Larger tax break approved for Victory condo project

The Saratoga County Industrial Development Agency on Monday unanimously approved an additional $500,000 in tax incentives to encourage redevelopment of the empty former Victory Specialty Packaging building in the village of Victory.

Riverview Realty of Albany, which owns the old building, had asked the IDA to sweeten the tax incentive deal it approved in December 2013. Riverview said it had been unable to get financing for the $26 million project, which would convert an 19th-century mill on Fish Creek into a 98-unit luxury apartment project, with the apartments later to be sold as condominiums.

Riverview Realty is owned by Uri Kaufman, who has specialized in converting old industrial properties like the Harmony Mills in Cohoes into housing. He has owned the Victory building since 2008, but so far has been unable to redevelop it. A representative said if financing can now be obtained, work should start within six months.

A 2013 incentive package called for no additional taxes on the property in the first two years of construction, followed by five years during which the property would pay a flat $147,500 each year in taxes. The revised package approved Monday by the IDA will reduce that annual payment to $45,000 per year, for a total additional savings of $512,500. The total savings through IDA incentives would be $3.4 million over a 10-year span. Riverview said it’s been told that with the revised tax break package, it has a better chance of getting construction financing.

Despite the slow progress on the rehabilitation to date, officials in the village of Victory and town of Saratoga support the revised deal, which they see as bringing a chance for vitality to a corner of eastern Saratoga County far from the Northway corridor.

“Obviously we’ve been working on this for a long time,” said Victory Mayor Patrick Dewey. “This is something that is an opportunity to take what could be a huge liability for the village, town, county and state, and turn it into a huge asset.”

“We think it could be a real catalyst for growth,” Dewey added.

The mill — parts of which date from 1846 — sits along Fish Creek. Kaufman’s plan would turn it into 98 high-end apartments and a day care center; the target market would be people working for GlobalFoundries or other high-tech companies.

Kaufman paid Saratoga County $50,000 for the mill in 2008 after the county acquired it for a second time because of unpaid taxes.

No manufacturing business has operated there since 2000.

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