s tree efforts. Join our team for October 1st. Sign up as a planter. Or help behind the scenes to organize the event. Send us an email at trees@sustainablesaratoga.org and let us know how you can help. Planting at Tree Toga is a great family activity.

 

 

Spread the word about our progress. Help celebrate our efforts by enjoying and sharing this map of the 114 trees planted since 2014.  Click the image to download a map of trees planted since 2014.

(Colored pins indicate different planting dates. Blue pins are the first to be complete with photos, showing how much fun the planters had in 2015.) Fire up Google Earth and then follow these instructions to explore the map. Share it widely with your circles of friends.

 

 

Donate to Sustainable Saratoga. The generosity of donors like you has enabled Sustainable Saratoga to purchase and plant trees since 2015. The October 1 planting will bring the total of our donor-funded trees to 64. Your donation can help us blow past the 100 trees threshold in 2017 !!  (Sustainable Saratoga volunteers have also planted 75 trees that were paid for from the tree budget of our partners at DPW.)

 

Sonny Bonacio contacted me a few days ago. He indicated that the asbestos abatement is done and this week they expect to start to demolish the main building.  You can see by the attached photos that they have already removed the trees that were located on the Union Avenue side of the site and are well advanced in demolition and removing the one story dining hall that extended toward Union Avenue.

There was a neighborhood block party on Sunday and one of the more creative neighbors baked a Moore Hall cake. As a good omen the cake was completely dismantled (eaten) and there was no need to remove anything but the platter.

Jean D’Agostino, owner of the property that hitherto contained a small barn on Murphy Lane, has filed suit challenging the stop work order on her construction.  The suit filed by attorney  James A. Fauci on behalf of Ms. D’Agostino names city building inspector Stephen Shaw and the members of the Zoning Board of Appeals.  This is a link to the document.   south-alley-llc-notice-of-petition-etc

In addition to the lifting of the stop work order, it seeks damages which include D’Agostino’s legal bills, loss of income due to delay, and damage to the materials left idle on site.

Central to the suit is the argument that the actual approval of the variances granted to Ms. D’Agostino was unconditional.   The document cites the city’s codes as follows:

5.4.4 EXTENSION OR EXPANSION OF STRUCTURE

A. A non-conforming structure may be extended or expanded the proposed extension or expansion does not violate any dimensional requirements other than the current nonconformity.

And

8.3.4 CONDITIONS OF APPROVAL

The ZBA, in granting a use or area variance, shall have the authority to impose such reasonable conditions and restrictions as are directly related and incidental, to the proposed use of the property.  Such conditions be consistent with the spirit and intent of this Chapter and shall be imposed for the purpose of minimizing any adverse impact such variance may have on the neighborhood or community.

See also: 8.5 (D) DECISIONS

The ZBA shall have the authority to impose such reasonable conditions and restrictions as are directly related, and incidental, to the proposed project.

As the people who have been following this blog know, Ms. D’Agostino, in her application for variances asserted that not only was she not going to demolish the existing barn but that to do so would bring harm to the neighborhood.  She therefore committed herself to the conversion of the existing structure.

Mr. Fauci notes that Ms. D’Agostino originally jacked up the barn at considerable expense in order to construct a full basement.  He offers this as proof that it was her honest intention to save the barn.  He then alleges that the condition of the wood in the structure was so deteriorated that it necessitated its demolition.  Unlike his letter of appeal to the ZBA, he does not argue that reusing some of the original materials represented a conversion rather than a demolition.

It is important to note that the original stop work order only referenced the need for a variance to raise the height of the building.  As noted above, Fauci argues that since the height limit for the zoning in that district was sixty feet, there was no need to seek such a variance.  As also noted above, he argues that if the ZBA did not want the building on the lot to be higher thant the original building then they needed to specifically state this as a condition in their approval of variances.

I am not a lawyer but it would appear on its face that the central issue will be the significance of the failure of Ms. D’Agostino to adhere to the strictures of her application to the board upon which they made their decision.  Was Ms. D’Agostino required to maintain the original structure as she had stated in convincing the board to approve her “renovation” ?  Was it necessary in the ZBA’s approval of the variances to include explicit stipulations on height and, in fact, the protection of the original structure?

I would also note that it seems very strange that Ms. D’Agostino did not have an engineer thoroughly inspect the building to determine its soundness before alleging to the ZBA that she would rehab rather than demolish the structure.

Mr. Fauci also documents the confusion and awkwardness (a  charitable characterization) of the building inspector and the ZBA’s handling of this matter.   The fact that the ZBA ended up issuing a full explanation that went far beyond the original explanation many months after the original stop work order and that they were unwilling to have the building inspector explain the reasons for his stop work order when challenged by Mr. Fauci at a public meeting is both accurate and embarrassing.

One can only marvel at the gross mishandling of this project by the ZBA.  In defense of ZBA board members Susan Steer, Keith Kaplan, and James Helicke, they did vote against approving the variances.  The other members of the ZBA created the conditions for this law suit.  They were, unfortunately, assisted by Mr. Shaw.  In his defense, the building department is understaffed.  Still it is apparent that were it not for the neighbors strong opposition, this project would have, in all likelihood, simply gone on to completion.  Mr. Shaw retroactively approved the excavation of the full basement instead of the slab as submitted in the original plan which might have triggered a cleaner stop work order.  This was just another example of the ZBA and building department’s tolerance for “do it and ask for forgiveness later.”  This seems to be standard operating procedure for the ZBA.  Fauci notes the approval of the basement in his suit.  What is quite clear is that there were problems with Mr. Shaw’s correspondence to Ms. D’Agostino that Mr. Fauci is fully exploiting.

One can only hope that in the interest of the neighborhood, the judge will find Ms. D’Agostino’s abrogation of her commitments in her application to the ZBA sufficient to find for the city.

 

 

The Albany Business Review reported the opening of two more hotels in Saratoga County and a further decline in the economics of the local hotel industry.

Last week the 107 room Home 2 Suites opened in Malta.  Obviously they are directing themselves to  Global Foundries which is located in the same town.

According to the Review:

1. As of this last July, the average rate of occupancy has fallen every month for the last fourteen consecutive months.
2. During the same period the average occupancy rate is down a whopping 13.5 percent.
3. The supply of “room nights” has increased by 5 per cent.
4. Demand has fallen a whopping 9.2 per cent.
5. The amount paid per room is down 11.5 per cent.
6. The average amount paid was $85.27.
7. The average daily rate demanded of guests is up 2.4 percent to $139.94.

Further proof as to the small world we all live in, Sonny Bonacio has purchased the land in East Greenbush where the owners of our local casino had hoped to build a new gambling mecca in East Greenbush. Vigorously opposed by the locals there, it lost out to Schenectady. The 74 acres was offered for $2.5 million dollars following the casino debacle and as a sign of how fluid these numbers are, Bonacio picked it up for $1 million. What a deal!

In the meantime, the sound of construction has come to Moore Hall as the abatement for asbestos has begun there.

Fascinating story in today’s Albany Business Review. Unfortunately it is behind a pay wall but here are some of the most salient points.  If you can find a way around their pay wall I highly recommend the piece.  Link To Story

Bruce Levinsky has told the journal that he has sold the Rip Van Dam hotel to investors who plan to develop the site for a 140 room Hotel Indigo. The venerable old hotel was built one hundred and eighty years ago.  The Journal claims it is the last pre-Civil War era hotel in the city.

The reporter interviewed Cindy Hollowood, the general manager of the Holiday Inn. She apparently received a letter from the InterContinental Hotels Group advising her that they had approved the franchise for the new Indigo.  That corporation operates over 5,000 hotels and operates a dozen brands in the world.

For decades Ms. Hollowood has been a stalwart advocate for what I would characterize as unrestrained growth and a long time player in the Republican Party. For as long as I can remember, the Republican Party here in the city has run its election eve event at her Holiday Inn.  Ms. Hollowood was a founding member of the board of the Saratoga PAC.  The PAC has held its events at the Holiday Inn.

For those of us who have viewed with jaundice eyes the sprawl of subdivisions over the last decades there is a certain irony here. That same corporate group proposing the Rip Van Dam development is the parent of the Holiday Inn (her motel brand), The Hotel Indigao, the Holiday Inn Express, and the Crowne Plaza Hotels.

InterContinental sought her comments several weeks ago on the expansion.

There are currently some 2,000 hotel rooms in the city. There are three hotels either under construction or pursuing the rights to build within a mile and a half of Ms. Hollowood’s Motel.  A 113 room Hilton is going up on South Broadway.  Visions Hotels of Corning is proposing to demolish the Turf and Spa Motel at 176 South Broadway thus replacing an existing facility of 43 rooms with a new Fair Field Inn with 89 rooms.  Of course there is the $34 million dollar renovation of the Adelphi Hotel which will be right next door to the proposed Indigo.

Ms. Hollowood is quoted as saying, “We are concerned with this project because it is under the same umbrella of ownership and franchisor as the Holiday Inn flag,”

According to the Review, Hollowood and Todd Garofano, president of the Saratoga Convention and Tourism Bureau expressed worry citing a declining demand for rooms during the past year while the supply just keeps growing.

According to Hollowood there were 18,000 fewer rooms rented during the first seven months of this year than there were during the same period in 2015.

According to Hollowood Hotel Indigo’s average room rate is expected to be about $50 higher than many of hotels in Saratoga Springs. $170.00 is the average year round rate (this includes the sky rocketing amounts paid during racing).

Hollowood is quoted as saying”To think they are going to break the $200 mark for average rate is in my opinion incorrect, especially when there is going to be more supply in the market.”

“I just think most people coming in from the outside really don’t have a good understanding of our market,” Hollowood told the Journal. “It requires more insight than just, ‘Oh, look at how they are performing compared to the rest of upstate New York.'”

“We are particularly disheartened with the franchise group … When somebody is making a decision around a table 10 states away, it doesn’t make any sense, particularly when they look at the way the market is trending downward,” Hollowood said.

When a stalwart like Ms. Hollowood is saying things like this it is pretty shocking. I can’t help myself from feeling a little schadenfreude. Ms. Hollowood has for many years been a cheerleader for growth that eroded much of what had been the country part of our city. I wonder if this experience might chasten her faith in the infallibility of markets.

There appear to be fewer and fewer profitable places to put the huge sums of cash that many of this country’s wealthy people are sitting on. I think the word I am reaching for and that she is experiencing is “bubble.”

Developer Bruce Levinsky has sold the Batcheller Mansion.  Citing his age (74) Levinsky says he sold it because he is retiring.  This seems a bit odd since he told the Albany Business Review he is working on building a hotel behind the Rip Van Dam.

The new owners of the Batcheller Mansion are Vincent and Karen Abate.  They purchased the property for $1.8 million.

Mr. Abate is chief technology officer and a senior vice president at GE Global Research in Niskayuna.

They plan to maintain the mansion as an inn.

These photos were taken over the weekend.

The Albany Business Review published a report on the continued explosion of construction  of apartments in Saratoga Springs.  Link

Burns Management, an Albany based developer, expects to complete construction of the first units of a $20,000,000.00 project by January.  They report that Burns Management has completed more than half of the first seventy apartments of a proposed one hundred and five unit complex in the Excelsior Park development.

Their president, Peter Rosencranz Jr., told the review that  “Our target market will be empty-nesters and young professionals who are looking for a walkable downtown and a maintenance free lifestyle.”

Burns Management purchased the property for $1.58 million in December from John Witt.

They plan to incorporate a mix of studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom apartments with a rent range from somewhere under $1,100.00 per month to $2,500.00 per month.

Excelsior Park

Burns Project Construction Site

Back around 2000, Home Depot attempted to build a huge box store at this location.  A groundswell of opposition defeated them.

Developers John Witt and Jeff Pfeil then proposed an ambitious development based on the buzz words “New Urbanism.”  It was supposed to create a community of homes, offices, and small retail while maximizing the green spaces and incorporating trails.

“We are creating a neighborhood, not just a development,” opined Jeff Pfeil.

The project ran into trouble.  As far as I can tell, Pfeil managed to bail.  Witt built a set of condos (see picture), but that was it.  Before the Marriott was built the Witt condos was all that happened.

I am unclear as to how much land was involved.  I have photographed the area immediately adjacent to the Witt buildings and provided an aerial view.

Witt Condos

 

Field Of Dreams: Landscape Around Witt Condos For New Urbanism

Given the distance this project is from Broadway, it will take some very robust tenants to walk to the downtown and they will have to be very careful since there are no sidewalks for most of the way down Route 50.

Mr. Witt told the Business Review that he has plans to build additional row houses there that will sell from between $200,000.00 and $400,000.00.

No one is talking about “New Urbanism.”

New Bonacio Project On Excelsior Avenue

Further south on Excelsior Avenue Sonny Bonacio is completing a large apartment complex.