Stratton expects boost for city from harbor, casino project

Rivers Casino site

Former Schenectady Mayor Brian U. Stratton stood at the edge of the old Alco site overlooking the Mohawk River and said, “This is breathtaking.”

After taking a walking tour of the 60-acre brownfield Tuesday morning, Stratton boarded the tugboat Waterford at Lock 8 in Scotia to take a look at the site from the river.

Rifenburg Construction of Troy is carving a 50-boat-slip harbor on the site — now named Mohawk Harbor — that will provide access to boaters to visit the future casino, retail stores and restaurants there.

Stratton, who stepped down as mayor in April 2011 to head the state Canal Corp., said the harbor project is the largest along the state’s canal system, which includes the Erie, Champlain, Oswego and Cayuga-Seneca canals.

“As a city resident and as canal director I’m excited about all of our opportunities,” Stratton said while sitting on the edge of the tugboat’s bow. “This is certainly the only casino on the canal and the largest harbor project.”

The harbor will fill with water before winter comes and be done by spring. Then apartments, a hotel, office building and townhouses will be built around it as part of Galesi Group’s development.

The $480 million transformation of the site from and old industrial area to a destination casino is a direction Stratton sees as one with big economic impacts for Schenectady and the Capital Region.

“I think this project will boost home sales and rentals,” he said. “It will also bring revenue into the city and help to lower taxes.”

Stratton joked that he’s a lousy gambler but would probably visit the casino once it’s up and running sometime in early 2017.

“I’m very proud our city won,” he said. “I would like to see replicating more of these success stories.”

Stratton left his top seat in city politics to oversee the state’s canals months before tropical storms Lee and Irene struck the state, leaving about $80 million in damage.

Stratton said being director of the Canal Corp. is surprisingly similar to being mayor of Schenectady — a role he admits he “misses from time to time.”

“I do many aspects of the job still working with mayors, talking to people and businesses,” he said. “I think being mayor was good training for the Canal Corp [job].”

But Stratton said he doesn’t miss the headaches of being mayor, like answering trash collection calls. (Stratton created a fee for garbage pickup while mayor.)

Stratton said he took the reigns at the Canal Corp. not knowing much about the agency, but talked about the state’s canals on Tuesday as if it was his lifelong passion.

“It has been a constant learning process,” he said. “I grew up in the Washington, D.C., area along the canal and knew relatively little about it. You don’t recognize that you could go anywhere in the world because all of these waterways connect.”

Stratton said he didn’t start thinking about going into politics until after his father passed away in 1990. Samuel Stratton was a congressman covering parts of the region for nearly 30 years.

“I’m the youngest of five and I saw my father the least,” he said. “Growing up he was traveling quite a bit. He wasn’t a regular dad that took you to baseball games.”

Stratton, a Democrat, was elected to the Schenectady City Council in 1991 and as mayor in 2003 and re-elected in 2007.

Stratton said his father’s district ran along parts of the canal and that he used to take him driving as a kid to visit those areas.

“Lock 8 was my favorite place to hang out pre-mayor days,” he said.

Stratton still lives in the city, close to the Central Park Rose Garden. His favorite places to hang out locally are Clinton’s Ditch and Johnny’s.

“You can write a whole separate story about the great restaurants in Schenectady that I like to go to,” he said laughing.

Stratton said he would like to see the harbor at Mohawk Harbor accommodate larger boats in the future, like yachts and tour boats.

“Larger ships cannot go into it but I would like to see tour boats, like from New York City, come here,” he said. “You will see local tourism though. This opens access to the water and is great for the canal and for the city.”

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