Halfmoon builder Tanski shakes off legal issues

Bruce Tanski has been compared to Clifton Park’s Robert Van Patten Sr. or Wilton’s Michael Dennis — the kind of land developers so prolific that their construction work shapes a suburban community.

The 68-year-old owner of Tanski Construction and Development, who knew both men, doesn’t mind the comparison.

“To me, to be in the company of Bob Van Patten and Mike Dennis is probably the greatest honor I could have,” Tanski said last week in an interview at Falcon Trace, a senior citizen apartment complex he owns off Route 236.

He’s concentrated on building apartment complexes, though he’s also built hundreds of single-family homes, a golf course, and redeveloped a commercial block at Route 9 and 146.

“I look at the community, the needs and wants,” he said.

In their day, Van Patten and Dennis each wielded enormous influence in local Republican politics and economic development circles — as does Tanski today. Too much power, in the eyes of some residents who would like to see growth cool down.

Encouraged by pro-growth local government policies, Halfmoon’s population has grown from 12,000 in 1980 to roughly 22,000 today, with Tanski among the most active — and controversial — housing developers.

Tanski has legally donated roughly $140,000 to Republican candidates over the past six years — enough money that critics say it buys him the kind of influence that gets projects approved.

“I don’t have anything personal against Mr. Tanski. It’s a way of doing business,” said Deanna Stephenson, a founder of the controlled-growth group Future Halfmoon who twice has run unsuccessfully for Town Board as a Democrat.

Tanski denied he’s ever made political donations to win a project approval, despite the large sums he had donated to Republican candidates and party committees since 2008.

“I gave money to the Republican Party because I believe in what they’re doing, and I will continue to give,” he said.

Didn’t ‘know rules’

That’s even though in recent months Tanski has been tarnished by a political contribution scandal.

He pleaded guilty in November to a state attorney general’s charge of making illegal contributions in 2013 to the re-election campaign of former town supervisor Mindy Wormuth. He’s scheduled to be sentenced in Saratoga County Court in Ballston Spa this Friday.

After being indicted on multiple charges that included a felony, Tanski pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor violation of election law, for making a campaign contribution under a false name. He is expected to pay a fine and be sentenced to community service, rather than any jail time.

Tanski portrayed want happened as a mistake.

“It was an unfortunate situation,” he said last week. “I didn’t know the rules at the time, and now I do. It won’t happen again.”

The charges grew out of an FBI investigation that looked at the activities of both Tanski and Wormuth, and led to unrelated charges against Wormuth.

According to the indictment obtained last August by state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office, Tanski in early 2013 used employees and other individuals as fronts, each “donating” $1,000, as he contributed a total of $6,000 to Wormuth’s campaign.

Wormuth, who Tanski acknowledges is a friend, had at the time lost the support of the town Republican Committee in her bid for a fourth two-year term, but she was considering continuing to campaign.

In a separate indictment, Wormuth is charged with illegally converting $6,000 in campaign money for her own use, and faces a state court trial. But first she is expected to go on trial in federal court on unrelated charges of accepting bribes for taking official actions. Those charges are pending in U.S. District Court in Albany.

Tanski declined to comment on the charges or politics in Halfmoon, which has throughout its history been controlled by the Republican Party.

Shaping a community

Town Supervisor Kevin Tollisen, elected to replace Wormuth, who resigned in November 2013, could not be reached for comment.

The criminal charges have been an embarrassment for Tanski, a Halfmoon native, who grew up on Meyer Road near the town’s western border, not far from where he lives today. He was the oldest in a family with five children. His father was a printer in Albany, and his mother stayed at home.

Tanski graduated from the Shenendehowa schools and then attended Albany College of Pharmacy. He became a union construction carpenter when pharmacy school didn’t work out.

In his 20s, he worked on a number of major Capital Region construction projects, and for a while framed houses for Van Patten, whose single-family home developments in the early 1970s were transforming Clifton Park from a rural town into one of the Capital Region’s largest suburbs.

Then Tanski decided to strike out on his own.

“I decided if I was going to work this hard, I was going to work for myself,” he recounted.

His first project, in 1971, was a four-unit apartment building on Meyer Road, next to the house where he grew up.

From that small beginning, Tanski has gone on to build more than 2,000 apartment units, along with hundreds of single-family homes and townhouses. Many, but not all, are in Halfmoon.

Saratoga County Senior Planner Michael Valentine said many towns have a developer like Tanski who works closely with town officials to shape their communities.

“In some ways it’s not a bad thing to have somebody you can work with,” Valentine said.

Tanski also owns apartments in Scotia, Brunswick and Clifton Park. He owns a large apartment complex in Wilton, which was built by Michael Dennis.

The demand for rental units is so high that Tanski said there are only a handful of vacancies in all his properties.

“People will say that’s too many apartments, to which I say, why are they so full?” Tanski said.

Recently, the arrival of the GlobalFoundries computer-chip plant just to the north in Malta has helped boost the regional housing and rental market, intensifying a growth pattern that has shown little letup since the opening of the Northway a half-century ago — when Halfmoon’s total population was a little over 4,000, and dairy farms still dotted the countryside.

According to Tanski, there’s more to southern Saratoga County’s transformative population growth than just proximity to jobs, or a convenient commute.

“Saratoga County is a nice place to live,” he said. “The taxes are reasonable, and crime is real low. The state police and the sheriff’s department do an excellent job.”

Despite the controversy that has recently surrounded him, Tanski hasn’t slowed his activity. He has 60 people who work for him year-round, and 90 during construction season. Dozens of subcontractors rely on his projects for work.

Tanski has plans pending for another 320 apartment units to be built on Route 67 in Stillwater, only a couple of miles from GlobalFoundries. They’re under review by the Stillwater Town Board.

“He builds a nice place. He really does,” said Stillwater Town Supervisor Edward Kinowski, who expressed support for the plan.

Construction also continues at the Fairways of Halfmoon subdivision, next to a Tanski-owned golf course and clubhouse; on townhouses on Fellows Road in the center of town; and on more apartments in the Rensselaer County town of Brunswick.

Tanski is particularly proud of the Fairways subdivision, which is approved for up to 320 homes on the highlands above the city of Mechanicville. Tanski has extended water and sewer service to that area for the first time.

“I think I’ve single-handedly changed the eastern half of town, with utilities and housing,” he said.

Since buying it six years ago, Tanski has also transformed the commercial block at the Routes 9 and 146 entrance to Halfmoon, turning it into the Shops of Halfmoon. The property’s tenants include Snyder’s Restaurant and nearly a dozen other businesses. Before he bought it, the block was badly in need of redevelopment, he said.

“It’s the gateway to the town,” he said.

Nobody disputes that a Tanski project involves quality construction.

“It’s hard not to build a quality unit these days, with all the inspections,” Tanski said. “We pay close attention to detail.”

Tanski is married. He has a daughter with his wife, Carole, and a stepson. He estimated he has raised nearly $1 million in the last decade for Down syndrome research after a grandson was born with Down syndrome.

“There is no secret,” he said of his success. “It’s hard work, hard work and attention to detail.”

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