Realtor offering 47-acre joint parcel

PHOTOGRAPHER: Justin Mason

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Carol Renna can remember when Route 7 was a country road on the outskirts of Rotterdam.

Her husband Dennis grew up in their small house when the state Thruway was still in the planning stages. She moved into the house more than 20 years ago when the Crounse and Bradshaw families still operated sprawling farms on the edge of town.

“It was all farmland,” she recalled last week. “We’ve seen a lot of changes.”

And more changes are in store for the western entrance to Rotterdam. Kingston-based Win Morrison Realty is marketing 47 acres of former farmland between Interstate 88 and Duanesburg Road. The properties are owned by three separate parties, but are being offered as a package for $9.68 million.

“We’re trying to make things happen,” Morrison said. “Progress is what we’re trying to make happen.”

Included in the land up for sale is 10 acres that is part of the former Stoney Acres Nursery. Another 23 acres is being offered with the former Bradshaw Farm off Old Duanesburg Road and abutting the Thruway.

Morrison said his agency is now negotiating with the Mohawk Valley Library Association to include several acres behind their Duanesburg Road office in the deal. Calls to the association were referred to an attorney representing the organization, who declined to comment.

Any sale of the property to large development interests could drastically reshape the area, which is now a mix of empty land and single-family homes. These development pressures are increasing as private negotiations to extend a sewer line to the Princetown border near fruition.

An attorney representing Rotterdam indicated the town is discussing the final details. Once these are finalized, he said the sewer line would move into planning.

Supervisor Steve Tommasone said the town is well aware of the development pressures facing the area. He said marketing the properties together in a highly accessible location is bound to draw interest from big business. “Obviously, a piece of property that large in that location has tremendous value,” he said.

Morrison has already brokered a major deal adjacent to the land now on the market. In September, his company sold the 24-acre Crounse farm to Flying J Inc., a Utah-based company that specializes in developing truck stops.

In just two weeks on the market, Morrison said the new parcel has already drawn a fair amount of interest. Once a potential buyer is secured, he said his agency would negotiate to buy out the remaining residential property owner.

“Probably, a lot of those houses will be going also,” he said.

Tommasone said the town will ultimately have review authority over any large-scale project. The area has a mix of single-family residential and agricultural zoning, meaning development would require rezoning subject to Town Board approval.

“We have to be careful that what we are doing doesn’t negatively impact our neighborhoods,” Tommasone said.

Renna said she and her husband were contacted by Morrison’s agency and aren’t opposed to selling their land. She said their neighborhood no longer resembles the rural area of years ago.

“It’s a shame,” she said. “It’s getting to be more like Albany.”