Schenectady demolitions to make way for apartments, retail

A rendering of the Robinson Block project. A total of seven lots on State Street, four of them vacant, will be redeveloped with 105 luxury apartments and 9,900 square feet of ground floor retail space at the corner of State Street and Erie Boulevard.

BiMor Army & Navy

Two buildings on lower State Street will start being demolished next Monday to make way for apartments and retail.

The BiMor Army & Navy building at 232 State St. and a red brick building at 236 State St. once occupied by Absolute Pest Control will be knocked down next week, followed by the Olender Mattress building at 254 State St.

A total of seven lots on State Street, four of them vacant, will be redeveloped with 105 luxury apartments and 9,900 square feet of ground floor retail space at the corner of State Street and Erie Boulevard as part of the Robinson Block project.

The Olender building won’t be demolished until Schenectady-based Martin Environmental removes asbestos from the property, which is expected to take about seven weeks. Jackson Demolition of Schenectady will demolish the buildings.

“Right after the holiday parade they will start,” said Ray Gillen, chairman of the Schenectady County Metroplex Development Authority. “The BiMor building is in an extremely distressed condition. Olender will come down seven weeks later, and then they can start construction.”

HighBridge Development of Schenectady and Prime Companies of Cohoes are investing $20 million to build the Electric City Apartments. The architect is C2 Design Architecture and the engineer is Abd Engineers & Surveyors, both of Schenectady.

Like many developments along State Street, the developers have secured a PILOT, or payment in lieu of taxes agreement with Metroplex.

The PILOT starts at $115,500 for three years and increases to $135,300 for the next four years. Then taxes would increase to $156,300 for one year, followed by $166,200 for four years and up to $187,200 for five years, according to Gillen.

On top of the property tax payments, the developers will pay all fees for water, sewer and special district assessments, he said.

Gillen said the site currently pays $9,600 in taxes a year.

Once the three buildings come down, the Nicholaus Building will stand alone at the corner of State Street and Erie Boulevard until construction is complete.

The 144,000-square-foot building is expected to take 18 months to construct with occupancy planned for the summer of 2017.

The developers were awarded $1.2 million for the project as part of the state’s Regional Economic Development Council awards last year.

The development comes as other projects have popped up along lower State Street including the renovation of the First Niagara building at 251 State St. into the New York BizLab by Transfinder CEO Antonio Civitello.

Also, Schenectady County Community College and the Stockade’s Kindl family rehabilitated the Kindl building at 201 State St., which will house the college’s workforce development division and businesses under START-UP NY.

At the same time, Norstar development is transforming the old YMCA at 13 State St. into 61 housing units, and across the street Liberty Park will be expanded into Gateway Park.