Petition wants to save Schenectady’s Nicholaus building

A Schenectady resident has started an online petition urging the mayor and City Council to save the historic Nicholaus building.

A petition named “Save the Nicholaus building” formed over the weekend and has about 40 signatures as of Monday afternoon.

The building at the corner of State Street and Erie Boulevard, which dates back to the 1800s, was left vacant and in need of repairs following the demolition of the former Olender Mattress building next door and work by contractors to build an apartment and retail building on State Street.

On April 1, Thai Thai Bistro owner Piyamas Demasi, whose restaurant was on the first floor, reported that the building was shaking and vibrating, causing cracking and separating of the walls, ceilings and floors.

The city of Schenectady that afternoon ordered the restaurant and upstairs tenants to vacate the building, which has been empty ever since. It has been shored up and stabilized, but repairs are still pending.

The petition, started by Schenectady resident Anthony Ruscitto, is calling on city officials to repair and reopen the building.

“I drive past the Nicholaus building every morning on my way to work and I couldn’t stand to see the building in its current state any longer,” Ruscitto said. “I started the petition as a way to show our city officials that there is interest in this landmark.”

The petition calls for a total of 100 signatures at this time and will be delivered to Mayor Gary McCarthy and the city’s seven council members.

“We need to keep pressure on the city to save this historical gem or we may lose it forever,” the petition on change.org says.

Several people signed and commented on the petition calling for the building to be saved.

• “Such an important part of the canal history and what a [beautiful] building. The architecture is part of our history.” — Katie Keller, Schenectady

• “Demolition of this building would just be another destruction of our city…many of our landmarks are gone…about [time] we start to preserve what is left of historical Schenectady.” — Camille Kosloski, Schenectady

• “This is one of the most recognizable and historical buildings in the city. Possibly due to poor planning on the neighboring construction site, we could [lose] it. For [its] historical significance alone to the city, it needs to be saved.” — David Schoch, Schenectady

• “I grew up and spend a lot of time in Schenectady. Please don’t destroy the historic Erie Canal building just to put up apartments. Please save this building.” — Jordan Rakoske, Scotia

Schenectady County Metroplex Development Authority Chairman Ray Gillen said the goal is to have repairs to the Nicholaus building and construction of the Electric City Apartments next door start in September.

Metroplex retained Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, a New York City-based structural engineering company, to repair the building. Metroplex is paying the firm $30,000, which was funding previously earmarked for the apartment project.

Gillen said in an email on Monday that the firm has finished a bid packet for repairs and further building stabilization work. Public solicitation for bidders will go out after the review is complete and Metroplex plans to award the bid at its meeting in September, he said.

“Due to public bidding requirements, we must develop bid specs and advertise and award to the lowest qualifi ed bidder,” Gillen said. “[Simpson Gumpertz & Heger] will help us review and analyze bids received.”

He said that the engineer is also doing a building code review to show how repairs will be code-compliant.

Gillen added that the fi rm is nationally recognized for its work with restoring and renovating historic buildings, like the state Capitol in Albany.

The Olender building, the BiMor Army & Navy building and a red brick building were demolished on State Street to make way for the planned Electric City Apartments by Highbridge Development of Schenectady and Prime Cos. of Cohoes.

In May D.A. Collins Construction of Wilton filed a lawsuit in state Supreme Court in Saratoga County against Plank LLC, the construction arm of Highbridge Development, claiming that the demolition of the neighboring Olender building did not go according to plan and resulted in the instability of the Nicholaus building.

In June Plank countersued D.A. Collins for $5 million alleging that the subcontractor never alerted the company to an emergency situation at the Nicholaus building and on State Street. Plank claims D.A. Collins deviated from the shoring plan, failed to supervise its employees and used inappropriate equipment causing the destabilization of the building.

Demasi and Nicholaus building owners Viroj and Malinee Chompupong filed notices of claims against the city, precursors to lawsuits. Demasi plans to reopen Thai Thai Bistro at ShopRite Plaza in Niskayuna in the next month.

Mayor Gary McCarthy said the plan has always been to move ahead with repairs to the building. He stressed that the incident involving Nicholaus is between the building owners and the contractors.

“We’re looking at the end of August or September to have a plan and package in place to restore it,” he said. “We have been actively involved. We’ve moved to work with everybody. It’s generally a bad situation we’re trying to make good.”

The $20 million Electric City Apartments, which would feature 105 apartments and 9,900 square feet of retail space, have been on hold since the destabilization of Nicholaus in April.

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