Builder of Malta facility asks IDA for tax relief

The private company that’s building Saratoga Hospital’s new urgent care center is asking for tax breaks totaling nearly $5 million over 18 years from the Saratoga County Industrial Development Agency.

Once it is built, Columbia Development Group of Albany will lease the urgent care center to the hospital.

Hospital officials say the facility is entitled to the tax exemptions as a nonprofit health care provider, but the builder must apply for them.

“This is really a Saratoga Hospital-Albany Medical Center project. They are just using us as a developer,” said Richard Rosen, a Columbia Development representative.

IDA officials agree the project would be covered by the hospital’s legal tax exemption, if not for Columbia Development’s involvement as developer. “If you didn’t have this middle step, this project would be purely exempt anyway,” said Michael Toohey of Saratoga Springs, the IDA’s attorney.

Columbia Development’s application was presented to the IDA board at a meeting Monday in Halfmoon. A public hearing on the application will be held at 8 a.m. Monday, Jan. 9, at Malta Town Hall.

Road and infrastructure construction for the long-awaited facility recently began at the site, on the former standardbred horse farm on Route 67 next to Northway Exit 12. Hospital officials want the 60,000-square-foot building ready by next fall.

The center, which could one day grow into a full-service hospital, will be operated by Saratoga Hospital, with Albany Medical Center providing some of the medical staff.

Fifty jobs now located at Saratoga Hospital’s rented urgent care center on Route 9 will be transferred, said hospital Vice President for Operations and Facilities Kevin Ronayne, and about 50 new jobs will be created in the first year. He said the new facility will have the look and feel of a hospital emergency room.

Saratoga Hospital will continue to operate an occupational health clinic for the GlobalFoundries computer chip plant at the Route 9 building, he said.

Having Columbia Development finance and build the $20 million urgent care center allows the hospital to conserve its capital for other projects, said hospital attorney Matthew Jones of Saratoga Springs.

Rosen said the lease will be written so that the hospital receives the benefit of any tax exemptions the IDA grants.

According to the application, if the tax breaks aren’t approved Columbia Development and Saratoga Hospital could be on the hook for a $154,000 mortgage tax payment, $630,000 in sales tax payments on building materials, and an estimated $4.2 million in property taxes over an 18-year period.

The hospital currently pays about $100,000 a year in property taxes on the 140 acres of land, which is zoned for agricultural use. Once the land is being used for health care, though, hospital officials expect it to be entirely tax-exempt.

IDA Chairman Raymond F. Callanan said the urgent care center “will be a great thing for the town of Malta,” and he supports the application.

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