Company pays $245K owed in lieu of taxes

PHOTOGRAPHER: Justin Mason

The owners of Long Pond Village have made good on the outstanding balance of their payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement with the Rotterdam Industrial Development Agency.

In total, CW Builders paid $244,788, including interest and penalties, to Schenectady County, Rotterdam and the Schalmont Central School District this week. This satisfies an agreement reached with the IDA earlier this year, after the company failed to make any payments on Long Pond’s somewhat controversial PILOT agreement earlier this year.

“The IDA is pleased that all PILOT payments have been received,” said IDA Chairman Robert Mallozzi in a statement released Tuesday. “Our agreement to extend the PILOT due date resulted in the taxpayers of Rotterdam receiving 100 percent of back payments owed, plus penalties and interest of $32,343.”

Under a 10-year PILOT agreement reached in September 2007, Long Pond Village was responsible for paying full taxes on its land and only partial value on any improvements. The company agreed to pay on half the assessed value of the improvements during the first year of the agreement this year, with that amount increasing by 5 percent each year.

Some viewed the deal as unorthodox because PILOT agreements are typically given to projects that can demonstrate long-term job creation. Long Pond created only a pair of administrative jobs.

Then earlier this year, the owners of Long Pond defaulted on the terms of the PILOT. The Rotterdam IDA, having undergone a leadership overhaul in January, threatened to dissolve the agreement altogether unless the company paid a number of stiff penalties.

In May, Long Pond hired Sunrise Management and Consulting to help operate the property. Jesse Holland, the president of Sunrise, said the complex has since filled roughly 80 percent of the 192 apartments for lease.

“They’re really seeing the value that we can give them down there,” he said. “We’re leasing about one unit a day.”

Meanwhile, CW Builders continues to market the 26-acre property. The development, which includes eight three-story apartment buildings, six garages, a pool, clubhouse and about 191,000 square feet of space, was recently listed for $25.9 million.

Holland said any sale of the property wouldn’t effect the existing leases.